Freestone County Goat Breeders Association
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These articles were originally published in the East Texas Farm & Ranch News.
GOAT GOSSIP Three
Compiled by the Freestone County Goat Breeders Association
Submitted by Fred Vandermartin
When my Wife and I first started out raising goats we didn’t know anything, and I mean ANYTHING, about goats! The only thing we could find as far as publications was The New Goat Handbook by Ulrich Jaudas from West Germany. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a fine book if you are raising goats in a snowy climate, but it’s only good for general information anywhere else. The one thing that I learned from this book is that goats don’t like to get wet. The fastest way to kill a goat is to leave it out in the open when it’s cold and wet with no shelter. Cold, wet goats get pneumonia very easy and die very fast! This is the voice of experience speaking! We drove a long way once to buy a handsome, solid mahogany red full blood buck. We had a chance to breed him to our does once, and left him in the pasture one day when a cold front blew in. By the next day he was laying on his side breathing the death rattle. No amount of Nuflor could save him. Please take my advice Folks, and provide your goats some kind of shelter. Shelters can be as simple as a tarp tied between two trees or as fancy schmancy as a heated and air conditioned barn but they must provide protection from the elements. I have several types of huts and sheds that I’ve built, some are portable and can be pulled with the tractor or 4-wheeler and some are permanent but they all provide a warm, dry cubby hole for the goats. As I said previously, you can build shelters out of anything. I have used a variety of materials such as recycled trampoline frames and legs, the big, round underground tubing reels, and landscape timbers and covered them with corrugated tin. Let your imagination run wild!
Before I go on with the rest of the goat news, there are a couple of things I would like to mention. First I would like to note the passing of my neighbor and a good friend of many of the good citizens of Freestone County, Mr. Lee Denney. When my Wife Gwen, and I first moved up to the Promised Land and needed help Mr. Lee was always the first to step up and lend a hand. If you had a sick cow and didn’t know what was wrong, Mr. Lee could take a look and see what was wrong. If you were in a blue mood and crossed paths with Mr. Lee you would leave with a smile on your face and a light heart. In my minds eye I can see Mr. Lee and Ms. Martha sitting at Heavens café with God having a cup of coffee and hoo-rahing St. Peter about getting his britches caught on the bob wire fence running from a bull! The second thing I would talk about is hay. I commute from Dew to the Houston area every week to earn my pennies so I drive up and down I-45 quite a bit. From Centerville to Galveston I see the most beautiful hay meadow in the state running right down the middle and sides of the road bed. I’d like Mr. Horace to think about this if he reads my column as religiously as I read his. If Guvner Rick and all his cohorts in Austin are concerned about the drought conditions in the state, then why don’t they encourage ranchers to hay all of that lovely, green Bermuda grass instead of paying someone with our tax dollars to chop it up with a shredder. I’m leaping upon my soapbox and declaring this a crying shame and a tragic waste of resources!
A few weeks back Gwen and I met down at the coast and purchased a baby full blood doe from fellow members Steve and Carol Churchill. On the way home we stopped in for a visit with Steve and Uschi Billings at Billings Farm. They have the kind of facilities that could be used as a model for a small to medium goat ranch. Through hard work and good planning they have a beautiful goat ranch with well bred stock. Billings Farm can be contacted by calling 936-295-0195 or e-mail at their web site www.billingsfarm.us.
Well. I’m pretty much typed out for now, so remember that you are invited to come to F.C.G.B.A. meetings and events such as field demonstrations and such and it won’t cost you a thin dime. All of you ranches and associations out there can put your info in this column just by pushing a few buttons. You can contact me at 903-388-8528 or e-mail at clwyr@ezmailbox.net. Bye, for now.
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GOAT GOSSIP Four
Compiled by the Freestone County Goat Breeders Assn.
Submitted by Fred Vandermartin
Well, you’ve got your fence built, and a shelter built. Now comes the most important decision that you will make. What kind of goats to get, and where to get them. There are a number of breeds to consider. Do you want to have milk goats or meat goats? Do you want to go with full blood stock or with a line of stock that are a predominantly large percentage of one breed? With the popularity of artisan goat cheeses and various other related products, milk goats may be the way you want to go. Just looking at the variety of equipment and supplies that you need for this type of operation in the Hoegger Supply catalog makes my head spin! Folks, I will be the first one to admit that I don’t know anything about dairy goats or their management. Please consult someone that knows about them and do your research. I can’t say for sure, but I think that the E.T.G.R.A. has some members that have dairy goats. Contacting them may be a good place to start. The East Texas Goat Raisers have a good web site at www.etgra.com. For those of you like me that are electronically challenged, maybe you can get your children or somebody smart like that to show you how to do it.
Meat goat varieties include Boer, Fainting, Kiko, Savanna, Spanish, Tennessee and Texmaster. Plus there are various cross breedings of all the various breeds. Do your research and go yourself to get a good look at them before you make an important decision like this because once you decide, you are going to spend quite a bit of money on just a small foundation herd.
Okay, you’ve decided on the breed you want, so where do you go to buy them? You could go to the sale barn, but remember “Buyer beware!” I haven’t bought any goats at a sale barn, but I have heard of people who have had success. Remember that most of the goats at a sale barn are there for a reason, they may be culls, they may not be able for some reason to breed, or when they have a kid they may not take care of them. Its possible that you may buy them, load them in the trailer, and in six months or a year later bring them back to the sale barn for some reason. Just because the price is right doesn’t mean the goat is right for you!
You could buy your goats from individual breeders. This is the way I prefer to buy my goats, because you can put your hands on them, and ask the breeder about any faults or problems they may have. Breeders who sell goats by private treaty will usually be open about them and sell their goats with the assurance that they are healthy and productive. You wouldn’t want somebody talking bad about you for selling them a bum goat, wouldya!
You could buy your goats at a production sale or herd dispersal sale. Breeders associations and ranches have these sales to sell their best stock or for herd liquidations. I have found that most of the goats at these sales are a good buy. You can get in there and look at the goats and ask the individual breeders any questions you may have. One of the drawbacks is that if you have your eye on a good looking goat, someone else probably does too! Another drawback is that if you try to get a goat at a really good price and bid low, you may not take that goat home because the breeder has given the auctioneer a bid limit higher than what you bid. Your perception of what the goat may be worth can be different from the owners. I’m not trying to choose sides in this instance because I’ve sat on both sides of the fence, but the breeder has put a lot of time, effort, and money into what they think is a good goat. Conversely, you, as the buyer, may think that the goat just is not worth that much. Unfortunately there is no winner in this situation. Dispersal sales usually happen when a breeder is getting out of the business due to various reasons i.e. health, etc. You can get some good goats of all ages and conditions in this manner. The aforementioned drawbacks apply.
Breeder associations have pen sales, where they pen their goats in small lots and sell them as a private treaty sale. The price is set by the seller and is negotiated between them and the buyer. This is an excellent way to buy goats. If you don’t like the price you can do some bargaining, and if the seller is flexible then the sale is done. If things don’t work out then there’s no problem. Buying at a production, dispersal, or pen sale is usually a good deal because you can be assured that the goats you get are in good condition.
Whether you buy your stock at the sale barn or at a pen sale, you want to buy goats in good condition. I can admit I’ve bought some bums and some good goats. If you have doubts about your abilities as a goat picker then keep your ears open and ask a lot of questions when you go to sales. Go to sales with no intention of buying at all and ask others why they like certain goats. When you go to goat ranches and see something you really like, don’t be an impulse buyer. Reputable goat breeders won’t pressure you to buy right away, if they try to then leave and come back later, or don’t come back at all! In most associations you can find someone that will be willing to go with you and take a look at what you are going to buy and give you their honest opinion. Once again, this is a good practice, but everyone has their own preferences and that other person may see faults that you don’t. One mans fine breeding nanny may be another mans cabrito!
You need to decide if you want full blood, registered stock or stock that is a percentage of a certain breed. Many breeders with small acreages prefer full bloods because of their higher value. Some of the prices at sales for this type of stock are very high, up into thousands of dollars. When Gwen and I got our start, we bought percentage nannies. If you are just getting started, and are worried about the cost of goats until you become accustomed to raising them, then percentage goats may be the way to go. When we first started, we bought five mixed breed goats. As our area that we pastured them in grew, so did our herd. We increased our herd by breeding our nannies to borrowed Billies (of radically unknown blood lines), and purchasing a few nannies here and there. As our knowledge of goats increased so did the percentage of Boer blood lines in our goats. You can do this with whatever breed you decide to go with. Percentage nannies can be registered with various breed associations. Check with the breed association of your goats for more information.
Well, I’ve told you of some of the ways to buy goats, now here’s some ways to find sales. For information on dairy goat sales there is the United Caprine News out of Crowley, Texas. Phone: 817-297-3411 Website: www.unitedcaprinenews.com. For information on meat goats there is the Goat Rancher out of Sarah, Mississippi. Phone: 888-562-9529 Website: www.goatrancher.com. If you want to know all about raising meat goats and need comprehensive information about them, then this is the newspaper to subscribe to. It is well worth the subscription price! The Showbox out of Crockett, Texas is the official publication of the Texas Club Meat Goat Assn. and have a lot of ads about meat goat sales. Phone: 936-544-2787 Website: www.theshowbox.com. The Country World is a weekly rural newspaper that is very informative and carries goat sale ads. Phone: 903-885-2030 Website: www.countryworldnews.com.
I hope that this information will help you when it’s time to make your big purchase. My best advice is to take the time to do your research and don’t be an impulse buyer. Bye, for now.