# what about the standard dairy wethers?



## bigoakfarm (Oct 6, 2007)

Well, something occured to me after I got these big girls and it's "what do I do with the wethers?". The Nigerian Dwarf wethers generally go as companions to breeding stock and there are always at least one or two pet homes lined up for them. But these Alpines are pretty big and I can't imagine finding many folks willing to feed 'pet' alpines. Now, I'm not against selling a wether for meat but they are dairy goats so I don't even know if that's an option. What do most standard dairy breeders do with their wethers or extra bucklings?

Kristen


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I have heard of selling them for meat - as long as you do it by like 5 months or they get really leggy as they are growing


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

With ours, they get wethered at 8 weeks then we grow them out ourselves for a year and then butcher them and eat them for ourselves. Most breeders will take them to an auction if they can't sell them themselves for meat. I'm not a fan of selling goats for pets anyway so it doesn't bother me to eat them.


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

oh I missed saying that yes you can sell them as pets you just need the right market.

Advertized them as companions for does (some only want 1 doe for milk purposes so a wether would be a great companion). And even discount a wether purchase if they get one with a doe.


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## fritzie (Oct 6, 2007)

i try to sell the buck kids as future herd sires but if i can't then i will take them to the sale barn. when i was in maine i had real good luck selling weathers but they don't seem to be in demand in the south. some times you can sell them as a companion with a doe if some one wants just one doe for milk. i will not sell a goat to a home that dosen't have another goat as company.


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## PACE (Oct 8, 2007)

I have a pet Alpine wether and two Nigerian wethers. My Alpine does eat a lot more, and he is only 6 months old. But he is so sweet and calm that I wouldn't trade him for anything. Maybe people would want them as pack/cart goats. That's what I'm training Melino to do.


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## alyssa_romine (Oct 5, 2007)

I agree with PACE about the pack goat thing. That would be great for them.


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## bigoakfarm (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks so much everybody. I hope I don't have many bucks this first year with the alpines but at least I have some good ideas about what to do with 'em now. :wink: 

Kristen


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## sunshineandtulip (Nov 6, 2007)

We have nubians and we band them and they dont have quite as much meat on them as a meat goat but still enough and we butcher at about 1-1.5 yrs old. Other wise we would have to take them to a sale barn and who knows where they would go and what kind of home they would go too.


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

If we don;t have the buck kids reserved or sold by one month of age they get banded and go to the auction for meat. I can;t keep whethers around just to find thema good home. All of my buck kids were lucky enough to find good pet homes this year but most years they arn;t so lucky.
beth


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## goatiegurl*Oh (Nov 11, 2007)

Maybe some people would be interested in them as a companion to a horse,or to use in 4-H for showmanship,and cart/pack.


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## redneck_acres (Oct 18, 2007)

If we have a buckling born that is not reserved and is good enough quality to improve herds than we donate it to our club raffle or another clubs' raffle if we haven't recently donated to the raffle. Some people will donate back to back bucks and that can be a bad thing-because not everyone needs a new buck every year. We also have sold them to folks who eat them and some have gone to homes to eat down the weeds. Others have ended up going to the sale yard because we cannot afford to keep them all. I try to ship my mini wethers to the sale as young as possible so I dont have to put much into them. I have a feeling i'm going to have to send quite a few goats to the sale this year since feed is getting so darn expensive.


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## Nupine (Nov 13, 2007)

I am a vegetarian so I don't eat them. Last year we got our first babies and they were both does. But 2008 we will have 7 does kidding. We have two friends who may be willing to take the wethers and a lady I talked to on the phone who seems to be a nice lady. There is a sale barn 30 minutes away but I don't have the heart to take them there, our friends took two alpine bucklings there and got $19 for both. Yet there was a registered 50% boer buck there who had leg problems, was in poor shape, and was ugly for a boer and he went for $150. Anyway, we may be getting a buck soon so we could keep a wether as a companion for him.


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## sunshineandtulip (Nov 6, 2007)

Yo never know what you are going to get for your goats at a salebarn that is one of the bad things about them BUT not the worst!


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