Pgymy goats

[thelynns]

Hi All,

We live in N. Indiana, outside of South Bend.

We have a daughter in 4-H and she has shown poultry, chickens and ducks.

The goat barn is attached to the chicken barn and all last summer I heard every night of fair week..."Can I show goats next year?" I said I will look into it.

Well it is next year and early 4-H sign up has come already. We signed up for everything but the goats. Before I even let her sign up wanted to hear from someone from this board. I could get together with the 4-H goat people, but wanted to hear different opinions.

Pros and Cons...be candid & honest.

Also, cost. We don't really expect to win top honors, just want the fun of showing. We also don't plan to breed or milk. What would be average cost of a 4-H animal. We would not sale at fair and would keep as pets.

Curt & Ann Lynn

[DKWunlimited]

Are pygmies an option in your 4-H? the only goats we can do here are boer.

[Stoufferspizza]

I did 4H goats for 7 years as a kid.
Pros: pygmy are a little easier to manage as they eat less feed, hay, take up less room, can be transported easier as they're smaller, kid fairly easy, can be more like a "pet" than farm animal, novelty
Cons: don't get squat for milk for the amount of work put into it and it's more of a chore, dairy breeds kid easily too, you break your back trying to show them (unless your area allows for leashes - which not all do), lastly as a strictly 4H thing - showmanship issues - if pretty much everyone else has dairy even a great judge has a hard time seeing how you compare so honors are hard to achieve and not every fair allows for horns on animals being brought in and (in my experience) it seems like pygmys are 50/50 with horns, and from a breed standpoint if there aren't many other pygmy goats in your area - you'll be wandering a few circles in the arena by yourself during judging
My recommendation would be to get ahold of your extension office and have them hook you up with the goat club leader in your area to ask questions on how many pygmy goats are shown and how well received that would be