The big goat problem that I am becoming familiar with

[Nupine]

Ok. A few of you may be familiar with it. You dearly love all your goats, you are milking and breeding them, they are multiplying like rabbits, you can't sell them, you don't want to sell your adults and you want to keep the kids, or you can't find homes for them, you don't want to sell them for meat or the sale barn, and the feed bill is becoming very large and there are too many goats to care for. I am running into this. I am starting to breed high quality registered alpines. I have 3 alpine does, a buyck I just got yesterday [

] , and then I have a nubian doe who tested positive for CAE but is very sweet\\, a very special wether, a crossbreed doe who is my first goat, her two last years does, her this years doe and wether who are for sale, a complete mutt who is an 18 month old doe with boer in her that weighs 85 pounds and is fat, her wether kid [both are in cart training] , and that is what I have. I don't want to sell any of them except the two babies. It isn't the expense at all at this point, we have free hay and just spend like $15 a week on grain. We will milk next year. I just want to breed the alpines, but all the rest are pets. But I had one question. We plan on getting a website built this summer for our goats [and chickens] to help sell our goat babies. Do any of you have these and do they help? I am vegetarian and refuse to sell the little extra wethers for meat, and want to find them all loving homes, if I make a good website is this possible? Has anyone else found it difficult to sell kids? Bucks, does, and wethers? Thanks!!
BTW, I love my new buck, he is so sweet and so nice.
Ashlyn

 

[kinnip]

Haven't encountered this problem yet, but it's definitely a concern. Have you seen Fias Co Farm's website? They kid as few does as possible each year and sell their kids only online. I recently bought a buck from them. I drove nearly six hours both ways to pick him up, and they said that's pretty normal for their customers. I intend to sell online as much as possible, when I decide to part with some kids.

 

[Weewanona]

<I am vegetarian and refuse to sell the little extra wethers for meat, and want to find them all loving homes>

I see several options:

1. Keep them all yourself. The only way to guarantee that they all stay pets.

2. Reduce the numbers you're producing. Over breeding is an issue no matter what the species.

3. Your breeding stock are your pets. The buyer decides if the offspring is friend or food.

Rose colored glasses won't change the fact that goats are, have been and will continue to be food for most of the world.

 

[helmstead]

I sell all my goats online through my website. I can't produce enough goats for demand at this point.

I agree with Wee...you're raising full sized goats - and the boys of dairy or meat types have a primary usage if not breeding quality...meat. Even my minis can go that way. Luckily, I'm able to price mine well above the market price to disuade killer buyers, but I can't control what happens once they've left the property and I'm pretty much ok with it.

Best of luck.

 

[Chatychick]

I am lucky at this point as a neighbor loves to have the wethers and its cheaper for me to let him have them. He takes care of them really well and I was once in the same place your getting close to. I now do select breeding and only the goats I want babies from that way I dont get back into that place. I raise LaManchas and Nigerians. My DH loves them all and wants all to stay but they cant all stay. I am still working on my website and cant wait till its done. Yes a site will help and when you get it going make sure you put it in your signature on any site you go to . It helps alot...word is getting out about my goats and I am down to 42 right now so good luck and get your site going. Yep its a sad fact the boys sometimes unless someone wants a pet the wethers and bucks go mainly for meat and thats part of life. I hate to take to the sale barn also but have done it with too amny wethers and bucks. The does sell lots better. Good luck

 

[Kittikity]

I think of it this way.. The animal is dying for a very good reason, food for another human being.. For the most part, dairy bucks have no other value other than meat.. Only the best bucks should be bred and there can only be so many wethers in the world.. If you want to concentrate on your breeding alpines, only breed them and keep everybody else strictly as pets.. A quality animal has many purposes.. Breeding, milk, pet, or in the end, meat.. Pets can only be pets or meat, pet being the harder part to market them for.. The quality animal has more options so will be easier to sell..

 

[FarmerMack]

You can always list the goats for sale on craigslist.org, it's free and where i went to buy my goats. Also a good place to check going prices for those being sold in your area

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Uh, isn't the obvious solution "then don't do that"?

How many bred does can you possibly need for milk production unless you are running a commercial dairy or something?? And of course roughly half of what they produce will be female kids anyhow, not males.

Just don't BREED the rest, then you won't have so many unwanted goats

Pat

 

[Nupine]

Thanks yall. I do understand all this, and I will only be breeding the alpines. If I had to sell them for meat, I guess I will just have too. Oh, wait one second.

 

[Nupine]

Quote:
What's that supposed to mean?