Great Goat Escape - Life's tuition

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So far, our endeavors to raise some goats aren't going quite as planned this year.

It started when I was up at the slaughterhouse picking up the pork from this winter's crop of pigs. I was wandering around the premises looking for Lewis, the head honcho there. I found him in the barn, helping some of the employees move a herd of goats into the chute leading to the slaughterhouse door. I noticed that some of the goats were obviously pregnant. Lewis explained his difficult position of needing goats to satisfy his orders, yet this time of year, many that were sent to him were pregnant, and since he paid by the pound, slaughtering a pregnant doe was not only unfortunate, but unprofitable.

I said, "Lewis, why don't you sell me those that are obviously pregnant, and I'll take them and use them to start my goat herd?" I had been planning to get ten or fifteen goats this year anyway, so this could be a way to spare some goats for the time being, and allow them to have their babies, as well as get my goatherd started and save Lewis money. Everyone's happy. So, Lewis agreed, and helped me cull out five goats that were most obviously pregnant.

Last year we raised two goats for the summer. We bought them as babies at the livestock auction for about $15 apiece, and sold them five months later for nearly $45 apiece. We didn't feed them much, but let them out in a small pasture that had been overgrown with thorn bushes, which they promptly reduced to almost nothing.

I wish I could find a stock that would do so well.

Because of our positive experience with them last year, we decided to try them again this year on a slightly larger scale. I hope to have a larger area fenced off soon, and would like to get maybe ten or fifteen goats this time. I hadn't planned on getting any already, but with the situation at the slaughterhouse, I figured this was worth moving up the schedule.

So, last Tuesday, I came home with five pregnant does. I promptly realized that, as usual, I had gotten in over my head. Fortunately, one of my best friends is a FANTASTIC vet, and loves to help out on the farm. He assured me that goats are pretty good at birthing and raising babies, which was a relief, since there aren't many goat midwives in this area.

Then the fun began.

The morning after we got them home, Mason, my four-year-old son, decided to "liberate" the goats, and let the gate swing open while I was in feeding them. Four of the five promptly disappeared in a matter of seconds.

We live in a very secluded place, which backs up to 6000 acres of state park. The rest of the county that we are in, however, is quite crowded and suburban. I looked for the goats for a couple of hours, and didn't see a trace of them. Finally, I went to work, about an hour late.

That afternoon I resumed my search. Almost immediately I spotted them in a clearing under some power lines that run by our property. This began a chase that ultimately involved my wife, two friends, and myself. We chased them in circles for an hour, finally losing them in the falling darkness. We trudged back home, frustrated and exhausted.

For the rest of the week I rose at dawn and searched for the goats until it was time to go to work, then again in the evening until dark. They have been sighted nearly every day, and eventually we caught one under a neighbor's barn.

Today I called the Gaithersburg humane society, to ask if anyone had reported a stray goat. This is when it started to get funny.

Since you could probably count the farms left in our county on both hands, the county animal control people aren't very used to dealing with farm animals. This became quite evident at the first question that Cathy, the lady at the shelter asked when I reported the goats missing.

"What are their names?" was her first question.

I didn't say anything for a moment, being unprepared for this kind of question. "Uh...they are goats. They don't have names."

"I'm sorry, but it must have a name to be entered in our database."

"Cathy," I repeated, more slowly this time, "It is a GOAT!"

"I'll have to call you back."

Several minutes later, the phone rang. It was Cathy, this time she sounded more excited.

"I found your goat! Her name is Dolly!"

I was befuddled. "How did you find that out, did you ask her?"

"No!" Cathy replied, "we just assigned her that name so we'd have something to put in the database."

"Whatever, so how did you find her?" I asked.

"Someone reported a black goat in their front yard, and we went and picked it up!" It turned out that the goat had only gone about a two miles from our house, to a small subdivision. It must have gotten separated from the other two, who were still missing.

"Great!" I said. "I'll come get it right away!"

Upon arrival, I approached the desk at the animal shelter. "I'm here to collect my goat." I said.

The lady at the desk didn't look up from her terminal. "Name!"

"Chuck Holton"

"No, the pet's name."

"It's not a pet, it's a goat!"

Another employee piped up from across the room. "That's Dolly!" she said.

"You can call her whatever you want," I said, smiling. "But she won't come to it. What's this going to cost, by the way?"

"Probably about thirty dollars." The serious lady at the desk continued, typing at her terminal.

"Did you bring proof of ownership?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Registration papers, or a license."

"Papers? This is a GOAT, a farm animal! I don't have any papers!

"Can you describe the goat?"

"It's black, it has no horns, and it's pregnant."

"Do you know what breed it is?" The lady asked.

"Do you?" I retorted.

"NO, I don't know anything about goats." She answered.

I wondered why she had asked then. "It's a meat goat." I offered.

She looked up at me for the first time. It wasn't a nice look.

"A what?"

So, I launched into the story about how I had saved these goats from the slaughterhouse kill pen, and by the time I had finished, the small group of employees that had assembled had gone from looking at me like I had three heads, to something akin to Oscar Schindler.

Another female employee spoke up. "Come on, I'll show you to your goat."

As we walked down the hallway leading outside, the teenaged employee asked, "Why wasn't Dolly wearing a collar?"

I rubbed my temples. "BECAUSE SHE'S A GOAT!"

"Oh, right." She answered.

She led me outside to a large chain link kennel, where two male employees were chasing Dolly around in circles with a plastic bucket.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked.

"Trying to milk this goat, we think she wants to be milked." They said.

"It doesn't look like it to me," I retorted. "Besides, she doesn't need to be milked, she hasn't had her babies yet!"

"Oh,” They looked disappointed.

Ten minutes later, Dolly and I were headed home in the farm truck. The shelter had waived the fees, and I was two down, and two to go.

Hopefully, the story of the last two missing goats will have a happy ending too. Isn't homesteading fun!

For those of you who are wondering about how and why the slaughterhouse does so many goats, the operation processes about 150 goats a day for the east coast market, mostly Hallal (think Muslim kosher) butcher shops and restaurants. The goats come from all over the country, these were from a large ranch in Texas, and had just shown up the night before. As I began talking to Lewis about them, he began complaining that this time of year, many of the goats that he gets are pregnant, which reduces his profit into the negative column, since he pays by the pound, and is in essence paying for water in a pregnant doe. That is not to mention the unfortunate loss of the unborn kids. This is what created the learning opportunity that I had last week. If I don't get the other two back, I'll have to chalk the loss up to life's tuition, and I may have started a wild goat population in our area, since there really aren't any predators out there to threaten them.

I'll be posting more about the goats in the coming days, asking for advice about how to handle pregnant does.

Does anyone know how long the gestation period is for goats?

-- Chuck (woah@mission4me.com), February 25, 2002

Answers

Oh my goodness! I bet your kids thought all this was great fun, Chuck! The gestation is 5 months, and even though this is my first kidding season, I've been told they almost always deliver within 4-5 days of the day...of course, you have no idea when they were bred.:) Hope all goes well with your kidding, can't imagine trying to "examine" a wild goat, but I'll bet your kids would have another good show to check out! And by the way, I didn't give my 2 bits about your BRAVE taking over of the forum, but I think you were a great choice, and thank you. Cara in Oregon

-- Cara Dailey (daileyd@agalis.net), February 25, 2002.

Welcome to the world of goat ownership! We lost our first three goats last year 3 days after we bought them at a sale barn.. Similar story...searched with a flashlight in the woods, drove up and down the road and got lucky. There was a sign that said "FOUND 3 GOATS" !

-- Darlene in W WA (tomdarsavy@cs.com), February 26, 2002.

Might try keeping something around to feed the goats that they really like (commercial or raised) and can’t find growing in your area, another reason for them to come home at feeding time. Found this online goat information source: Univ. Maryland National Goat Handbook, http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/AgrEnv/ndd/goat/, might be of interest to you.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 26, 2002.

Welcome to the world of GOATS Chuck!! Never a dull moment for as long as You own them. They provide many hours of pleasure and moments of sadness when You loose one for what ever the reason. Had it been a couple of days in the pen and being fed before they were released you would have found them back at the feed bucket at dark.

Kidding time is a great pleasure and educational experence. We are in the middle of ours..7 does and 12 kids so far and 20 more to go. If You run into babys comming out the wrong way ie head turned back or leggs not first email me or call and I may save the vet a trip to You.

God Bless and may You be Blessed with lots of kidds..4 leg type.

-- Charles Steen (xbeeman412@aol.com), February 26, 2002.


And you saved them from the slaughterhouse? That's goatitude for ya.

"No Goats, No Glory!"

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), February 26, 2002.



Teach them what the sound of grain in a coffee can sounds like and you can get them to follow you anywhere!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), February 26, 2002.

I'd use the coffee can grain idea too...works very well. I would also get myself a basic goat book. It will teach you what you need to know about your goats. About 5 months for delivery of the kids but do you know when they were bred ?? Reading up is you best way to learn about your animals. I realize that you are going to resell them probably for meat but they do need you care while you have them in your care. I'd put a better lock on that gate and "remind" your boy not to let them loose. Good Luck !!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), February 26, 2002.

Oh My Chuck, what a tale! You definately tell a good story, I mean you write well. When it comes to goats I would believe anything after raising them for so long. I must say you sure have grit and determination! I also commend your efforts to spare the pregnant does from slaughter. I wonder if thats the same slaughterhouse our meat goat coop back in VA used, oh, BTW, if you are interested in making some decent $ and in the meat goat coop e-mail me privately, I was the former secretary and on the board til we moved.

Ok, now I have a story to share too about escapee goats, make that meat goats. Many yrs ago we started with Nubians, they were our youngest son's 4-H project. When w emoved form western Ny to VA we sold the herd. I was missing the goats after a bit and so we decided that living near DC wasn't our cup of tea, too civalized. So we moved further south to near the NC border. After we got settled we decided to get meat goats since they were not as labor intensive. Now dummy me thinks, they are like the dairy goats, WRONG! Meat goats are not handled every day like dairy goats so that turned out to be a surprise. We had already purchased my beloved Alpine Jackie for a little milk, turned out she was registered and I went insane a few yrs later and now look at me!

anyways, we got some boer goat, actually % and wanted to do a embryo transfer of a full blood using Jackie as the "oven" so to speak. We got 5 more % boers and were ready! Yahoo! But one problem, we didn't realize that they would be the most skiddish goats we would ever own. So we get these lovely does home and unload them very carefull from the truck, afterall, we had almost 1500 dollars in goats. Well, these goats went nuts! They jumped the fence and bolted into the woods, we lived in the woods. YIKKKS!!! So we got the grain buckets and pursued them on foot. This was on a Sunday afternoon. As night approached we worried, so we fired up the 4 wheeler and went crusing and the trucks. up and down the roads and trials we searched, nothing, had some sighting. Our neighbors stopped and helped, still no luck, then they found one, she came and fell for the grain trick. the others were out on the woods. I wa ssick, we for sure lost the goats and money. I was amazed because i never saw goats so timid and flighty, in fact one earned the name, "Flighty Whitey!"

The next day we went to work, a little difficult ot justify calling in for this and I could hear my principal laughing now. So we both trudged off to work sick from not finding them.

I usually got home about 4PM, so I remember my husband saying he wa sgoing to try to get them back by not letting Madame Jackie out, she would blat for sure. i questioned his sanity but figured what did i have to loose, maybe Jackie had her voice to loose. So As I drove down our long driveway and reached the goat pasture i saw the goats, all 4 in the pasture. I figured our son had managed to catch them and penned them up. I wa sso relieved, i called hubby right away, and then ran into the house thanking our son. He looks at me strange, he worked nights and had just woke up. He said he didn't get the goats in. I then figured our neighbors had. i called them to thank them, nope, they hadn't either and she was just fixing to call me.

Now I am completely stumped, so I then realized that just maybe, just maybe, hubby's idea about penning Jackie up and her calling them in worked, guess it did, because there was no other way this could have happened. I was just releived w ehad the goats, didn't loose our investment and were OK. Then we later decided to sell the small herd of meat goats when we started to take a beating in the market, like most other producers in our area. We then sold them and went with the alpines. Now I am udderly insane and have oh dear, last count was around 70 and more on the way.

Take care Chuck and thanks for sharing the adventure. I can really relate to this,

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 26, 2002.


Maybe they ran away to find someone to name them (just kidding you on that!).

Sorry for the frustration. We just got our first goats, two, in October, one supposedly bred (we call her AURORA). She was due in January. Of course, the books I have don't provide enough information. I want TECHNICAL stuff. She still hasn't had babies, I still think she's pregnant, and my kids mock me on all my goat pregnancy reports...."Well, something is really different today!" or "oooh, the is goo coming out everywhere!" "Yeah mom, we've heard it all before."

The woman I got her from had the buck running with the herd from August on, so really has no clue if she got bred or when, though it wouldn't make sense for her NOT to have been bred, as she has been for the last 2 years. I got her October 21, so I figure if she hasn't had her babies by March 26 she isn't pregnant. it is to the point where I have looked at her so many times, checked her out, etc., that EVERYTHING seems normal now....or NOT. So, good luck to you figuring it all out!

-- marcee (thathope@mwt.net), February 27, 2002.


That's hysterical. Working with the Humane Society is a blast, isn't it? They insisted that I needed to put up a tarp for a Arabian horse to get under. WoooWee! Ever seen a frightened horse run through a fence? I have. I told them I would consider it. I didn't do it and he's still fine. They told me that they didn't know anything about big animals. Just little animals. How can you enforce a law without knowing about it? Very funny story. Maybe when life gets boring your son will liberate them again......

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), February 28, 2002.


Chuck, I am impressed with your persistance and good humor through it all. I think you will do very well as moderator for this forum. :)

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

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