rachels.haven's Journal

Where is the buck located?

Oregon, so expensive transport is to be expected. I went ahead and booked him a trip for January and put down a deposit. It will not create a hardship for us, but I will probably be selling most if not all the doelings for a year or two to make myself feel better anyway-and like I said, we're at my mental capacity for standard goats anyway (would not mind a few more ND, but then we'd be in the same boat with them too...which I guess would mean we'd be going from herd building to into herd proving, improving, and business mode).

If we're not down to one house by January with all these showings and positive feedback we've been getting idk what's going on. Selling the house will be the ultimate "make me feel better".

The buck's owner mentioned she liked Aramis' breeder's herd (spring of rib, rump width, and strength of bone) and she wanted to see pics of Aramis. She told me to hang onto him another year before evaluating his rump and that he might be able to compliment what I build with Pete and Pepper (new buck) if his rump hip to pin levels out enough. So fine, I'll keep sitting on Aramis (*not literally). She says buying a buckling to grow is a big risk, but he looks still within good/decent range to her. She prefers to buy adult bucks from her local friends who have already grown out and proven and used up theirs. They take the risk and get the buck credentials and then you already know what the buck you're buying does to offspring. That would be sweet. That's not an option for me right now though. Maybe someday. For now this is as close as I can get to that...close, lol. Not.

This buck will do more of what Pete does and will hopefully help us establish enough type that even if Aramis isn't perfect that I can use him with less risk than using him right on Pete's kids right away.

Maybe by the time you have kids on the ground from January’s new buck, you will be a little bit more “known” in your area. He sounds like the perfect buck for your herd plans.

I’m not “known” in the sheep world. I can buy the best genetics, but slap my name on the offspring and I’m a nobody.

A family at church bought 10 registered ewes from out of state, paid to have them shipped, bought a ram, all from “name” breeders. Bought a LGD. They think they are going to make a killing $$$$$. And COLOR makes even MORE money! I foresee a train wreck coming. They called me, I didn’t have 10 registered ewes to sell them. Someone has pumped them full of manure. I’ve tried to offer help, they act like I’m a dummy, so I backed off. I hope the best for them. They also have several breeds of dogs that they sell puppies from. It’s harder to sell puppies now, with the high cost of everything, so now they have registered Katahdin sheep, in addition to the dogs.

I just looked at their FB page. They’ve been expecting lambs for a couple of months now. Their last post was March 13.

I’ll just sit here quietly with no pie in the sky expectations and breed the best to the best. Sell the best of the crop, keep a few and take the rest to auction.

They sound like puppy mill breeders who think they can run a sheep mill now. Big awakening coming.

Baymule said:

I foresee a train wreck coming.

Click to expand...

I've known "breeders" like that. Some make it, some don't. It's all marketing and name dropping and acting like you're all that, hiding issues so you can sell your fake dreams to them. I don't think I could do that. It feels so slimy.

Someday I'd like to be able to sell goat kids easily and for $400 or more. We're on milk test and when I have enough doe kids from the sires I have on the ground we'll get their conformation appraised via linear appraisal and maybe we can prove our worth that way. Regardless, I know livestock is often a money pit...but they make me happy.

Absolutely my sheep are a money pit, but like you said, they make me happy. If I sold out and just cut hay off this place, I’d turn a profit. But nope, I have to have sheep and big dogs to keep predators away. Vet bills, dog food, hay and feed for sheep, I need my head examined.

I'm with you @Baymule

Look at it this way, in a few years we can lease it for hay!

I’m considering planting it in pecan trees. Far off plans……. Son wants to buy a PTO driven well drilling rig and put a couple of ag wells on my place and on his land. I could run irrigation to each tree for these bodacious droughts we have. It wouldn’t make money in my lifetime but it would in his and my daughter’s.

Our cow/calf operation, selling the calves as feeders, has to pay feed costs, and the farm payments. The hay sales pays for the fertilizer and all our haymaking expenses. Of course we don't figure in our time as wages, which we should... but it does go a long way to paying the part-time help that DS gets to come... like evenings or weekends. With the higher return on calves now we are doing some extras.... like all of us that can and store for the future... get some things "ahead", put back, do now while we can manage so that we will have it for the leaner times........IN CASE....
The bottle/nurse calves used to pay for the nurse cow... Luckily I don't have any bottle calves or need calves for a nurse cow because there is no way a $500-$900 baby calf will ever pan out for me. That is why when they don't get bred and calve yearly, they seldom get a second chance now... Cannot justify the cost of $7-800 year to feed a cow and her not produce a calf... even with them being worth $1000-1500 a head when we sell them.... there are a very few that will get the chance to go back and get bred and calve in 18 months instead of the 2 years... very very very few....