Meat Goat Blog

Dead Goats Make No Sales - Even If They Weight a Lot

This following post was inspired by an e-mail I received from a reader. I always appreciate good suggestions - keep them coming!

Penny,

Thanks for the note. Weight gain is definitely an important topic for us goat breeders! As you mentioned, our Post Oak-goats have strong Spanish and Kiko influences. Those were the best genetics we could find when we started looking for new breeding stock after a rough welcome to the goat business from a herd of Boers.

Since we switched away from Boers a little over ten years ago, we've been focused on improving our goats' genetics in three main areas: parasite resistance, mothering, and body size. We think that parasite resistance is most important. A doe can't raise a healthy kid if she's dying from worms. However, mothering takes a close second place. A healthy doe that is infertile or neglects her kids just costs me time and money with nothing in return. We only began to consider size once we felt like we had parasite resistance and mothering pretty well in-hand. A little extra bulk can definitely improve the prices you see at the sale barn. But, a large dead goat kid is worth a lot less that a small goat kid I can load on the trailer.

Weaning weight is a tricky subject to tackle because everyone raises their goats a little differently. We had some friends a number of years back who raised the most gorgeous registered Kiko goats we'd ever seen. They were big, healthy, and even had a weaning:mother ratio greater than 2.0! But then we learned a little more about their operation. They kept their goats in a 20 acre lot with a barn big enough to use as a house. The goats were fed high-dollar bagged feed and the kids were treated like royalty the second they were born. While we were still very impressed by their livestock, we started to realize that we weren't making an apples-to-apples comparison with our goats. From the beginning, our goats have been treated like goats. We provide them with brush to eat and water to drink. If they ever get bagged feed or hay, it's because they flat ran out of brush to eat in the Winter. They kid in the pasture and we don't handle them much (other than ID tags) until the bucklings go to the sale around 90 days old. Because of their environment, our goats may not always be pretty - but they're definitely tough! While scores like average daily weight gain have their place, it can be difficult to equalize between different operations.

I hope this answered a few of your questions. I left links to a few more posts your might be interested in below:

• Average Daily Weight Gain in Goats
• How Big are Spanish Goats?
• Parasite Resistance in Goats
• How to Select Future Breeding Stock
• About Our Ranch

Matt

 

 

Pokémon Goat - Discover Adorable Baby Goats!

I may be a little late to the party...but all the millennials have been playing an iPhone game called 'Pokémon Go' where they walk around collecting digital monsters on their phones. Well, I finally figured out what all the buzz is about. The game is just like a goat rancher searching for new baby goats that have been born!

Just look at the similarities between 'Pokémon Go' and 'Pokémon Goat!'

• Goat ranchers and Pokémon players both get to collect fun new animals (I would argue that goats are more fun, though).
• Ranchers and millennials both get exercise while trying to find their new critters (baby goats are very good at hiding!).
• Goat herds and Pokémon collections can both include hundreds of animals (admittedly, goats aren't quite as pocket-sized).

I can't help but notice one difference, though. Goat ranchers get a much higher price when they sell their livestock at the end of kidding season! Well, at least I finally understand why everyone was playing. I'll be ahead of the curve when 'Pokémon Goat' goes viral in 2017!

Happy New Year from Meat Goat Blog and Post Oak Ranch!

We have Goat Kids!

We were happy to find our first goat kids of the 2017 kidding season earlier today. We can't wait to see what the latest generation of meat producers can do! The kid shown here is from our Post Oak breeding line. Hopefully, she will have the parasite resistance, mothering abilities, and all-around toughness of that breeding line!

Good Bucks Have to be Sold Sooner

Here's a funny thought: if you have a really good buck, you'll end up selling him sooner than you'd sell a buck you don't like as much. You'd think goats would be like an old ranch truck you love to drive because it's gotten the job done for all these years. The more you use the truck, the more you like it.

However, with bucks, the more times you breed them, the more their genetics are present in the herd. This makes it hard to continue breeding without inbreeding. That's the unfortunate situation we have with one of our favorite bucks: Blue.

We've bred Blue almost every year since he was born and we really love the hardiness of the kids he produces. But, that means it's getting harder to breed him. Because so many of our Spanish breeding does are related to him (or his father), we're having to make the hard choice to put him up for sale now that he has finished this breeding season. It's funny how things work out - good bucks have to be sold sooner!

Hornless Goats are Hard to Handle - Quick Tips

If you're trying to decide whether to purchase horned or polled goats, consider this: goat horns make great handles. When you're trying to move a hornless goat, there's not much to hold onto. Although this means the goat won't get stuck in the fence, it also means that you'll need to wrestle with the goat anytime you want to work it.

Improving Bad Breeding Stock - Quick Tips

So you purchased some less-than-ideal breeding stock. Now what? When we first entered the goat business, we purchased Boer crosses in a herd dispersal and attempted to 'breed up' using (comparatively) high-dollar Kiko bucks. Unwelcome as this advice may be, after a few years of disappointing results, we determined that breeding up is too much work. It's easier to cull the bad blood and finance better stock.

Build Gates in the Corners - Quick Tips

I was looking at Zareba System's Expert Electric Fence Tips the other day and was reminded of some easy advice that took us a surprisingly long time to figure out on our ranch. When you build a goat pen, put the gate in the corner. It's a lot easier to herd the goats when you can pressure them against the intersecting fence lines!

First Time Worming Goats in 8 Months

We just wormed our goats for the first time in 8 months this Saturday - it's been a while! These does have had to hold up to a lot of stress since last time we wormed. It was a cold winter with plenty of snow and sleet - then our does started kidding right in the middle of the last storm and have been taking care of their kids for the last 3 weeks.

We were a little worried that the does might not do well on the Famacha Eye Scores since it was so long, but they all did well - most of them scoring 1's and 2's (1 being best and 5 being worst).

This is why we are in love with the genetics of our Kensing Spanish and Spanish/Kiko crosses. They're low maintenance!

Cute Goat Kids Playing 2014

Here's a super cute video of some of our 2014 Spanish and Spanish/Kiko cross goat kids playing while we were tagging. Can't wait to watch them grow!

Our 2014 Kids are HERE!

We're excited to say that our 2014 kids have arrived in a wave! We have tagged 14 babies in the last two days and expect many more to come. Here are a couple cute pictures of a few of our newest Spanish and Spanish/Kiko crosses.