Getting Your Goat
Deborah Niemann
Antiquity Oaks Farm
antiquityoaks.com
Excerpted from:
Raising Goats Naturally: The Complete
Guide to Milk, Meat, and More
You’ve decided to add goats to your homestead.
Now what?
Although you can find goats on Internet classified
ad sites and in sale barns, the quality is often
questionable. Keep in mind that no one is going to
sell a goat for $50 if they can sell it for $300 or
more, and if they can sell it only for $50, there is
probably a very good reason. The animal could
have a disease, a disqualifying defect, kidding
problems, or poor milk production.
An Internet search will find the websites of
breeders in your area. Search for your state and the
breed you want, such as “Oregon Nubians.” Many goat breeders have websites where you can learn
more about the herd, the breeding philosophy, and their individual goats. They often have
photographs, milk records, show records, classification or linear appraisal scores, and sometimes
even stories about the goats.
It is a good idea for a couple of reasons to buy your first goats from a breeder who has a philosophy
similar to yours. First, if the goats are thriving in their current environment, they may not perform as
well under a different management system. For example, if you want to raise your goats in a
sustainable system, you won’t know if goats from another farm will do well on your farm if they are
being given multiple vaccines and chemical dewormers on a regular basis. Also, if a farm bottle
raises all of their kids, they will have no idea whether their goats are good mothers, which could
present a challenge if you are planning to dam raise. Hopefully the person who sells you your first
goats will be willing to serve as a mentor for you. Having someone who shares your philosophy and
personally knows your goats is invaluable.
Keep in mind that if you want good quality stock of a specific breed, you might need to look at
surrounding states or even across the country. When I was starting my herd, there was no one in my
state who was raising Nigerians for anything other than pets, so my foundation animals all came
from other states, including bucks that came from as far away as Massachusetts and Alaska. Goats
can be shipped by air in dog crates. When buying from a distance, it is less expensive to buy kids
than adults because the cost of shipping is based on weight or size of the crate.
16 DWARF and MINI