Breed and length of goat ownership

Strange Bear · #1 11/13/12, 05:16 PM

I was just wondering how long everyone of this forum have owned goats. (or be owned by goats.)
And what breed they have.

I have had goats for 1 year.
They are crosses between Nubians and Pygmies. (They are only 1st generation)

Goat Servant · #2 11/13/12, 05:38 PM

Do you mean in goat years or human?
For us this time around it's been 7 with Boers & a couple of Boer/Nubs.
Before that it was a few Nubs for a couple years.
Those were the old days when you gave a shot of what was called Combiotic ea year. I dont even remember what it was for.

Sparkie · #3 11/13/12, 06:04 PM

Nubians for 10 or 11 years.

Eunice · #4 11/13/12, 06:36 PM

I learned to milk on five Saanens in 1962, then mom got a Nubian. Then we moved and I got a Toggenberg for a few years. My current goats are Alpines and the oldest one that was purchased at 16 days old is now 11.5 years old. I am hoping to breed old Blackberry next week. She has already had 22 live babies for me ( and none lost).

Dreamgoat Annie · #5 11/13/12, 06:46 PM

I've had a wether or two to keep with my horses forever but multiple goat ownership beginning only 8 years ago with Boer does and a buck, along with three Boer-Nubian wethers and a Sable wether. Then we added Nubians, now we also also have a Spanish goat, an Alpine, and two Lamanchas.

Sue

yarrow · #6 11/13/12, 06:59 PM

Just about to reach our first decade of nubians

susie, mo ozarks

LoneStrChic23 · #7 11/13/12, 07:07 PM

Saved up my own money doing yard work & small chores for people & bought my first dairy bottle kids when I was 8. I was so very proud of those doelings.... I didn't have enough money for the doeling I really wanted.... She was so very pretty & flashy, but when the old gentleman heard that I saved my own money up, he gave me the doeling I had my heart set on, plus her 1/2 sister.... He claimed the extra goat just had to go because she was annoying.... Didn't understand why he did that until I was much older. Will forever be grateful for his generosity...

My doelings were Alpines

Had them growing up, sold shortly before my parents divorce, then got goats on 2 different occasions after my 17th birthday...Every time I've had Alpines, though I tried Nubians for a year, and then I had a mish mashed, mixed herd. Even when I couldn't have goats, my mom almost always had ND's & crosses so I'd go to her house for my goaty fix...

Started back in goats after a 3 year break in 2008 & revamped my education, bought only registered stock that was disease free and have been moving up in quality and learning to cull wisely.

I now have Alpines, a single Nubian, and started with Lamanchas 2 years ago.

Zilli · #8 11/13/12, 07:10 PM

I got my first ones - a mother/daughter pair of Toggenburgs - about 32 years ago.

After a neighbor's dog killed them a couple of years after I got them, along with a buck I had, I sold/gave away the few that had survived the attack and was without goats for eight or ten years or so.

I bought a Nubian doe from a woman, had her bred to a nice buck, and got a beautiful girl out of her. The woman who owned the buck gave me a gorgeous doeling - half sister to my baby - because she was ill and could no longer take care of the goats.

By that time, I had put up with my now ex-husband's non-stop complaining about the goats (he even went so far as to purposely bulldoze my milking stand when he was bulldozing an old building on the property - he said it was an "accident") for as long as I could stand it and I finally capitulated and sold all three of them.

That would have been, I believe, around 1990/91.

So, post divorce, I got a couple of pygmies for pets, then evolved back into the dairies.

That must have been sixteen years or so ago and I have had goats non-stop since then - a mix of pygmies, dairies, and pygmy/dairy crosses. I have one Saanen doe ("Sweet Pea") whose parents I had - and she's fourteen. And I have several old pygmies who were offspring of my original ones.

I had actually not planned on adding anymore goats until more of these currents ones had "passed on" from old age, but a little over two years ago, a really nice first freshener LaMancha more or less fell into my lap, and since then, in addition to the three babies she's given me, I have added a Boer wether (I got him at a week old to bottle raise with the single doeling my L.M. had) and a nice LaMancha doe with half an udder who was headed to the sale. The doe with half an udder is here strictly as a "charity case" and won't be bred.

So, I kind of have a diverse herd as far as breeds go but I am partial to Saanens and have bred my L.M. doe to the same Saanen buck twice. Their eighteen month old daughter will be bred to a registered Saanen - for 3/4 Saanen-1/4 LaMancha baby (babies) - next month.

Also, even though I've had goats off and on since around 1980, the actual total time is around twenty years, with this latest go 'round being the longest and with no end in sight.

MaddieLynn · #9 11/13/12, 07:10 PM

I've had lamanchas since January and boer wethers since June.

dbarjacres · #10 11/13/12, 07:37 PM

About 8 yrs. Had a couple boers and fainters first year and then went to Nigerians and Mini Manchas. Sold out 2 yrs ago for a year and only lasted without for a year. Back up to 7 minis and 4 NDs with plans to retain a few kids.

Donna1982 · #11 11/13/12, 07:39 PM

My mom (wearegoats) was just talking about this a few weeks ago. When we lived in Tennessee we started in Boers and had them for years around 5 years there. Then I moved to oklahoma, she followed about 1 year later. She was here for a short time and went back Kentucky and she's had goats since around (10 years.) I took a break due to lack of farm for about 4 years. We just got into dairy goats (mom, me, and my bf) a little over year and half ago. I honestly do not know who loves these Lamanchas more mom,me or Eric. We also have a Saanen cross and a Boer doe. Just sold our Boer buck we had.

houndlover · #12 11/13/12, 07:44 PM

Owned by goats since 1986 with a couple of nubian crosses, today have a nice show herd of a 8 lamanchas, 2 oberhaslis, 2 crosses of the prior, and a very smelly buck. I've had as many as 40, but this number is just right.

crazy4equines · #13 11/13/12, 07:51 PM

I have had goats for about 15 years. I have had reg.nubians and pygmies. I also have had grade saanan. I now have recorded grades of Alpines, Saanan and 1 lamancha. I am switching out my herd from the recoreded grades to reg. oberhasli's, oh I have one experimental oberhasli too. I have 2 pet wethers also one is a pygmy and the other is a nigerian and he is a little escape artist.

LearningLife · #14 11/13/12, 10:07 PM

We've had our ND's for 2 years. We started with 4 (2 bucks and 2 does, one of them came to us bred.) We now have the same 2 bucks and 2 does, plus 4 of their doe kids which we have kept. This summer, we added a standard doe, a Lamancha. I know that, relatively speaking, we are still newcomers to the goat world, but I don't see the possibility of being without our goats any time in the future.

saanengirl · #15 11/14/12, 09:13 AM

I've had Saanens since 1999 and Guernseys since 2008. I currently own 11 (8 does 3 bucks) Saanens and 3 Guernseys (2 does, 1 buck).

**mygoat** · #16 11/14/12, 09:19 AM

I bought my first 'pygmy' (probably not purebred) in 2001 when I was 11 years old. I'm now 22 and have been raising goats for about 10 years. Dairies (Alpines!) for about 7. Boers for just a couple years, but I think I like them better than dairies - easier. And I can justify keeping them without increasing my work load too much, unlike keeping another dairy doe.

Hollowdweller · #17 11/14/12, 09:34 AM

23 years continuously and never anything but saanens.

Backfourty,MI. · #18 11/14/12, 10:10 AM

This next April will be 7 years for us. Started with a couple Pygmy or Pygmy crosses but just had them a short time before we decided we wanted to raise Nigerians, had them for quite a few years & just switched to mini nubians.
Wanted something a little taller & easier to milk but not as big as standard breeds.
We Love our goats & I can't imagine a goat I wouldn't love no matter what breed it is!

hiddensprings · #19 11/14/12, 10:13 AM

We got our first goats (Boars) in 2005. Got my first Nubian in 2007. Sold all of the Boar goats in 2010 and just keep adding Nubians to my herd. lol Love, love, love my girls

Sherry in Iowa · #20 11/14/12, 10:28 AM

In the fall of '99 we got 2 registered Saanens, Grace and her daughter Louise (Weezie). Lost Grace, still have Weez. We got 2 Nubians that next spring. Bred them to a Boer buck and have had boer crosses every since. Kept back the daughters that we liked. We are on our 3 Boer buck.

Just got 2 Alpine does a month ago. Love em. Our first time with Alpines and they are soon becoming a favorite of mine. Lucille is 6 and Peaches is 2.

I don't think there's ever been a goat of any kind that didn't fit in one way or the other here.