Green With Envy

We're downsizing our goats; six is too many for our space. We are keeping Gerda and her daughter Senka. 

It's time to get them ready for pasture. You can't just open the gate and let them out. Well, you can, but it could cause health issues. They're not used to the luscious, fresh grass, so their bellies can bloat and they can die from the trapped gas. 

The solution is to let them eat fresh stuff for small amounts of time so their stomachs can adjust. 

The other goats about to be sold were jealous. 

The day before the sale, we loaded Chai, Sage, Brighita, and Mina in one of G's work trucks. We contained them in an upside down metal basket that goes around a water tote. 😂 

Panic hit once we were on the road. The sale was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Would we run into trouble being from Minnesota? I did a little searching. Nope, as long as your goats have scrapie tags. 

Scrapies is a genetic disease that effects sheep and goats. I remember learning about it in my 4H days of showing sheep. It's a bad enough disease the government tracks it. Producers are supposed to register with the government, they give your farm an ID number, and you tag your animals with special ear tags that have the number on them. 

I hadn't realized goats needed scrapie tags. 

So. What to do? 

It'd take too long to register and have tags sent; the sale is the next day. No vet office was open at that time of day. Maybe the sale barn would have some? Or, better yet, maybe Dad has some tags leftover from our sheep days... 

He did. Whew! 

We were able to stream the sale the next day. 7am start time. 

They split our four into two groups, the young two and the old two. The young ones went first. They weighed 75lbs total, roughly 38lbs a piece. Prices are per pound (or hundredweight). I had advertised Chai at $50 and had no takers. He and Mina brought $77 each, which I'm content with. Mina is probably worth more as potential breeding stock, but we didn't have time to sell her individually. And given the poor results we've had selling animals on Craigslist, I didn't think we'd have much interest. That's the same reason I didn't try to sell the mama goats privately. 

The stockmen didn't have the babies out of the ring before they let Sage and Brighita in. Mistake. The kids turned around to rejoin their herd. It took three guys to get everyone sorted out. 😅 The mamas brought $165/head. 

We bought Sage for $150 originally. Brighita was free (born to Svetlana, who we got for free). Granted we have feed costs put into them and the salebarn will take a commission. But still, I was satisfied with that price. 

It's strange how little action is in the goat pen now. Cutting the herd in half will do that though. Next step is to find a billy to borrow or rent.