Goat Buyers and Major Frustrations!!

[ThornyRidge]

Just wanted to vent on here about people buying goats.This has been a rough year for me. I had two Nigies kid with beautiful triplets ( yeah each had triplets :bun) for a total of 3 doelings and 3 bucklings. The one doe decided this year to not throw much colorings and markings and all of her kids came out as a white doe, a white with light tan markings blue eyes and polled doe and a white with darker tan/butterscotch markings polled buck. Now these kids are beautiful and are correct in all areas. The other doe kidded with three wildly marked kids in all arrays of colorings including browns, blacks, grey, white, moon spots, etc. What has amazed me is that I have advertised kids for sale locally, on the internet and in a major farming newspaper (Farm and Dairy). My animals come from good milk and champion lines and are very healthy. I keep a closed herd and have not had one issue with any disease major or minor !! I have driven all over the state of Ohio to purchase some of my goats and paid what I felt was very reasonable amounts (upwards of $400). Now the most I am asking is $250! and what amazes me is that the few calls I have had where I get to talk to the people they want me to give my goats away.. That is not going to happen. It seems to some people $75 is even too much for a wether!! I really don't understand people like that. If I could go back I would suggest to them going to the livestock auctions where you can pick up a goat cheaply and probably also bring home some major health issues! Anyway the other people that frustrate me are the ones then that call and ask all sorts of questions.. ask for a million pictures to be sent- which are and then you get absolutely NO response back! It just baffles me with people. Well I love my babies and will keep them no matter what. I was just hoping to sell off due to space and increased feed costs ( I use kid money for hay for the next year) and since people seem truly ignorant to goats I will have to get a second job haha! Well thanks for letting me vent on here about my frustrations.. here is where I am at with this ---->

 

[Farmer Kitty]

It's that way with all animals. Yes, there are cheap priced ones out there but, if you want quality you need to pay more for it. Hang on to those little ones. Someone will come along who really understands the difference and will be willing to pay you your asking price.

 

[()relics]

I sold this little guy last Monday . I had kept him intact because he was exceptional body type and color I registered him and raised him with our other show goats...But recently bought a new full blood billy so he was left as "the odd man out"...I had advertised him and had many lookers...which doesn't bother me...but finally sold himto some people who had some 4H goats but wanted a better type of kid to show as wethers....but only had $50 to spend..so I sold him as an unregistered/unregisterable buckling His father is a fullblood abga billy and his mother is a percentage abga doe...I guess I just wanted to help someone out....Their kids were playing with it in the pen....I don't think they know what they got...but next spring they will see a different type of kid than they had been seeing...I keep the paperwork they take the goat...Better than selling the goat and the paper for nothing...$50 wouldn't buy one of my wethers...Whatever...

abga 94%or less buckling born 2/13/9

 

[PattiXmas]

This is only our second year with goats. Last year, we didn't have to exchange cash for our wethers - the kids did a ton of work at our friend's farm. They were out there just about every weekend, cleaning and helping with the kidding and all the other farm chores. After fair, my friend did take all the wethers back to her farm and she kept the meat or sold them for the meat.

This year, my daughter wanted to do Nubians. We purchased 2 registered Nubian does ($175 each - which seemed reasonable to me) and 1 wether ($25, but I think because we bought the doe kids, she cut us a deal). My son went back to our friend's farm for her boer kids. We paid $100 for each kid (he got 2) and again, I believe that was reasonable, as she has some extremely nice goats, and he took Reserve Grand last year with one of her kids and the Grand Champion was also one of kids.

I believe you get what you pay for, and the people that try to get you to come down on your price will always be unhappy. Keep your prices where you feel comfortable. I've seen the "cheap" kids, usually they don't have the vaccines, they aren't handled and they aren't as healthy. I know what my friend feeds her goats, the care that is given and the fact if we have any health questions or any other advise, she gives us that and more. Let the "cheap" people buy their cheap goats elsewhere, they are going to get what they pay for. There are people like me out there that doesn't mind paying more because of the extra mile good breeders go!

 

[Carolina Chicken Man]

Thornyridge,
You're prices are reasonable.
I just bought my Nigis and I a paid comparable amount to what you are asking.
I paid $200 ea for the registered doelings, and $75 for the un-registered. The breeder I got them from sold wethers for $50. She had a couple of bucklings that whe would sell as registered bucks that she wanted $350 for.

I'm not sure where you are at, but I bought these in Raleigh NC.

I saw a website for a farm in Georgia that wanted $400 for doelings.

 

[miron28]

i paid 200.00 for this one

i got this one for free

 

[haviris]

I think it's just the way it goes some years, I actually did really well this year and my prices are comparable to yours, except I sell my wethers for $50. By the time my last kids were born I already had them all sold. I actually ran out of wethers, who are generally alittle harder to sell, but I had a doe year! If you were closer I'd send people your way, I'm still getting fairly regular inquiries.

I do sometimes get frustrated, mostly when I think I've got someone truely interested that suddenly disappears on me, but mostly when people feel they can do better, I just wish them good luck and send them on their way! Really the only time I have people balk at my prices is when it's someone who just sees me out w/ one and asks questions, they think they may be interested until they hear the price! But that's generally not someone that knows what they are looking at, it's just a random person who sees a cute goat!

Now this was a good year for me! Next year may not be. Last year I had two wethers I held onto alittle longer then I would have liked, one ended up going to a girl as a 4H goat (and they came back this year for more, but caught me alittle late, so next year I may fix them up w/ a few more), and the other went to a little boy who'd recently lost his goat. Wethers are best sold young, people looking for pets generally prefer babies, but I don't mind holding onto doe kids.

So hang in there, I don't think your prices sound unreasonable at all, stick to your guns and I'm sure you will find buyers!

 

[bheila]

Thorny-Your prices are right where they need to be. I ran into a breeders website up north of me who was selling does for $500-$600, whereas everyone else around us are in your price range. I figure her goats must poop gold berries

It's frustrating to me that I always see you guys putting your goats up for sale and they're just what I want but too far away

 

[PattiXmas]

These are our wethers we paid $100 each for. To me, they were worth the price.
My friend that sold us the wether would either keep her prices where they are at
or eat the kids herself.

Sammy the Sammich -

Fat Tony -

Our $25 dairy wether - Grumpy Burger-

Our $175 doe kids - Registered (if we wanted them un-registered, they would have been $125) - Snowy (with the white frosted ears) and Daisy Mae

 

[sillystunt]

your prices are what people in Florida list them for. most people are not buying them to show or even care about markings and such. They just want a cheap goat. Times are tuff and people just don't have the money, myself included! I would have LOVED to get a registered goat but had to settle for a mamma and wether nigerian dwarf for both $80. It was the only way we could aford them. The people needed to rehome so i got lucky!

Good luck cause they sound like beautiful goats!!!