Raising Goats

First I want to mention that goats are not cheap. They are cute and fun, but it all comes with a price. The feed is about 7 dollars a bag which isn't too bad if you have grass to feed them. Unfortunately that was not always the case when we had the goats. Also in September of 2005 we got a miniature horse to then go out with the goats. He thought that he was a goat. They all have to eat and be watered. I did pass some of this chore to my children. They also had to be put up at night. This was in the back pasture in a corral. It had to be done rain or shine, tired or not, cold or hot. We did not want them to get eaten by coyotes. We took other measures as well. I have very large white great Pyrenees that was suppose to protect the goats from predators. We moved the goats to the back pasture not to long before we got the horse. It gave them a lot more room to move around. We also took in some female goats from the gentlemen we bought the goats from to impregnate. One of those goats got sick and died before giving birth. We had to cut her open and try to save the babies, but without success. Boer goats are good for meat. Most people who eat them do it when they are young. That is what you sell them for, at this point we still had not made any money, because we still didn't have any live babies. In February of 2006 we had our first live births. They were born Feb 18th at 7:30 am they were sister's.We woke up that morning to the mama yelling and got to witness the first one being born. It was only in the 30's. It was definitely an experience. She then delivered the second one. We watched as she cleaned them off and in the picture is my mom helping one start to nurse. They don't always latch on. Later on we would lose one of these sisters. The belief being that our male got too aggressive. He got to be about 200 pounds and we could no longer control him. We had to take him to auction. We only got 150 for him. The girl goats continued to be escape artists and were constantly over at the neighbors eating her trees. They could somehow get out, but not back in. They would stand outside the gate until one of us would let them back. My husband was transferred and we ended up taking them all to auction. It was an experience I will never forget.