Thoughts we entertain when funds are limited :-)

[sheep tamer]

Although I've always believed a free goat was
basically gonna be trouble, I'm considering a
nubian buck that is ours if we want him due to
the owners not really having time for goats. We
are hardpressed for stud fees and buying a good
buck is out of the question. So, for a few
months until our two does are bred, he'll
probably have a home here.

Problem #1: He has horns. Do any of you
dairy goat keepers have horned bucks?

Problem #2: He jumps 4' fences and visits
the neighbors. I think we can deal with it
if he has a stout, tall pen.

Another question: Not having seen him yet,
I've only been told he's really *cute* and is
sort of strawberry blonde. Anyone have
blonde Nubians?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts.

[lgslgs]

Eugene, the sire of our first two does was a strawberry blond Nubian. Handsome boy!

Sandy, his daughter has the same coloring. Her sister Cocoa got her mother's cocoa coloring.

Lynda

[Loisp]

Although I don't have dairy goats, I like goats with horns. It gives you something to grab when you need to hold them.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

If you are only going to keep him until the does are bred, forget about fixing a pen. Put a nylon web 1 inch collar on him, take a double end snap and attach it to a length of chain, than attach the chain to a weight. The size of the buck depends upon the heft of the weight. You want his head to go no higher than shoulder high.

I really wanted to use a LaMancha buck here several years ago, that lived in the town over. He was a horrible beast, had a horrible reputation for destroying pens and barn walls, but threw the most lovely uddered daughters.....alot of his problems came from him living his whole life in a very small pen alone, because he would crawl, jump or slam his way through anything else he was kept in. Initially I was going to keep him the month in my 4 horse trailer, than I got a really good deal on 4 feeder pigs and wanted to raise them in it for the fall...so I had him conneted to this nylon collar/chain/cinder block deal. It worked wonderful! He could drag it around to do whatever he wanted, but he could not lift it off the ground and they have to be able to lift their head to jump. I was very happy for him to go home, but he did his job and we got lovely daughters out of him!

You gotta do at times what you gotta do. Vicki

[sheep tamer]

Thanks all... wasn't sure if I'd bitten off more
than I could chew with this guy... and it's
still not a done deal, we just have first dibs
'cause we don't plan to eat him.

So, Vicki, the idea of using the weight sounds
like a plan... but I do want to contain him.
Should work if we also had him in a pen, is
that what you meant? I just can't give him
free roam of the place and trust the weight
to keep him home.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Yep in a pen I just put up cattle panels in the shade, on the fence line of a pen with the LaMancha's in it. He was satisfied to lay in the shade with the does on the other side of the fence, and was happier when I let him breed them one at a time. He did test the cinderblock, and he did get it tangled around a tree once, but I watched him really closely. It wouldn't be a long term solution, jumpers are jumpers for life. Why my kids are started in a cattle panel pen, they don't learn to jump. Vicki

[farmmaid]

The weight idea works great. We had a heifer once that would jump the fence. Put a collar with a weight that she dragged on her and she was still out on pasture with the others but never jumped again...Joan