Re: ot goats

Posted by Mike (WA) on September 07, 2008 at 16:50:32 from (69.10.198.224):

In Reply to: Re: ot goats posted by tlak on September 06, 2008 at 15:51:16:

I had goats when I was a "kid" (pun intended)- They're easily the most fun of the domestic livestock species, but one of the "cussed-est". There are many ways to fence goats in- and most of them don't work. Best fence is 47" woven wire, with a good hot wire just above the top. Ground the woven wire every 500 feet or so, with a 4' rebar driven into the ground and attached to the woven wire with a copper wire. They'll try to climb the woven wire, but will contact the hot wire. They hate "juice", and a couple rounds of that, and they won't bother the fence anymore.

If you want to enjoy your farm, introduce a 4 year old grandkid to a 2 week old goat kid, and watch the fun. Goats seem to be the only species born with a "play" instinct.

When I was in high school, we got a call from a friend of my dad's who was a noted local "goat" person. He told us to call a guy in Seattle who had an interesting proposition. We did, and this was the story:

The guy's dad was a bit of a recluse and had lived about 15 miles from us. He had died, had had a bunch of goats, and his kids (who were all city types) wanted to get rid of them (we got the impression that his kids were affluent, and didn't want to be bothered). The proposal was: go over and take a look- we think there are about 75 of them, and if you want them, we'll sell for $2 per head. You have to take them all, and bury any that are dead. At that time, good milking does were bringing about $25 per head, and there were about 25 of them. I think about 80 total. We sent a check, pronto.

The goat guy who had referred us told us how to raise calves on goat milk. "Simplest thing in the world", he said. "Put the calves in stanchions, get about 4 buckets- takes two people- one milks the goats, the other shuttles the buckets back and forth to the calves. Put bucket of milk in front of the calf- he drinks- keep giving him milk until he won't drink any more, then move bucket to the next calf." We had raised a lot of calves when we had the dairy, and knew how to do it. "Great", Dad said- "so are you gonna come over and help dig the holes when they all get the scours and we have to bury them?" He assured us that he had done this many times over the past 50 years, and had never had a calf get the scours with goat milk. So we decided to try it. Dad bought about 8 calves, and we made some stanchions. I milked, and my little sister was the calf feeder. The deal was, we would sell the calves in the fall, reimburse dad for the costs, and split the profit with him.

The great day came, and dad helped sis feed the calves. About halfway through, he called me over, and we agreed that this had all the makings of a disaster. The calves drank 'til they were full- REALLY full- heads hanging, gasping for breath, tummies distended. We decided to "press on regardless"- we trusted the guy who had advised us. If they started getting scours, we'd have to re-assess our plan and try to salvage the situation as best we could.

Well, the scours never came. I milked all summer, sister fed all summer, we sold veal calves and dad bought replacements, and we raised about 20 head altogether. Old neighbor came up every few days, and said, "They're like corn in Iowa- you can actually watch 'em grow".

Goats dry up in the fall, and we planned for that by not buying any more calves after about August. After the project was over, Dad called sis and I in to "settle up". He changed the deal. He said he had never intended to keep any of the profits, if we saw this thing through. But he said he had done pretty well this summer at carpentering, and sis and I had handled everything, including taking the finished veal calves to the sale, and buying the replacements. So we not only got all the profit, he didn't even charge for the cost of the calves. He just gave us all the money. I bought some more cattle (I had 10 head of Angus by the time I graduated from high school, and they put me through college).

Dad died 5 years ago, at age 85. He sure taught me a lot about life, and about how to raise kids. My own have turned out pretty well, and they are passing on what they have learned to the raising of their own children. When they thank me for lessons learned, I tell them that I was just "payin' it forward".

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