The Oklahoma Buck Forage Test released some new weight and fecal scores today. None of the bucklings have gained much weight since the test started. Mary Penick, test manager, believes the lack of weight gain is partially due to the drop in protein in the pasture as the Fall starts. There were 12 bucklings disqualified for parasites. These bucklings were pulled from the test and wormed after receiving Famancha scores of 4 or 5. One of the things you learn when you participate in these tests is that you can't predict how a goats performance by looking at the animal. Some of the goats pulled from the test were animals from other farms we thought would do really well. It is sort of like judging whether a human child will be able to play professional football when he is starting to walk at two years old. You can guess and speculate - it's a lot of fun - just not real scientific. If you want to really know about your goats, give some thought to entering a test once in a while. Aside from the information you will learn, it is just good, clean entertainment. But, then I enjoy sitting on the back porch watching the wind blow through the trees!
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Would you consider writing a post for goat owner wanna-bees on what a test entails? We definitely would link to it.
We've just put you in our Google reader and enjoy your posts!
Posted by: Martha Ann | September 05, 2009 at 08:36 AM