Pics of my girls

[mygoat]

Strudel, 75% boer, 25% Munchie doe. Due 1st wk of march, bred AI to 2DOX Amigo... she's big already!


Miss Hop


Crystal


This is what Daisy thinks of turning 13 this coming spring


Silly human. The hay feeder is clearly dual purpose feeder AND couch.


Kessa, due 1st week of march. Also AI'd, to SGCH Cherry Glen Password Gentry +*B. Can't wait for these kids!

[Goat Servant]

Do keep us updated with pics at kidding time; I have a special place in my heart for 2DoxAmigo.

[Northerner]

I Love Crystal, she looks sweet.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I do love goat pics!

Do you get as emotionally attached to meat goats as we get to our milkers?

[mahnah]

love the Daisy pic adorable

[mygoat]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

I do love goat pics!

Do you get as emotionally attached to meat goats as we get to our milkers?

I don't get very emotionally attached to livestock much anymore, on purpose. Even dairies, lol. I do a LOT of butchering of livestock, so right there is a good reason to learn to keep emotionally distant. Sure, I LIKE some goats more than others and I'd be hesitant to sell or butcher some, but I could easily do so if I needed to. Being emotionally attached to something you'd LIKE to make money off of leads to bad judgement on who to keep or how long to keep them, or so I've personally found. Nothing wrong with it for your average goatkeeper, but my goal is in the next few years to replace my lower percentage boers with their higher percentage daughters, keep improving and replacing through AI on both dairy and boers, and moving stock through until my overal quality is higher. I'd like these things to make money for us, if at all possible, and my best way of doing that is to rapidly improve them. That means selling or slaughtering a lot to start out with, as they can be replaced. Same goes for my rabbits that I raise - I keep MOST does around for less than it's producdtive life (either selling or slaughtering them) because I can keep a better daughter.

Do not confuse that with not enjoying/loving goats or spending most of my time at least ruminating (pun intended) about them or their care. I make a point of spending a while just out at the hay feeder and giving pettings where pettings are asked for.

The ones I'm still really attached to are Daisy (my first ever goat), Cadee (the sundgau agouti mini doe, first baby born on my farm, Daisy is her dam) and Boston (caramel pygmy). The mini kids you see in the pics are Cadee's, and are to go to spring slaughter either here or to a sale barn. I also have a big worthless wether and even he I could sell if need be - but I think my dad likes him too much. These girls - Daisy is going to be 11, (not 13, that must've been a brain fart/my poor math skills) Boston is 9, Cadee is going to be 8 - are going to stick around till they die of old age or I put them down for humane reasons. Worthless hay burners that they are, they are my best buds. I've owned Daisy for literally half of my life on this planet. She survived all my newbie goat learning.

Everybody else I could probably sell without shedding a tear, though. I had one boer doe die of brain form listeria, and I cried over her death - more because it was such a horrid death and loss of her kids about a month away from birth than because I was overly attached. I sat and cuddled her as she went.

Most of my boers are friendly. I have 3 who don't like people, but that's about it. There is no reason you can't get as attached to them as you do dairies if you're so inclined. Lot less work, too!

[mygoat]

Goat Servant - I sure will. I have 2 does AI'd to Amigo - Strudel above, and her 88% daughter, Paisley.

[Minelson]

I like Miss Hop!

[ani's ark]

Warning: this post is a big rant.

I like your approach to your meat goats MyGoat! Its a subject I'm passionate about. I was raised in the city, and my mother said recently she thought it was cruel that I petted, enjoyed and named my bucklings when I was going to be butchering them myself later on.

I pointed out that its far better for the goat to have some human affection and lots of handling in their short life (they are living, loving sentient beings just like us) and it also means slaughter is less traumatic for them with a familiar person, which makes the meat more tender. Also, yes I do feel choked up at killing an animal that trusts me, but if you dont feel anything at taking a life, there is something wrong with you - such as detached city folk who see packets of meat as coming from supermarket shelves instead of from an animal - maybe that is wrong, NOT being close to your meat animals. When Nazis loaded Jews in trucks and drove them to extermination camps, it became known as the Holocaust. Yet every day trucks packed full of terrified animals rumble off to grisly slaughter and we say nothing. I call it Holocaust Meat and cant eat it, give me homekill any day.

And she never raised the topic again, probably in case she set me off again!

[Backfourty,MI.]

They are all Pretty Girls but Miss Hop & Daisey look like they've had a few drinks too many this holiday season.

[mygoat]

Originally Posted by ani's ark

I like your approach to your meat goats MyGoat! Its a subject I'm passionate about. I was raised in the city, and my mother said recently she thought it was cruel that I petted, enjoyed and named my bucklings when I was going to be butchering them myself later on.

I don't name or try to tame my butcher stuff. We did have a wether who was unusually tame this year, though - we still sent him to auction. He was a sweetie pie though. He probably was so tame because his mom was a first-timer boer doe and popped out her kids then went right back to eating hay, lol... didn't lick them or anything. Spent a lot of time making sure they nursed and to be extra sure I fed them a few bottles. She still raised them, she just wasn't as good of a mother that I would've liked. If she does it again this year she'll probably be headed to slaughter herself - I already have a 94% daughter out of her, and she's one of the two that's AI'd to 2DOX Amigo, so I'm hoping for another daughter out of her, too.

[CaliannG]

ani, I am a firm believer that my butcher animals get the same amount of love, attention, and warmth from me as my breeders and keeper stock, if not more.

I figure that they are going to be making a bigger sacrifice for me than the others, so they deserve more affection and attention for that.