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Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #41 12/28/08, 04:18 PM

Good point Chris, I always forget the rodeo with the boer kids we had

With dairy kids you can pull a kid off the lambar, pull blood and put it right back on. Vicki

thatcompchick · #42 12/29/08, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris30523

Good point Vicki
After the 10$ each for the test,labor and wages because I would have to hire someone to help me. It would make my wethers unmarketable as meat goats in this area.We are lucky to get 1.00 a lb on the hoof. I have looked into the costs on this and meat goats are not as cost effective as dairy animals. Meat goat people don't routinely test in this area,show people do.

The finances work out this way. I have a herd/flock of 50 breeders (sheep and goats). You trim feet, right? And do FAMACHA? You pick the day you do this - so you've already wrangled the goat (no added labor charge here).

Test at WADDL - $7.50 (has since gone up to $9)

Shipping on 50 tubes last time using their # cost me $12
box of 100 rtt shipped - $35 (.32 ea so $16 for 50)
draw needles or syringes (very variable depending on what i can get at the hospital as i hate using full syringes) - .30-.50 (15-25 for 50)
Accession fee - $10

So cost for cl testing per breeding animal is $10.24 per animal. Said animal should have 2 saleable animals per year minimum - so you divide that cost to $5.12 more per sale price.

This has been worked into my business plan after I asked my customers if they would rather pay $5-10 more a year to keep testing my flock even though it is closed/biosecurity, etc - and yes, my goats are $5-10 more than I originally priced them out using a financial cost spreadsheet that is put forward by MDWVMeat Goat Association.

Only fault I see in my calculations is I included my 4 sires and 2 wethers as 'producers'...but a lot of my goats have more than 2 babies a year, so I look at it as a wash.

Plus it's a tax deduction - so the 'actual' cost isn't the true $5.12 passed on to consumer. A lot less than what the breeder in VA who just got sued for selling two 'healthy' meat goats to someone as a pet - and then turned around and admitted they 'did' have a lump 3 years back, but since they didn't have anymore they didn't think they 'had' it. Remember when you are selling for pets, MOST states have pet lemon laws.

We started up with goats in an area where there was a market for them (probably key here, in a business sense), so we don't think twice about putting the best product out there and it has paid off.

Just the true financial breakdown, yes, it IS $10.

If you can't do it yourself in bulk, find a few other goat friends and send the box in together, or ask your favorite breeder who does test to send in a tube or two for you ;-)

Andrea

chris30523 · #43 12/29/08, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thatcompchick

The finances work out this way. I have a herd/flock of 50 breeders (sheep and goats). You trim feet, right? And do FAMACHA? You pick the day you do this - so you've already wrangled the goat (no added labor charge here).

Test at WADDL - $7.50 (has since gone up to $9)

Shipping on 50 tubes last time using their # cost me $12
box of 100 rtt shipped - $35 (.32 ea so $16 for 50)
draw needles or syringes (very variable depending on what i can get at the hospital as i hate using full syringes) - .30-.50 (15-25 for 50)
Accession fee - $10

So cost for cl testing per breeding animal is $10.24 per animal. Said animal should have 2 saleable animals per year minimum - so you divide that cost to $5.12 more per sale price.

This has been worked into my business plan after I asked my customers if they would rather pay $5-10 more a year to keep testing my flock even though it is closed/biosecurity, etc - and yes, my goats are $5-10 more than I originally priced them out using a financial cost spreadsheet that is put forward by MDWVMeat Goat Association.

Only fault I see in my calculations is I included my 4 sires and 2 wethers as 'producers'...but a lot of my goats have more than 2 babies a year, so I look at it as a wash.

Plus it's a tax deduction - so the 'actual' cost isn't the true $5.12 passed on to consumer. A lot less than what the breeder in VA who just got sued for selling two 'healthy' meat goats to someone as a pet - and then turned around and admitted they 'did' have a lump 3 years back, but since they didn't have anymore they didn't think they 'had' it. Remember when you are selling for pets, MOST states have pet lemon laws.

We started up with goats in an area where there was a market for them (probably key here, in a business sense), so we don't think twice about putting the best product out there and it has paid off.

Just the true financial breakdown, yes, it IS $10.

If you can't do it yourself in bulk, find a few other goat friends and send the box in together, or ask your favorite breeder who does test to send in a tube or two for you ;-)

Andrea

So you don't test the kids just the does and bucks? That could be do able alone. I was looking at the cost of test moms and kids. No to mention catching the slippery little buggers.

christy

copperpennykids · #44 12/29/08, 03:16 PM

We test just the adults (over one year of age). WSU will tell you that the test is inconclusive until they are about 1 year old anyway.

Since our Boers are all CAE negative (and have been tested clean since we have had Boers and came from negative herds), the kids are always negative too - whether they are replacements for our herd or go to be breeding stock on someone else's ranch. They always test negative as adults.

You can also save a little money by sending your blood to Biotracking, which charges $4.00/goat with no accession fee. You can even have a doe tested for pregnancy from the same tube of blood!

And honestly, selling some of your best meat stock as breeding stock to people who want good stock that is CAE negative and CL Free, will help your bottom line considerably. Good for you, good for them.

thatcompchick · #45 12/30/08, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris30523

So you don't test the kids just the does and bucks? That could be do able alone. I was looking at the cost of test moms and kids. No to mention catching the slippery little buggers.

christy

oh no, you DEFINITELY don't test the kids. You won't get valid results. Cl has an incubation period of 6 months, from what I understand about CAE you want htem to be at least 6 months old, and Johnes, you will get most likely false positives until the 10-18 month mark.

I did have ONE customer that wanted me to test the kid she bought. She paid for room and board on that kid for 3 months (I won't let my kids go until 3 month point unless they go to get 'ET') so she could have the first roll of Cl/CAE testing done on them. And of course, because she was in VA, to export the doeling to her state we had to do TB/Bruc too ;-)

Andrea

thatcompchick · #46 12/30/08, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by copperpennykids

We test just the adults (over one year of age). WSU will tell you that the test is inconclusive until they are about 1 year old anyway.

Since our Boers are all CAE negative (and have been tested clean since we have had Boers and came from negative herds), the kids are always negative too - whether they are replacements for our herd or go to be breeding stock on someone else's ranch. They always test negative as adults.

You can also save a little money by sending your blood to Biotracking, which charges $4.00/goat with no accession fee. You can even have a doe tested for pregnancy from the same tube of blood!

And honestly, selling some of your best meat stock as breeding stock to people who want good stock that is CAE negative and CL Free, will help your bottom line considerably. Good for you, good for them.

Biotracking does CL testing? Is that the same place I've been sending my scrapies genotyping stuff? for the sheep? No...that's Genecheck - who DOES do Johnes and CAE - but the Johnes is ELISA - more on that later. That's the worst thing I'm seeing - finding ONE place for all my testing. I break it up into groups because of that. Thankfully my Scrapies genotyping thing was a one time thing unless I retain more rams (that will definitely be not anytime soon with 4 already)

I'm kind of picky on who gets the samples. I've seen too many problems with the 'one person' labs that don't have the regulatory stuff going for them. Heck, I could (and have) run an ELISA test, but to make sure everything remains calibrated, etc, that's A LOT of work. Also with the increase of lawsuits, etc, it's good to have a registered certified lab to have paperwork from ;-)

By the way - for Johnes testing - MAKE SURE YOU USE AGID. ELISA testing is way too sensitive and you'll spend half your month pulling out all your hair until you get a fecal culture back. It cross reacts with Cl and Cl vax'd goats - and will give you a pos.

Andrea

copperpennykids · #47 12/30/08, 01:43 PM

Biotracking does CAE testing and pregnancy testing only. I didn't read your post closely enough (you did say CL testing!) but CAE tests run about the same with WSU, if you are out of state.

chris30523 · #48 12/30/08, 04:26 PM

I started another thread on this as this was a huge drift and I think other meat goat breeders would benefit from this discussion. Boer goat herd testing.There are already a couple of questions and responses