Pricing a buck kid?

xoxoGOATSxoxo · #1 05/20/07, 09:56 AM

I wether my kids, always. But, I have not wethered the 2 boys out of the quads yet, and now the "goat couple" that help the younger kids in my 4-H club with goaty stuff want to buy one of them as an intact buck.

"Chander", the buckling, is a "1/2 American" Saanen. I dont know if "1/2 Amercan" is a real term, but his momma is grade and his daddy is an American. He is a little over 2 weeks old, and he has a long body, he's tall for his age, and he is both the heaviest and the tallest of his brother and sisters.
Anyway, these two folks want a young Saanen buck, and little Chandler fits the bill.
The thing is, this is a somewhat econmically depressed area (or so my mom says, I'm not so sure, but there is not a lot of jobs, and people are moving out of the area), plus this couple is not the richest.
I dont know if they would take advantage of me, by taking a lower price than Chandler is worth. The would buy him when he is about 2 months old.

Does anybody have any ideas? I have never bought a buck, young or old, so I dont know anything about pricing them. I sell my doe kids for 15 to 100 dollars, depending on the kid, the age of the kid, purpose of the kid, the person, and where I sell her. (home or fair, and auction kids go for about 100 dollars, too.)

PygmyLover · #2 05/20/07, 01:02 PM

I sell bucks for the same price as wethers. My price is 75.00

You may want to think at around 50+ for that kid. They will be getting kids from him and not paying stud fees so they will recoop the cost of the buck kid in next years kid crop. I wouldn't go less then 50.00. Will he have papers? that makes him more valuable.

chamoisee · #3 05/20/07, 01:25 PM

I would not sell him for stud. He is a 50% grade. I cannot imagine anyone except for the desperate paying a $50 stud fee for a grade buck....although I suppose it could happen. My rather snobby but well intended opinion is that using anything but the cream of the crop for breeding devalues the worth of the goat.

To put it another way, I have been fairly choosy about who I sold from my registered Alpines. I didn't/wouldn't sell every buck, even the ones born of A.I. breedings- only the ones who looked like they had great conformation and whose dams were performing well under my rather stringent conditions.

Potential customers would say, "Well, he'd still be so much better than anything else we could find or use!", but my point of view was that I didn't want word getting around that I was selling buck kids willy nilly, registerable or not. Besides, at $3 a pound, and if you can get 20-30# of meat from him, that's $60-$90 worth of meat.

PygmyLover · #4 05/20/07, 01:29 PM

well see I raise unregistard goats and so I really don't care that much about registration. Though I do recongnize that registard goats are more valuable.

I am selling a mix breed pygmy/ND as a herd sir and the people are quite willing to pay the 100.00 that is his price.

stanb999 · #5 05/20/07, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PygmyLover

I sell bucks for the same price as wethers. My price is 75.00

I gotta agree with this. At 2 months a buck/whether are worth the same. One is for meat and one may be only good for meat as it is unproven. What you can't know is his adult size or adult conformation at such a young age. I'd never give a premium until a buck is at least 2 this way he is fully grown and should have produced. That way you are sure to get or sell a good breeding buck. Not just an intact male.

PygmyLover · #6 05/20/07, 08:23 PM

obviously since I have pygmies (and Nigerian Dwarfs) I am not selling for meat, but I get your point, and it makes perfect sense to me. Though good breeding does make a buck worth more in some cases. It really depends on breed of goat too.

devdragon33 · #7 05/20/07, 10:07 PM

to defend her selling the buck here in Mid-Michigan you DONT have a big choice of goats. It is hard to find any decent goats at all. We have the grand champion and reserve Champion from the fair living here and get people lined up all the time. We have a nice boer buck (papered) but we cross them on grade dairy goats and never have trouble selling them. We show 2 pure Lamanchas, 1 pure bred sannen and 3 sannen alpine crosses, but the majority of our herd are mix breed good milking does. The only papered animal we have goat wise is our buck. That is what you mostly find around here and are lucky if you get $100.00 out of them. This is a very unwealthy area and people can not afford to keep animals at all and can not afford to pop out $250.00-$400.00 for a goat. I just bought a nice grasde nubian buck to cross to my goats. I do not think that just because they are not papered or up to par on other peoples standards means that you should band them. I would ask $75.00 for him.

devdragon33 · #8 05/20/07, 10:13 PM

the market for goats around here is so bad that two decent bucklings went through the auction last week (at the same time- they together weighed 60 pounds) and sold for $26.00. Not $26.00 each but $26.00 total. Milking does went for $45.00

stanb999 · #9 05/21/07, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by devdragon33

the market for goats around here is so bad that two decent bucklings went through the auction last week (at the same time- they together weighed 60 pounds) and sold for $26.00. Not $26.00 each but $26.00 total. Milking does went for $45.00

Thats really unbelievable to me. Here you just can't find any for a near reasonable price if at all. They sell for a hundred if they limp, are missing a teat, And are too thin from cheap hay or none at all.

devdragon33 · #10 05/21/07, 07:00 PM

better believe it. It is a fact. A lot of free horses, and cattle going for $0.80/pound. There have been 2 factories and 1 car dealership closed because of lack of business in the last 5 months. Plus most of the stores in the little town of clare are closing down.

cmharris6002 · #11 05/21/07, 07:15 PM

I raise purebred registered Nubian's and I charge $75 for male goats. A buck will have to proven himself many times over and/or have a long line of exceptional sisters and dams before I would charge more.

Christy

ladybug · #12 05/21/07, 07:37 PM

I paid $50 for my Pygmy buck as well as $50 each for 5 does and one buckling(plan to wether him) but normally you just can't find goats at all in my area under 200+ dollars. It has gotten impossible to even find Hens here due to all the *growth* here lately. Grrrrr time to start looking for another "remote" area Lol

xoxoGOATSxoxo · #13 05/24/07, 06:22 PM

Wow, so many replies!

He wont have papers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by devdragon33

to defend her selling the buck here in Mid-Michigan you DONT have a big choice of goats.

Thanks! Glad you understand aout the whole "poor" thing going on here. I sold a mature Cayuga drake for $1.75 last fair, no lie! While ducks are going for mere cents, gas is 4 bucks! ($ bucks, duh, not goats)
Dont get me wrong, I feel kinda bad about selling a buck that isn't pure, but whats am I supposed to do? They need a buck. These kids daddy lived a couple hours south, but lots of people here wouldnt think of driving so far for their goat, they just wnat milk! at least he's a bit more pure thatn the other goats here, he's gotta improve something! And his ma got grand champ, even though shes's a grade. COurse, that was just one, rather local show, but still. Better than the other does around, thats soemthing....

Anywho,
thanks. Maybe I'll sell him for 65-75 dollars??

PygmyLover · #14 05/24/07, 06:27 PM

that sounds like a good price and fair sounding.