Thursday, August 1, 2013
TMI
My little baby buckling needed to go bye bye. He has been hogging up the milk for the last two months and now is obsessed with mating with his mother. Not good!!! So I put him for sale on Craigslist at a price that everyone else had on their bucklings. Well no response so I lowered the price about $15 and put on the ad that I would also trade him for a trio of meat rabbits, still no response. Panic started to set in, he has to go and quick! We started discussing eating him. As "homesteaders" we need to be able to eat any animal we can't sell so it only seemed logical. Except he was my first baby and as many of you know much anticipated LOL and I loved that little guy. The hubs wanted to eat him but didn't want to kill him or butcher him, I think he loved him too. Here comes the TMI. The hubs talks to numerous people about it, I watched a gazillion videos, and by the end of the night my brain hurt. The fact is we got goats for milk not meat so we weren't mentally prepared for that. I lowered my price another $20 and a few hours later baby boy was gone. It broke my heart to see him go but I'm so relieved he won't be able to impregnate his mamma and guess what! I'm back in milk!!!!!!!
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You could have banded him but then you would still have a meat goat running around eating food. I got rid of all our goats, they were too much to deal with one goat could be an uncle/daddy/brother/cousin at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI had planned on selling him sooner than this. From now on any boys born will be banded asap! We have learned a lot this year about goats ☺
DeleteHe didn't really eat a lot since he still nursed, so we weren't out any money to care for him. I just didn't have any milk for 2 months which was a bummer.
Just curious as to why you didn't band him? But glad you didn't have to go through the butchering if you guys weren't mentally up to it. Nothing worse than having to regret something or have it haunt you. When you're ready, you're ready. If not, don't push it. Hope he enjoys his new home.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor was going to help me band him about a month ago, we just never did it and we weren't sure what we were going to do with him at that time. Next year if we have another boy we will do it asap because he became a little hornball.
DeleteWe are learning, slowly and with a lot of mistakes, but we are learning LOL!!!!
He sure was a handsome fella! We band most of our boys by the time they are 2 weeks old unless they are reserved or we're keeping them for breeding in our own herd(which I do way too often LOL). You have to do what works for you...I couldn't butcher our own for years, but that changed a few years ago...now I'm very fond of having our own goat meat in jars or in the freezer. :)
ReplyDeleteI should have banded him :/ I thought someone would want a little buckling, boy was I wrong! Next years boys will be banded. I have a feeling one day we will change our tune about butchering the baby boys. It seems more practical to do eat them than to cheap sell them.
DeleteI'm glad he sold! I didn't have any luck selling my bucklings. I had them listed for only $75. I'm going to breed the Alpine boys to the opposite mamas (the does aren't related) then they are going to the processor. $100 for 3 boys all packaged and ready for freezer camp.
ReplyDeleteI started out at $75 and finally was able to sell him for $40 :/ The meat processor I talked to was high. They wanted $50 to slaughter and .60¢ a pound for butchering and then another .50¢ per pound for butcher paper. I didn't do the math but it was too much. Sounds like your processor is a great deal and you will have babies from the boys too!!!
DeleteOuch, that is HIGH. I would have sold them for $40 before paying that too.
DeleteSelling buckings can take awhile, I have had my ad up for 3 weeks for 2 bucklings for 75.00 each, sold one today...its coming into breeding season so they will sell better now...We do not band ours, I hate when I am looking for a buck and all I find are wethers...We sell ours intact so they can sire a herd...but I also realize many people want a worthless wether...LOL...just not me...and we don't eat our goats...to me its like eating one of my dogs...not gonna happen...lol...I won't even sell a goat to someone I know is going to eat them..LOL...We eat out pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, quail, squirrel, deer, our cow...but not goats...we milk them and that's it...Goats are like my children...I love them dearly...Guess I am a 'bad homesteader', but we all have our boundries and goats are mine! Glad you got him sold...
ReplyDeleteCute little guy! I understand why you wouldn't want to eat him...
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm glad for you. The bottom has fallen out of the goat market in NY, and even doelings are selling for $50 around here. That's a crying shame. I just decided to keep mine instead of selling her for that price. She's worth more than that in milk alone!
ReplyDeleteYes, and bucks are hard to get rid of. The last one I had I sold for a pittance just so he would go, but I have to tell you, the auction house was looking awfully good by then!
Well, when I revamped my blog to break the bloggers into two camps, your blog slipped through the cracks and disappeared :-(
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I have a lot of catching up to do on your blog! I hope all is well on your homestead, and the family is doing great.
Take Care - K and family