Went to an auction...

[mygoat]

Don't worry, shoes were sanitized. And no, I didn't bring anything home. eck.

We went because we're interested in selling our boer meat kids at auction. Sure beats butchering a ton of them for people for less than they sell at auction. Previously, we sold them for 2.00/lb hanging weight.

It'd also be nice to know what the baseline going price is for meats. We have some wethers born first week of March (about 3.5 mon) and we're wondering if we should take them off their dams and to the auction. I've been told the prices is 2.15/lb live for goats.

Is there a preferred age for meat wethers? I think they're about ideal right now. They're not weaned, so they haven't stressed and slowed growth yet. Big, shiny, handsome... Wethered but still horned. One is wild, the other is actually really tame on accident, lol.

And man, do our goats blow the ones we saw there outta the water. There were some pygmy bucks, a lamancha doe who wasn't bad but she was squinting for some reason, some SKINNY diarrhea boers, some blegh boers, and some who-knows-what mutts. None were shiny and healthy like my herd. I'm thinking we'd command top dollar with our meat wethers.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Different kinds of goats (intact, wether, weaned, milk fed) are needed at different times of year. Here's a calendar of ethnic holidays with that info.

Ethnic Holiday Calendar — Dairy and Animal Science — Penn State University

[Goat Servant]

It all depends on what buyers are there that day & what holiday is coming up. We went last week with extra 3 mo olds. All intact. Prices were 80-85 at 63# average.
A friend's pair of year old bucks went for 150 ea.
We did better last year the week before Easter so I would advise waiting for an ethnic holiday.
Like yours, mine were the best looking ones there & were brought out first.
And yes, our shoes had the snot sanitized out of them.


Thanks Alice for the link!

[PrettyPaisley]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Different kinds of goats (intact, wether, weaned, milk fed) are needed at different times of year. Here's a calendar of ethnic holidays with that info.

Ethnic Holiday Calendar — Dairy and Animal Science — Penn State University

This is absolutely fascinating.

[mygoat]

That is a great link! Thanks!

[Ford Zoo]

Some auction houses just have better markets than others too. Google goat market reports in and out of your area. I did that and it looks like when the day comes that we have more than a few to sell, it may be well worth our time to travel 6+ hours to a better market area. I think I found a good link for nation wide market reports thru the Goat Rancher Magazine website.

[mygoat]

We'll be going to the auction in Manchester, MI. Supposedly it's one of the bigger sheep/goat auctions around. We do have large ethnic populations in the area. There were TONS Of sheep, about a dozen goats in one pen that I saw - there may have been more, we didn't wander further because the gates were shut and they were still unloading animals. Didn't want to get in the way.

I plan on calling tomorrow to ask some questions about auctions, what the prices are like for our quality of boers.

I also need to scrapies tag them. I don't mind doing the meat wethers, they won't have time to rip them out, IMO. I figure as I load them on the truck I can tag them.

[Goat Servant]

Yeah the only time ours get scrappies tag is when they are going for meat. The guys at the barn appreciate it cause it's one less thing they have to do.

[akaRach]

Fantastic link, thank you Alice.