Every successful business, whether it's an ice cream shop or a law firm, has some way to keep track of the records. So why would it be any different with ranching? We say it isn't! Keeping a history of your animals is key to raising quality livestock.
For a long time we didn't use records because we thought "goat ranching can't be done from behind a desk." While this is mostly true, we have found that keeping a few simple records of the animal's parasite resistance and average kidding tells you a lot of things that you wouldn't otherwise know or remember. For instance, we had a really nice doe who we knew on sight because she always raised a beautiful pair of kids to weaning age every year. We thought she was probably the best goat on the place because of this. However, when we got our record system going, it showed that, while she always raised the kids to weaning age, they never lived long enough to be bred the next year. So, eventhough we thought we had an excellent doe, the records showed us a more objective story. Without those records, we'd still be trying to raise kids from what we thought was a "top quality doe."
That definitely makes sense. I agree, 100%!
Posted by: play scrabble | August 31, 2012 at 06:58 AM