# BYH Member Interview - OneFineAcre



## Sumi (Oct 2, 2014)

Greg, known to BYH members as OneFineAcre, has been a member of our community since December 2012. He will most often be found in the Goats section, offering advice and encouragement to fellow goat owners.

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1. Greg, tell us a bit more about yourself, family etc.

Well first let me say, I enjoyed the first three interviews with WildRoseBeef, SheepGirl and BrownSheep. But you went from one extreme to the other. They are college students and I just turned 50 years old in August. They are very bright young ladies, and I’m sure their parents are very proud of them. I enjoy the insight they bring to the forum.

My family consists of myself, my wife Maurine, and our 10 year old daughter Rachel. Besides the goats, Rachel takes dance, is active in church, and is on a swim team in the summers. If you do the math, I was 40 years old when she was born, so she is a little bit spoiled. But, she has a good heart. When she was in second grade she saw a program on TV about a charity called “Soles for Souls” and a kid who collected shoes for people in Haiti. She talked to her teacher about doing it, and the next thing you know we were called to a meeting with her principle. Rachel led a drive at her school and collected 300 pairs of shoes for the charity.






Rachel and I before a father daughter dance. I'm often mistaken for her grandfather, but that's OK 

I grew up on a farm, my grandfather farmed tobacco, corn, soybeans and cotton. He was a “tenant” farmer and 2 of his brothers and one of his sisters all farmed with the same landowner within a mile of each other. All of the children and grandchildren were pooled labor and that’s how they farmed then.

And of course like all farmers he kept chickens and hogs. My grandmother always had milk goats which I learned how to milk at an early age. I think they were Alpines. I joke sometimes that I never knew you could get milk from a carton until I started school. My mother grew up poor. I remember when I was young, my grandfather, his brothers, my uncles and some of us kids would go camp on the Roanoke River in the spring when the herring were spawning and string gill nets in the river. The herring were salted and were a major food staple in the winter months. We all got together and “killed hogs” in the fall.

My wife’s father owned an auto repair business and has raised beef cattle for many years. He is 86 years old and still takes care of around 75 head.

Maurine is the one in the family with the real knowledge of livestock. She received her degree in Animal Science from N.C. State University. She has worked on a dairy, a commercial hog farm, and the Swine Education Unit at N.C. State.

I received my bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC.

I work in the financial division of a large regional bank whose headquarters is here in N.C. I have a team of 4 associates who report to me and we manage about $300 million per year in contracts with technology and professional services vendors. I also serve on our Financial Management Task Group when we acquire other banks. I set up a database of contracts that the bank we are buying has with their vendors and work with our various business units to determine which contracts we need to keep and which contracts we need to terminate at conversion (and the termination fees)

The goats provide a lot of stress relief from my job. I look forward to going home to see them every day.

2. Why and when did you start keeping goats?

Ginger and Minnie are 5 years old now, so that’s how long we’ve had them. We had chickens a year before that. I think one of the reasons I like to do this is because my life now is so different than where I came from, so I like to stay connected to my roots. I was very close to my grandmother and she died way too young when I was in college. She loved her goats and chickens and I remember from a very young age feeding and milking with her. I would actually milk the goats by myself when I was Rachel’s age. Goats and chickens remind me of her.

We moved recently, but we literally where living in a neighborhood. The goats and chickens were my idea. My excuse for the goats was to keep the wooded lot clean. Showing was my wife’s idea. She showed in 4H when she was a kid and she said it would be a good idea for Rachel to show in the youth show at the Fair, but she signed up for the open show too because it was something she wanted to do. I enjoy it also.






Rachel showing Ginger when Rachel was 8 years old

I also wanted Rachel to know where food comes from.

3. Which aspect(s) of goat raising do you enjoy the most?

Let me tell you what I don’t like. I don’t like disbudding, tattooing, and banding. I’m always anxious at kidding time that a doe will have a problem, or that we will not be home and there is a problem.

I enjoy the everyday chores like feeding and watering. It just relaxes me when I come home from work. I enjoy researching the extended family tree of my animals on ADGA’s website, and determining which animals to breed, and then seeing how the combination turns out.

We are very active in the North Carolina Dairy Goat Breeders Association and have made a lot of goat friends. We’ve also made new friends with people who have bought animals from us and I enjoy mentoring them.

I listen very closely to the comments judges make when we show our animals. I learn a lot that way when the animals are at the front of the lineup, or towards the bottom of the lineup. I probably learn more when they are at the bottom of the lineup

4. Which members of your herd, past and present, stand out for you and why? 

We always say that Rosemary is a “character”. She is a hyperactive goat for one thing, and sometimes will just start running around jumping up and down. She also has the loudest most obnoxious voice you have ever heard, and will start every afternoon until she is fed and milked. We also call her Aunt Rosie because she is the only goat we have that will let kids that don't belong to her nurse. I think it started with one of Daisy’s bucklings this year. When Rosie was on the milk stand in the head gate he would jump up and nurse her. I think she finally just gave in. 

Zamia is our most successful in the show ring, and she is just the sweetest goat you’ve ever seen. Cocoa walks like a queen, head up, level and uphill even when she is walking across the yard. It’s almost like she enjoys having people look at her.

Honestly, I love them all.





Rachel and Clara Belle and Clementine

5. What was the funniest thing(s) that happened to you in your years as a goat owner?

At our old place we had a garden in our back yard, with a small fence around it to keep the dogs out and the rabbits out. The goats got in the back yard one time and big Ginger had her feet up on the fence trying to reach the okra and basically took down the whole side of the fence.

There was another incident involving the garden too. It hadn’t been planted very long and everything was 5 or 6 inches tall. They got in the backyard, and in the fence around the garden and completely wiped it out. Nothing but stems sticking up out of the ground.

6. Beside goats, what other animals and birds do you keep?

At this time just a couple of 6 year old Buff Orpingtons. 4 dogs (Mikey, Angel, Emma and Buddy) and 1 cat (Zowie).

7. What animal do you think you would enjoy raising that you haven't tried yet?

We are definitely going to get some more chickens, I want some blue and splash orpingtons. Going to tractor some meat birds too. We are definitely going to get a couple of feeder pigs when I can get a pen built for them. I don't think we will do any breeding, just finish a couple of feeders for meat. Sometimes I think I'd like to try rabbits, but I don't know. I don't think Maurine or Rachel would eat them. 

8. Anything you'd like to add?
I'm not on facebook. Maurine says that BYH is my facebook. *


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## elevan (Oct 8, 2014)

> *I'm not on facebook. Maurine says that BYH is my facebook.*


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## Pearce Pastures (Oct 27, 2014)

I hear ya on the  disbudding, tattooing and such.  It has to be done but it is not fun.


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 28, 2014)

Pearce Pastures said:


> I hear ya on the  disbudding, tattooing and such.  It has to be done but it is not fun.


@Pearce Pastures 
Read your interview too
Seems we like and dislike the same things


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