Yesterday, we had a squad car pull into the driveway. Carol, in all her wisdom said something to the effect, “I think he’s here for you. I doubt this guy’s an egg customer.” Then, out of the squad steps someone dressed in camouflage – painted face and everything. He was a local hunter who just happened to buy an old cop car ‘cuz it was cheap’. It turns out that this guy lives only 6 miles east of us.
We were asked if we needed/wanted another goat. My response to him was “not really.” But we would think about it if he was cheap enough. It turns out the goat was being offered to us for free. OK, now we’re interested. This guy and his wife were new goat farmers and had one billy goat too many. It seems that after purchasing a good quality Boer buck for their small herd of Boer nannies, their purebred Alpine buck had to go. Two bucks, in rut, was causing too much damage – they were fighting constantly.
After Carol, Madison and I arrived at the hobby farm where the goat was located, we could smell a powerful stink. As we were brought closer to the small, temporary building where the Alpine was housed, the stink got stronger and stronger… then the door was opened. YIKES! The sickening-sweet smell was nearly overwhelming. This boy was in rut, big time. Maybe that’s why his owners named him Nasty. Needless to say, we were glad we came out to look at him… into the back of the pickup he went.
Once back to the home place, we released our new goat into our buck and ram pen. He will remain here for a couple of weeks. That is when we will begin our breeding season… the bucks and rams will then be released to “play” with the doe goats and ewes. Once in the buck pen, we watched the Alpine, trying to access his qualities. Our conclusion: other than being a little on the thin side, he is a good quality boy. Him, being thin was of little concern, as many billy goats stop eating or eat very little, when in rut. It seems eating takes too much time.
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Our blog is to inform and entertain you as we pursue our goal of starting a small, west-central, MN family farm.
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