Pygmies... and more pygmies!

[Bricheze]

In my FFA chapter people keep on getting more and more pygmy goats. I'm starting to worry now, because everyone wants to breed them. What's the market like for pygmies? Because after all these kids leave, were going to end up with at least 5 or 6 does, and how ever many kids they have.... *Worried look*

[Alice In TX/MO]

You'll need to ask at the feed store and other places in your area about demand. There is ZERO demand here in Texas or in southern Missouri.

Let me rephrase the Texas situation. There is a demand for barbecue goats, but I don't think that's what you had in mind.

[Bricheze]

I would have that in mind, but these kids are going to want them to go somewhere where they will live longer lives.

The four market goats (boar/nubian crosses) we originally had to sell at the fair, were instead purchased by other kids in our chapter to be dairy goats!

Breeding projects are not going to work for students who are only going to be in the FFA for 1 or 2 years, and then just expect to leave and go to college...

[deineria]

There is a big market for them as pets and brush eaters here in WV, Ohio and Ky.
I sell our unregistered doelings for $100 ea. without a problem, and I never have enough. lol.

[RiverPines]

Here you cant give a pygmy away for even meat.

They are flooded around here. They were a fad and now its worn off and pygmies are most often taken to the sale barns.

[Alice In TX/MO]

All FFA projects are short term, unless you have a REALLY good instructor who wants to build and teach a long term breeding program.

High school is short term. Thank goodness.:banana02:

[deineria]

How sad. Poor little things! They are such great little goats for pets. Here in my location, the Nubians we have the ones hard to sell - no market for them at all, but there is a market of Boers. The pygmy goats I sell get inquires all day long via email.

[animalfarmer]

We slaughter many of them here in the Northeast for roasting goats as Alice has said.
As you know, being a basic meat goat, they bulk up well and produce a good carcass at a young age.
Would it be impossible to suggest to your more grounded FFA members that they raise them with the primary intent of early slaughter for the table? I am sure it may be a difficult sell,but it would be good for all of the groups goat breeders in the future to really know where their animals go,and the quality of the carcases that they produce.

[Cheribelle]

$6 each at the sale barn today.

[mygoat]

I have miniatures of mostly pygmy descent. Their kids make excellent meat animals.

If these kids are raising goats, they should know that 99% of the males of ANY breed they raise are not breeding quality. Since wethers are seen as 'good for nothing', most of them are going to go for meat. One problem I see with people today is that we can't bear to see something die... or that butchering is cruel. In my opinion, a wether raised properly and then butchered is better off than if he went to a pet home, in most cases. Generally, pet homes don't know how to take care of goats properly, or the goat bounces around farm to farm or goes through sale barns.

There may be a small market for pets with the flashier marked or colored ones - though with registered or 'pygmy type' pygmies, that'll be difficult to find as they only come in several colors. I like unregistered pygmies much better because not only are they more proportionally conformed, but they come in any color.