The Wonderful World of Goats
The Wonderful World of Goats
06/06/2013 13:46
Goats can be an interesting and relaxing addition to your life. However they can also drive you crazy!
I have just spent the most relaxing three days with my herd and the two newest additions to it. They seem to be settling in nicely. Each has their own personality which I seem to like and the youngest doe steals my milk out of the pail at every chance she gets.
This is a huge change for us here to be so relaxed in the herd again. For the last several months it has been total caos!! We had a much larger herd 20 in all. Their where 7 Boers in the pasture and housing with the Nubians. They are a whole different breed in themselves. Besides being in the Meat Goat Family their attitudes where very pushy, destructive, and greedy. They trashed our goat house, our fence, beat up and caused other goats to abort because of how hard they hit them in the belly, ate up my herb garden and roses, everyday went outside the fence and ran down the road...and that is just since Febuary!!!
To my husband they are Goat Terrorists!!!
They tore up our fence, the kids would jump straight up in the air onto the top of our goat house and then preceed to jump up and down trying to cave in the roof. Switch pastures to fix the fence and you find them trashing the fence and going into the retention pond and up into the yard eating the chicken feed!!
They have nice Dairy Pasture for optimum milk production from the field alone...you couldn't even see them in it it was so tall. Not to mention the roll bales in the field to eat if they want. Didn't matter to them a bit.
I finally sold them all off. My herd is down now to 13 Nubians and a Nigerian Buckling that belongs to my son.
The Nubians are much calmer of a breed I don't have any of the issues with them that the Boers caused. I know that meat goats are the wave of the future because of the economy everyone is jumping on the ban wagon to make money on them and have meat for their homes. If you have to go thru all that trouble and expense you have to ask yoursrelf... Is it really worth all that?
They where a learning experience while they where here. The adult does I had settled in well and where very good mothers and had excellent milk production while they where here. I did like them, but there comes another time in a goat producers life when you realize they're just not your cup of tea for one reason or another. That is what happened here. If something is causing that much trouble and your not completely in love with them like I am my Nubians It is time to step back and re-evaluate what your doing and move forward.
That pertains to all aspects of your life...Not just your herd!