Goat prices!
 

I've looked at several different ads for goats on the barter board lately for goats and WOW! Have goats gone up that much in price or is this one of those things where folks are so wrapped up in their bloodlines that they think their goat is worth twice what the going rate is? It's been a while since I've bought a milk goat but I didn't think it had been that long.

Well yes and yes.
This answers your questions as asked.

A good milker is worth the cost of what she produces.

The real change is the growing sales of meat goats/ Goats for meat. They have about doubled the price of whethers.

Their are also a lot of show goat sellers on the goat forum.

The other day I had someone try to sell me some goats (actually trade goats for hay). I told them I'd credit them $40 each for the trade, as thats what I paid for my high quality Boer/Spanish cross herd when I started 4 years ago. Oh no, these were "show" goats "starting at $350". I just about fell over! You can take the prettiest goat you can find to the livestock market and you won't get more than $50. Sales between people run between $30-60. I sell my yearlings to local Africans for $40 each. You can get hundreds of goats around here for $35 each. The highest I've ever seen locally was $100 for a registered Boer buck (not at a sale, but an individual breeder's asking price). I can't see why people would pay so much for a goat. A good milker may be worth more than normal, but it'd have to be really good! I've heard that near big cities, goats bring alot of money, but certainly not around here!

I happened on a great deal here in Ga. I had been planning on getting a freshened Nubian but was having to wait on the baby to be weaned. In the meantime, I found some Toggenbergs and got two for less than the one nubian would have been. They are QUIET too and produce a gallon a day! I thank God everyday for letting me find these two goats.

Sherry in GA

I just bought a Boer nanny and a kid for $85 at our local aution this weekend. I would say the kid is worth about $25 of that $85 bucks spent. These weren't registered or capapble of being registered but I bet they will eat the over grown brush just as good. Come this next fall I will sell them back, get all of my money back and more. Plus, they will have done a good job of clearing the brush.

I paid $95 for adult Boers and $40 for teenagers. They weren't registered... Bought them at a livestock auction. These were from good stock, the ones that look like they hadn't been fed very well went for $35-$50. Not sure if that was good or not but it was a lot cheaper than the newspaper.

It depends on the goat. The most expensive one I've bought was $650. You get what you pay for, if you're careful. If you aren't careful, you can get screwed over pretty badly even after spending quite a lot of money.

I should have taken mine to NC. I just sold (from good stock) three bucklings at an auction.Mine were the best looking ones there.They were 8week old full Boer and weighed between 40 and 50 lbs. I got about 30.00 apiece for them after the 6.00 sales fee.All of mine could be registered if sold from the farm.I just am trying to keep from having alot of meat buyers coming here.I was very disappointed.So anyone looking for good Boer bucklings I have about 30 more to sell PM me. I don't care if you eat them I just don't want to think about it. :p

Show Goats translates into Sucker Tax.

Got some friends that paid the *cough* sucker tax, 500$ each for two... looked like the Boers my cousin sells for 70$. Course, they'd love to find someone else to sell their 'show goats' to, if they could get their sucker premium back. :rolleyes:

People around here dont think anything of paying $100-$130 for a meat goat or lamb form 80-100 lbs. Even if you lose half at slaughter thats still buying lamb for $2.60 a lb. I guess it depends on if you want to make enough to cover your expenses or just give them away

You get what you pay for. You go to an auction and pick up a cheap goat that you know nothing about, you can bring in CL, CAE, Johnnes, Shipping Fever, abortions and other nasties. They are usually there for a reason......doesn't milk much, bad udders, poor mothering ability, poor birthing ability, won't breed, sickly, etc. Only very ocaissionally are totally healthy productive animals dumped at a sale. And once they go through that said sale, they may be carrying one or many of the diseases that other goats in that barn are carrying. If all you want is brush-eaters, that may be ok. But for a milking doe or a breeding animal?? Not a good idea at all.
Any anyone buying auction animals and bringing them into their healthy herd?? Be prepared for heartache one of these days when you bring home something unwanted and it spreads.

If you want show stock of any sort, be prepared to pay bigger prices.

If you want good healthy milking stock be prepared to pay $150-$400. And they are worth it at that price if you know they are healthy and will truly milk.

If you want productive, healthy meat goats...you can pay anywhere from $75-$300 for those.

If you want brush eater, buy some cheap wethers. Think $15-$100 each depending on age.


Another thing. Why should I as a conscientious breeder who takes care of my stock, feeds it well, keeps it healthy and knows its value, take a loss because others want something cheap and fast??
I am not extravagant in my prices, I know what I need to get out of my goats so that I don't go under. I have invested in good stock and continue to breed up. I'm not taking a loss because someone who hasn't taken the time, doesn't know what it takes, and doesn't care about the quality they are buying, tells me that I'm too high. I have those people show up every now and then. They tell me they can get something "just as good at the auction", I tell them to go for it!! I've taken the time and trouble to supply a quality animal, I'm not going to lower my price to match something of lower quality. :)

Well I guess I am one of those "suckers"...because I have seen pics of your goats on this forum and if I ever find a way to get one of your milkers from Mo. to La...I will be a customer. :)

There is no more versatile animal on the planet. Goats are good for milk, meat, fiber, leather, pets, work animals, pack animals, cart pulling...what am I missing? There is literally a use for every part of the goat, alive or not! Why is it a good cow or a good horse is worth the price, but goats are considered a "cheap" animal? My girls go for a minimum of $200 depending on pedigree and milk records.

Ruth

I can't afford to take a loss on my animals. Even if I got them for FREE and bred them, I would be losing money to sell the kids at $25-$50 each.

Forget about goats! People are giving away non-hair sheep in droves because they are not "trendy" and are not fetching good prices right now. Sheep have all the benefits of goats and fewer problems. I can't wait until I can get a nice little flock of Dorsets going.

Goats? bah, humbug. :grump: :rolleyes:

donsgal

Well, with all due respect, I wouldn't trade a single one of my personality plus goats for a boring old sheep! :nono: :) :)
Ruth

Not all goats at a salebarn are there for a "bad" reason. We have taken goats that have NOTHING wrong with them, we just needed to get rid of them NOW! I have seen goat dairies, etc selling out at the salebarn. Not sure why you would want to do that. But, if you want $50 for each, fine by me. The only thing that is selling well at the salebarns here is Boer bucks and wethers and some dairy bucks and wethers. There are several goat and sheep buyers that don't want the other one to have anything. Gets interesting.

People here in Rural Indiana think you are crazy asking $100 for a registered dairy doe (kid or milker). There is no way I would be selling does for some of the prices that big name breeders are selling for. It is getting ridiculous to think that a kid is worth $1000+ dollars at birth-2 weeks. My opinion. In some cases, I would rather take them to the salebarn rather than have to deal with a buyer whining about every little problem with the goat (problems that they caused with mismanagement). At the salebarn, nobody can complain about them after buying them.

Carisa

The "going rate" around here is $250-$300 for does from commerical herds. I was at a goat dairy sellout auction last week where poor quality registered does went for $150-$400. Goat milk topped out at $44/cwt last winter, almost 4 times the value of cow milk. Goat milk and cheese is being sold more widely and the goat meat market is huge. Even does for slaughter are worth $50.

Bloodlines with performance records are important, and the good ones are worth paying for. The physical traits that enable a doe to live a long productive life are very heritable, and ADGA has a program to evaluate & track those traits. Production of milk, butterfat & protein is also heritable & tested & tracked by the USDA & ADGA.

Anyone can look at a participating dairy goat pedigree and with a little research, have a pretty good idea of what that doe looks like, how she will milk and how long she will live.

I can go to the sale barn and try to pick out a good milking doe. I might get a good one, or I might get one that will only milk 3 lbs for 3 months, spend the rest of the year getting fat, and end up with mastitis because her udder drags on the ground.
Or I can pay $300 for a doe whose bloodlines tell me she will likely make a steady 2,000 lbs for 9 years and stay sound and healthy for that time.

Sale barn prices are the very low end of the range for all species- and there is a wide range of price and quality. Horses at my sale barn went for $40-$100 last week. Does that mean you can buy a Thoroughbred weanling at the Bluegrass sale for $100? Good luck with that.

What benefit do sheep have over goats?
Sheep drop dead at the drop of a hat...ever try milking one? :hobbyhors

I don't know about the drop-dead thing. But I can tell you that there is a huge interest in dairy sheep right now. I read *somewhere* that there is a sheep dairy in Wisconsin or Minnesota (or someplace up North like that), that milks over 200 sheep a day! So, I'm thinking that sheep can hold their own when it comes to comparisons with goats for milk.

donsgal

Well, I do have to agree with you that goats are much more charming creatures than sheep.

donsgal

I just bought 6- 5 month old boer does at $75 each. Registerable but I chose not to. This is east texas.

I put WAY too much time and money into my goats to underprice them. Yes, you can find them for cheaper. But I doubt they'd come from a CL, CAE, Johnne's free herd, disbudded, tattooed, vaccinated, bottle raised on CAE prevention. And you won't be supplied with information through the entire life of the animal. I do not make ANY money off of my goats. I raise miniatures (which I sell between 25.00 for meat wethers to 150.00 for dairy types) and American Alpines (which will go between 50.00 for a meat wether to 450 for a doeling at this time). I am 17 years old and my daily life consists of : Up at 6:15, out to milk/feed baby goats at 6:50. Off to school by 7:30. Feed goats after school at 3:00 and do other chores till about 5:00 if not later. Milk and feed baby goats again at 7:00pm. Usually then I pasturize milk for the kids. Actually my bottle schedule is fairly leniant right now, only feeding 2x per day... Wait till my last two mini does kid in the next two months!

add in cost of feed, milking supplies, kidding supplies, every day supplies, medical supplies, bedding, show. Also the labor of cleaning the stall, trimming hooves, doing most of my own vet work, clipping/washing goats, etc. Also I keep detailed records of my herd, individuals and offspring, and supply buyers with a floppy disk full of record/registration sheets, milkstand plans, info on vaccinations, bottle raising, breeding, diseases, and tons of other info.

Please, tell me my goats are underpriced. Please. And not just mine, all of the other people who work daily with thier animals and know thier worth, not to mention all the work put into finding a proper animal to breed it to to improve on it. And if you really do think they're overpriced, go to your precious sale barn, and stay ignorant of quality. Fine by us!

We have spoken with numerous breeders in this area. Nobody has goats for under $500 each.

I went to the livestock auction and bought kids at $20/each and adults between $50 and $75/each.

I watch our sale closely since it is what I go by to charge for my clean herd. At auction, goats are almost always sick and the healthy ones are put in with the sick ones. I've brought home more problems than goats from the livestock sale so I just watch prices now. Prices start at $15 for young skinny kids and go up to $120 for a dairy doe in milk: ALpines, Saanens, and even La Manchas and Nubians. Adult pure bred Boer bucks go for up to $250 without papers or guarantees. Mixed breed meat bucks that are adults and have good horns sell to hunting lodges for over $150. Average prices for a meat or dairy kid with a good frame and ready for market go from $60 - $80. I sell my market kids for $75 when they are about 60 pounds. If I sold one of my fullblood South African does, I'd want at least $200. My breeding quality bucklings start at $75 at 12 weeks and go up $50 per month.

Sales vary and depend on the owner. A good owner runs a good sale. Sometimes you can find a real bargain at a sale because someone was desperate or had run into a corner and had to get out. I picked up an Eggsfile grandson with papers for $80 back in November. He was 7 months old.

In the past Ive tried to sell some nice goats and run into a lot of people who want cheap. There is cheap out there. But not here. Learning to hold to my price has been a wonderful liberation from a lot of cheap tactics. It is perfectly acceptable to make a little profit to run a homestead, otherwise I will bite the dust like so many others have. What we commit ourselves to should not be compared to run of the mill, imo.

Well, like any other livestock animal, you get what you pay for. My goats are worth much more than $25 each.

Ruth

That was a pretty good comparison... HOWEVER--If ALL horses were priced at the level of, say, the Keenland Thoroughbred sale only a select few people would own horses.

There is a huge price tag on hunter/jumpers too, but not everyone wants a competition level hunter/jumper, or a race prospect. The same for goats. There are levels in all types of livestock, and reasons for each level.

It all boils down to Buyer Beware at auction. I've gotten some *really* good goats at the sale barn for decent prices - nothing really 'wrong' with them except the two-legged owner and expectations! Zsa Zsa was a huge Saanen who they thought was too long in the tooth (because she was so tall :rolleyes: , true story) and fat - she turned out to be about 3yrs and dropped huge twin bucklings the next week. They sold a piece at only a month old what I paid for their mama - plus I got over a gallon of milk a day from her while she was feeding them (had plenty to sell after they left)! Pudge was a papered Alpine who'd been bred a little young (growth a tiny bit stunted) and gave me a beautiful doeling a month after I brought her home. She cost less than $50. I could describe a few more, but that gives an idea.

Of course, I climb into the stalls at the sale barn and inspect everybody very closely......maybe that's why I had such good fortune. :shrug:

I agree prices (outside the sale barn) tend to be a little crazy - but have you noticed the prices usually raise if the buyer is a novice? Rather unscrupilous, I think, but a trend I've noticed.

~Falcon

Any seller that would do that is not straight forward and should be avoided anyway.

All I can say is that a goat, like any other animal or any other thing, is only worth what someone will pay for it. If you can sell your goats for $500, then they are worth $500. If the best you can do is $50, then they are worth $50. Same goes for anything else. I do not find most houses around here to be worth what people are asking, but if someone is willing to pay that much, then that is what it is worth. I don't consider a car to be worht $30000, but apparently someone is willing to pay that much, and that is what it is worth.

Worth is based on the market, not what an individual might agree to pay. In other words, if you'll only pay $50 for one of my goats, that does not make my goat worth only $50. She might be only worth that to you, but maybe you don't know goats.

Ruth

I guess I didn't explain myself very well. What I meant, is that a goat is only worth what the highest bidder will pay for it. If there is no one in your area (location does make a difference) that is willing to pay more than $50, then your goats are only worth $50. My point, I think, is that it does not matter what I think my goats are worth, it only matters what the buyers think they are worth. If I hold out on selling them because no one is willing to pay the $500 I asked, then I will end up stuck with a bunch of goats. This was not meant to be specifiacally about anyone's goats, but a general principle that applies to everything.

A bunch of goats that will eventually die of old age, then the person asking $500 will get nothing.

The person "stuck" with goats because no one will pay $500 still has the goats. Yeah, they'll die of old age eventually, but the years in between count for something!

I guess people just aren't going to see the value of goats. After all, goats aren't cattle; goats aren't horses or hogs. What good are goats? :flame:

Ruth

OK, I'll chime in and say that I raise goats. Registered Nubians even. I personally do not see any goat that would be worth $500. Sorry, I can not afford that kind of price. Does that make me a bad goat keeper? NO! I am not interested in showing. I am not interested in huge volume milkers. I am interested in a goat that will milk easy, keep easy, and love me.

I think goats are great, but even I wouldn't pay $500 for one. I really don't care how good their bloodlines are. Sellers set their limit as to what they want, but buyers also set their limit to what they are willing to pay. With the price of gas & everything else going up, I think buyers are going to set their limit lower because no one has the extra money now.

I work on producing a nice little homestead milk goat. None of mine are huge volume milkers, but I don't care. They are easy keepers, nice to milk, & friendly. I have never had any trouble getting mine sold, but I do not ask real high prices. I am not so much in it to make money. I break even. They are my hobby more than anything. I want to offer a nice milk goat for a reasonable price. Most people wanting a goat for home use can not afford several hundred dollars for one. If I would not have gotten mine at a good deal from a friend, I would have never gotten any. There is no way I could have afforded several hundred dollars. So, I try to cater to the little guys. The people that want milk for their family, but who are not financially able to spend a small fortune on a good goat. There are good goats out there at affordable prices. Not everyone is in goats for the money or the show. Some of us are doing it for the love of goats. My best & favorite milker is a grade doe. :)

And Wendy, that's great, but are your goats worth sale barn prices or are they better than that. I have one goat worth about $500; the rest not as much, but $200 or better. One of my best is a registered grade alpine doe. She's amazing, and I wouldn't let her go for anything, but if I did have to price her, she'd be $250 or more, and only to the best of homes. My registered goat are good milkers, and affectionate and beautiful.

No one's saying all goats need to be sold for $500 or more, but the old $25 sale barn goats are just not worth the money!

Ruth

On the $500 dollar goat issue, If you fave 100 does...good does... and breed them to a $1000 or 2500 super buck. Now can you get 10, 25, or 50 dollars more for your kids of correct conformation. Now - how cheap is that $2500 buck and truely expensive is that $150 buck. You get what you pay for.

I do not encourage anyone to buy from an auction or sale barn. That being said, I also don't feel you need to spend $500 or $2500 to get good quality goats with good conformation. Do I think my goats are worth more than salebarn prices, yes. BUT, I have taken culls to the salebarn & gotten more than I can get if I sold them outright. Just depends on the buyers that day. This area is not a good one for selling papered goats. People don't care about papers. That & the darn meat goat market has taken over. Everyone has Boer goats & there aren't many dairy goats around. You'd think that would make it easier to get better prices for them, but it doesn't. I could say I want $500 for a certain doe. If I can't find anyone in this area to pay that, she isn't worth $500. I can't sit here every year & keep every kid born because I think they should bring a certain price. I have to price them to sell. I have to keep my numbers down to a managable size & if that means selling at a lower price, that is what I have to do. I know if I put a $400 or even $300 price tag on one of my goats, I would still have that goat 3 years from now. I have some pretty good lines in some of them too.

I just purchased 2 pigs from a neighbor. His daughters show & he gets several thousand dollars for some of his pigs. Does that mean all of them are worth that? NO. He has to price them to sell them. I gave $30 each for mine.

You have to price what you have to move it. You aren't going to make much money if you hold out for a certain amount if no one is willing to pay that.

Not always. My best & favorite doe cost me $50. Great udder, easy to milk, easy kidder, had triplets this year unassisted at the age of 9, just an all around great goat. You can't say that by paying more you are getting better quality. That isn't always true.

On a given day, a goat(or pig, or cow, etc) has a fair market value equal to what a Buyer, not under compulsion to buy will pay in cash and a Seller, not under duress to sell will accept. From that simple description, a multitude of reasons to vary the price will often come into play and cause discussions among friendly, well meaning folks like the ones around here. About the same thing gccrook said above. It takes a bit of work to determine in this season, in your location, exactly what a particular goat should bring because asking price alone means little....Glen