Buck services

[ksalvagno]

Do any of you lease your bucks out or offer individual buck services? If you do, what do you charge? Are there any guarantees with the breeding? How hard is it to catch the doe's cycle on the right moment if you have to take your doe over to the buck farm for a drive by breeding (especially for a newbie)?

The reason I'm asking is because the breeder that I bought 2 does from which are staying there to be bred in November is offering me 2 bucks for $150. One is from excellent bloodlines and I'm not sure about the other one. I'm new and only recognize the big names. The other one has blue eyes. They aren't quite as flashy as I would like but come from very flashy bucks (I'm waiting to hear back on who their dams are). I realize that isn't the only thing you are looking for. I'm certainly more interested in conformation and milking ability (their dams, not them ) but also know that flash sells as well or better than good bloodlines.

If I decide to pursue this, I would go out and look at the bucks before deciding anything. I will also probably take my friend who was in dairy goats for years for her to look at their conformation and everything. She doesn't know Nigerians per say but certainly knows good goat conformation in general.

 

[lilhill]

I don't lease my bucks nor breed outside does. Just too much of a liability, including bringing diseases into my herd. Some folks out there do, but someone told me a few days ago that it's almost impossible finding a Nigerian buck to breed her girls anymore.

 

[trestlecreek]

I have dodged stud service like the plaque!! My boys are just for my girls.
To me, it is WAY more trouble than what it is worth. Too many issues. In my opinion, you are better off to sell your bucklings,.....

I do have a service agreement I made for a fellow breeder if your interested at looking at it. It may give you an idea of what "could" come up as a result of offering....

 

[ksalvagno]

I think I may have not been very clear in my original post. I'm trying to decide if I should try to find clean farms who offer buck services or bite the bullet and get the bucks and not have to look around.

I'm in a big dilemma because I was hoping to put off getting any bucks but when thinking about it more and more, I worry that I won't be able to find clean farms who are willing to breed outside does. Not to mention that taking them off the farm and taking a doe to another farm is opening up a possibility of coming home with something. Also I don't know how hard it is to tell when a doe is ready and then getting her over to a farm on the right day for breeding. I don't want to have to make a bunch of trips to try and get a doe pregnant.

On the flip side, if I have bucks, then I have to find space for them. I know I won't have the heart to buy them and then sell them as soon as I don't need them anymore. I would want to keep them for a while. I know at some point they will have to move on to another farm but I just can't buy a buck and keep him for a couple months and then sell him.

What is really prompting this is that I'm being offered a very good deal. I know you just don't jump at a good deal and I will really look at these males and not buy junk but then again I don't have a money tree to go out and buy the most expensive stuff all the time. Plus I won't have to worry about who to breed my girls to next year. Sooo, I'm really trying to figure it all out and make the right decision.

 

[freemotion]

I have the same dilemma here. I put an ad on craigslist....twice....and asked around a lot. I find that most clean farms don't take outside does. The ones that do, do "driveway breeding" and I have to supply a vet certificate of health (from any time in the past few months....seems silly to me, I could have a healthy doe three months ago who could be diseased today, but as long as I have that piece of paper that cost me a couple hundred dollars, I'm good to go ) and since I only have a car, I have to pay someone to haul the doe to them. By the time I pay the stud fee, too, I could've bought a couple of bucks and kept them for the year....decent ones, too.

My current plan, since I have no interest in purebreds or showing, is to buy a buckling, breed my does, and then sell him. Then do the same thing next year. Only time will tell if this is a good plan for me! I can get a nice purebred dairy buckling from a clean farm for $100, whose dam was a champion in milk production. If I give him away for free after breeding only one doe, I am in better shape financially than if I paid for a breeding. If I breed 2-3 does, well, do the math! I did! This is a way for someone just starting out to get their does lactating on a budget.

Also, next year, I could keep bucklings to breed to the opposite does (not to their mothers, obviously!) if I get bucklings, then sell them. This will be tougher, since I will have raised the bucklings myself. I'm thinking I won't do this.....it will hurt too much to sell them later rather than sooner....but I could if I had to.

Just another option for you!

 

[trestlecreek]

Oh, okay, I see now.
Well, if you can find someone to do stud service, then you could do it. It can be hard to tell if a doe is in true heat without a buck being around. You may have difficulties getting your does bred that way. Most people that offer stud service state that it is your responsibility to know your does cycle and they will only offer a so many breedings regardless. Some people use hormones to sync their does for the service...
Or you could buy one and then sell him later on.....

 

[Mini-M Ranch]

I just got my does this weekend and at least one of them needs to be bred this fall. I have a pretty close neighbor, and as a courtesy to good neighbors, I will not have a smelly buck on my property. When we can afford more land, we want to cycle bucks between the girls.

Until then, I am not sure what to do either. I don't want my girl Sophia to miss breeding this fall (she is my avatar), she is so beautiful and has such a calm, sweet disposition, I can't wait to see what kids she might produce. Plus, I am hoping to milk her in the spring.

 

[freemotion]

I am fortunate to be in an area with snowy winters, so my buck will be stinky when people don't go outside....hopefully! Not much else good about the cold and snowy winters!

 

[cmjust0]

To me -- and this is just my personal opinion -- anybody offering a stud service is lax on their biosecurity, because they're introducing their buck to other peoples' herds when they introduce it to any given doe out of any given herd. Therefore, if you introduce your doe to their buck, you're also introducing her to other peoples' herds.. And when you take her back home, you're introducing your entire herd to other peoples' herds.

I personally don't see it as being much different than running a doe through a salebarn.. Would I run one of my does through a salebarn -- even if she were in and out in half a day -- and bring her straight back home and turn her out with my herd? Not a chance....but, again, that's just my personal view.

If it were me and I didn't actually have room to keep a buck long-term, I'd buy the buck, quarantine him, use him if he seemed healthy coming out of quarantine, and then I'd send him right on down the road to someone else.

You're gonna have to find the heart to do that at some point anyway, unless you get your pairing just right the first time and plan to sell every kid from every crop, every year..

 

[freemotion]

Thanks, cmjust0, you often validate me, and you have, yet again. Support needed and appreciated!

ETA: Reading about some other goat owner's health crises validates the closed herd position, too. I will get a buck in October for a month's quaranteen, breed in late Nov-Dec, then sell him. There. Decision made. Now....which breed????