# Very Frustrated



## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

I started fooling with goats a little over a year ago. Wednesday I carried 10 4 -month old boer cross bucklings to a graded goat sale. My wife just called and said a check came in for $460. If that's all the money that are in these things, it isn't worth it. She is particularly upset that one that she was attached to brought $40. The best goat in the bunch weighed 40 pounds and brought $70. I weight that goat on my scales a month ago and he weighed 40 pounds then. My wife wants to sell all the goats. If this is all the money I can get from selling kids, I agree with her.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Im so sorry...it can be frustrating, been there too.......we have several sale barns around here...where at one you might get over $1 a pound others you get less...some even more...ask around..see where you get your best price...also get cozy with the regulars...go often to the sale and just mingle...meet and greet...many sale barns have "clicks" and if you are not in the circle you wont get best price...sad but true...do some research on time of year and how big kids should be to get the best price...you will do better...takes time to learn the ropes in getting your best price....


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

There are a lot of things involved to get the most money. How do you feed them? What do you feed them? Do you offer minerals? What kind of hay do you feed?


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

I knew the goats were probably a little small, but I wanted to sell them before the price did the summer plunge. Now that I know some of them brought $1.33 per pound, I should have just kept them till fall. Still though, if I can't beat this, I need to get rid of them. I can understand not getting enough money to pay for all my labor, but I won't cover the money I've spent at that rate.


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

ksalvagno said:


> There are a lot of things involved to get the most money. How do you feed them? What do you feed them? Do you offer minerals? What kind of hay do you feed?


They've been on pasture for the last month. Prior to that they were getting mixed grass hay with some leafy matter in it and some bermuda hay. They have mineral.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

I do understand...farming has got to give back....


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

We sold some kids before Easter this year and got over 2$ a pound and they weighed around 70 ibs,Christmas is another good time,if you have pasture it might have been worth it to keep them longer.its unfortunate they did not bring good,but a lot of us probably are not making much money,but we enjoy goats, I know I'm spending way more money right now than I'm making,maybe eventually that will change once I invest in most of the things I need around the farm.goodluck


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

jddolan said:


> We sold some kids before Easter this year and got over 2$ a pound and they weighed around 70 ibs,Christmas is another good time,if you have pasture it might have been worth it to keep them longer.its unfortunate they did not bring good,but a lot of us probably are not making much money,but we enjoy goats, I know I'm spending way more money right now than I'm making,maybe eventually that will change once I invest in most of the things I need around the farm.goodluck


My goats aren't growing very fast, so I don't know old they'd have to be to get up to 70 pounds. I really don't want to have to feed them any ration. I've got plenty of pasture and will have plenty of hay. These that I just sold were 4 months old. I was planning on going to the Goats Galore sale in Metropolis next Saturday to look for a new buck. I may still go if my wife doesn't talk me out of it.


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

I would try a little grain,mine were about 8 months old at 70 lbs,also while kids are nursing it is important for does to get grain so that they can provide enough milk for kids,also offer kids grain


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

Also do some research on when the best times to sell in your area,may depend on who the buyers are and ethnicity and there holidays.


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

jddolan said:


> I would try a little grain,mine were about 8 months old at 70 lbs,also while kids are nursing it is important for does to get grain so that they can provide enough milk for kids,also offer kids grain


I was feeding the does, more than they needed probably. A couple of them didn't even look like they'd been nursing kids when I weaned them.


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

That's good, if you are enjoying the goats I hope you try to stick it out and see how it goes,I am in ny,and we send our goats to pa. New holland sale barn puts out weekly market reports on sheep and goats,just to look at


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

surveyman said:


> I knew the goats were probably a little small, but I wanted to sell them before the price did the summer plunge.


I don't know where you are located, but in my area the summer plunge happens after Easter. $70.00 for a 40 lb buck kid is not too shabby around here! Also, buck kids tend to get docked in my area.


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

I'm in upstate New York


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I think it depends on the market in your area, and the best times of year to sell. 
We sold 4 boer cross bucklings/wethers who were 3mo last month all together they weighed 200lbs. <nicest one was about 70lbs.>, we got $2.20lb. 
I was told if we had sold them a few weeks earlier they were selling for like $.20-25 more per lb.

Did yours sell individually, or in a graded group? If they were in a graded group, which group were they in?

I've had people tell me that an issue with market goats also can be that some just don't grow and put on the 'meat' as well on pasture and no grain. Now, I don't know how true that is, because we do grain our goats, but we also don't have acres of pasture.

Also, parasites can really take their toll.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

You are in a really good location. Prices should be sky high. You need to do more research and honestly in my opinon 40 lb kids are too light to take to market. they are also looking for a little fatter kids in your area, It my be worth your money to look into a goat grain and feed them a little grain each day. Even half a lb a day can make a big difference. 
I know several people here in VA that are hauling to New holland and are taking 50 to 60 lb just weaned kids at 4 to months of age and getting $3 a lb for them. How far away are you from New HOlland stock yards? Also, you may get more if you sell off the farm and set your own price. I have friends on the east Coast in VA, that found a niche in the market nad are selling for $3.00 a lb live weight picked up at the farm. They are selling 50 to 70 lb kids. 
We creep feed, I am not against grass fed only. But I personally think that the problem you ran into is not being helped by grass fed only. At 4 months of age you could easily have 50 to 60 lbs on those kids and htey would bring more. Of course they need to have some half way good growing genetics behind them. Our last buck we pourchased was 80 lbs at 4 months of age. with a couple lbs of grian a day. Our grain is 20 cents a lb, so if we feed a lb a day to our young growing kids we have $1.40 a week into them. And a lot better weight gains. I feel $5.20 a month is worth an increased weight gain. Plus you can medicate the grain for coccidiosis and that can really help a lot. 

Good luck. Keep trying. give yourselves 2 or 3 years of research and learning before you throw in the towel. For us we have found selling show wethers and does for breeding stock has turned the tables on our farm, If I were to take a 40 lb kid into our local stockyards, what you got would be all we would get. 
research and figure out how you can get 60 lb kids in the same amount of time. That would really help you all a lot. Buy a buck that has at least .5lbs per day gain. 
experiment with a little creepfeed/grain with your kids. Do daily gains to help you track what is working.
Don't forget a little regular worming and coccidiosis prevention will go a long way with your kids growth rate.


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

Ok, we decided that we haven't yet lost enough money on goats, so we doubled down on them. We went to the Goats Galore sale in Metropolis, Illinois last Saturday and came home with 5 goats, a 6 month old doeling, a 3 month old buckling, and a year old doe that "accidentally" had twins, 1 of each. They are all registered or soon will be.

I put the 6 month old doeling in a barn stall with some 5 month old doelings that I am weaning. Mine are nearly as big as she is. So hopefully, I've already got some good stock.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

What are you doing as far as measuring what your herd is doing? Do you weigh kids at birth? Are you weighing them at weaning and calculating what % they are of their dams weight so you know who your producers are? Are you figuring out what your herd performance % is? Do your does need a lot of supplementation to raise good kids, or are they able to do it on good hay alone? Do you know what your feed is costing/lb and your cost of gain on your kids? Have you figured out how much it costs you/year to maintain 1 doe and how many kids she has to produce every year to maintain her? What are your culling criteria? All of these things play a vital role in determining whether you have the right bunch of does, whether you turn a profit, and keeping expenses down.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

surveyman said:


> Ok, we decided that we haven't yet lost enough money on goats, so we doubled down on them. We went to the Goats Galore sale in Metropolis, Illinois last Saturday and came home with 5 goats, a 6 month old doeling, a 3 month old buckling, and a year old doe that "accidentally" had twins, 1 of each. They are all registered or soon will be.
> .


Yes! This is how I think too. 

Can't help myself.... I weighed my just over three month buck kid from February. 82 pounds.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

surveyman said:


> Ok, we decided that we haven't yet lost enough money on goats, so we doubled down on them. We went to the Goats Galore sale in Metropolis, Illinois last Saturday and came home with 5 goats, a 6 month old doeling, a 3 month old buckling, and a year old doe that "accidentally" had twins, 1 of each. They are all registered or soon will be.
> 
> I put the 6 month old doeling in a barn stall with some 5 month old doelings that I am weaning. Mine are nearly as big as she is. So hopefully, I've already got some good stock.


You all clearly enjoy goats, I would keep researching and you should beable to at least break even with your hobby. Have you considered a website and highlighting each doe in your herd? More of a chance that way to sell a breeding buck and get a little more money out of your doelings. I realize you may be keepign some does to build your herd, but does sell pretty easily so you should beable to start selling them for more money here soon. Really no need to ever take a doeling into the sale barn unless she has some major structural problem.


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## HonestOmnivore (Feb 26, 2013)

If you want to make sure you have a good market, since you're in New York anyway, start looking for specialty meats and find out if you can accomodate the needs for some of the holidays celebrated by folks who associate traditional holiday foods as GOAT rather than Turkeys... There are a few major holidays for Muslims and Jews where young (4 mnth) goat is the preferred food, and others where the age isn't specific. More importantly some of these specialty shops will have requests for a specific diet to be fed to the animals and they may ask you to avoid some of the medications or medical procedures (disbudding). 

My Dad was raised in the middle of Ohio, a good little Southern Baptist red-neck actually, and when he was in 4H in high school, he was put in touch with a meat supplier for Jewish butchers in the Pittsburgh area. This was back in the fifties, and it's likely Dad had never even MET a Jew (He grew up, went to college and has traveled the world and much to his chagrin, he's now friends with all sorts of people - even a few (gasp) LIBERALS). Dad was pretty excited to try the stuff they asked him to do - he specifically remembers he wasn't allowed to feed his chickens hot mash?). Dad kept really good written records of the diet and treatment - and he was able to sell his livestock for almost double what his classmates were getting.


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

HonestOmnivore said:


> If you want to make sure you have a good market, since you're in New York anyway,


I hope you're not referring to me. I am not from New York and I have never been there and have no desire to go beyond going to Cooperstown.


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## surveyman (Jan 19, 2013)

GoatCrazy said:


> What are you doing as far as measuring what your herd is doing? Do you weigh kids at birth? Are you weighing them at weaning and calculating what % they are of their dams weight so you know who your producers are? Are you figuring out what your herd performance % is? Do your does need a lot of supplementation to raise good kids, or are they able to do it on good hay alone? Do you know what your feed is costing/lb and your cost of gain on your kids? Have you figured out how much it costs you/year to maintain 1 doe and how many kids she has to produce every year to maintain her? What are your culling criteria? All of these things play a vital role in determining whether you have the right bunch of does, whether you turn a profit, and keeping expenses down.


I am not keeping enough performance records. I have been weighing the kids at birth, but I'm not yet equipped to weigh the bigger ones. I've got a 50 pound hanging scale and I bought the sling from Premier 1. Well, when they get ab out 30 pounds, you can forget about the sling. I've got a good hog scale at my mother's house. I need to fix up a shed to put it in, along with a catch pen. That stuff is probably going to have to wait until I get some more funds. I've got 4 or 5 cull nannies that I'll sell bred this summer, and I'll have 2 goats to kid in a month, so I'll have their kids to sell.


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## MotleyBoerGoats (Mar 23, 2013)

i know you said you put alot in to them but at two months start babies on noble goat mixed with all stock it will give more bang for your buck it will add weight to them feed them for two months that should give you more money


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

We are in ny,and send kids to new holland pa,and have had good results


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## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

I have kids that were born February 20th,13 weeks old and are weighing over 50 ibs,my does are not these great big does that you see either,but I did grain the moms real well,thinking the kids grew better


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## NavaBoerFarm (Dec 15, 2012)

Tenacross said:


> Yes! This is how I think too.
> 
> Can't help myself.... I weighed my just over three month buck kid from February. 82 pounds.


Wow that's great Tim! Good job


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## NavaBoerFarm (Dec 15, 2012)

My first years of boer raising were difficult due to the livestock auctions and the absence of a good clientele. In all honesty don't go to auctions to sell your animals off unless you truly need the money right away. It will never pay like selling to people on the outside, lets face it people go to auctions to get a "deal". 
Maybe try making business cards and putting them on the counters of ethnic stores. People that love goat meat are sure to swipe them up and share with family and friends. 
What I do is save the number of every person that calls me and let them know I may call them in the future to see if they are in need of a goat for meat. Of course they don't mind because most people that like goat meat are always looking to get goat meat since its not just something you just pick up at Walmart or any other supermarket. 
And the most important thing: a good meat producing buck, which it sounds like you may have just purchased.  good luck


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## mmiller (Apr 3, 2012)

You said your goats were cross. Im curious to what the cross was? Feed does make a big difference along with good bloodlines. A good buck with good daily gains is a really good investment.


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