How much to sell my goats for?

[Ingrid]

Hello, my name is Ingrid. I'm going to sell three of my Nigerians but am not sure how much they're worth.

Goat number one is 2 years old. She has pretty color, but rather bad confirmation. Very tiny and petite, have taken her to 2 shows and she never does well. I bred her last fall for the first time and she had two healthy babies, 1 buckling and 1 doeling. Her udder has low attachments and seems rather fleshy to me; and on top of that, very tiny teats. However, her neck and shoulders are clean and have good dairy character...about the only part of her that does. She is registered. I have been milking her every morning (crating babies at night) and she has good manners. Her personality is a little on the aloof side but she still let's me pet her and enjoys it.

Goat number two is her daughter. She is much like her mother (more friendly though). I bred her dam to a large Nigerian buck in hopes the babies would be an improvement sizewise.
I can't tell yet. The daughter is coming on three months no health problems so far. Would like to sell her and the mom together (working on registration papers).

Goat number three is not related to them but a wether of one of my other does. He is healthy and friendly. Likes being scratched and stuff. Not registered...I didn't think wethers needed to be registered as they wouldn't be breeding and having babies. Is that not right?

So I'm kind of at a loss of what they should be sold for. I know wethers go anywhere between $25-$100 bucks. Where I live people tend to sell their goats for more money than necessary, should I do the same? Money isn't my first priority here, but I don't want to be cheated out of it either...any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Ingrid

 

[woodsie]

I have no idea, and prices seem to be quite local. Around here (BC Canada) registered Nigerian does, are trying to be sold for $200-$400...that being said I am not sure how many are being actually sold for those prices as the ads for those ones are always up and presumably not being sold very quickly. I have noticed that the $150 seems to fly "off the shelves" ad the ads are gone as soon as they are up and at that price the confirmation is not so much an issue. I would probably start at $200 or $250 and see if you have any bites...emphasize that she is a milker and has been trained on the stand, which sounds like your best selling point.

I picked up two 2 yr old Nubian (never bred) for $100 each and paid the extra $50/each for registration papers. So two registered does for $300 - but that was in winter when no one is looking for stock. Their confirmation is not great, they were not in awesome shape and they are small for their breed/size....the ad was old and I finally decided to take a chance on them. Turns out one was bred at the previous owners place and we expecting babies any day now and they seemed to have grown here and are now thriving, so it turned out to be a decent deal. Hope my little antecdote helps.

 

[michickenwrangler]

A lot of it is local and a lot depends on the does themselves.

A registered full-size dairy goat in milk usually sells for $150-400. An unregistered one from $75-200.

I don't pay a lot of attention to the ND market, but I imagine a proven, in-milk registered doe would go for similar prices to their full-size counterparts, maybe a little less.

Wethers cannot be registered, but an ND wether would make a good 4-H project for a Cloverbud or child that can't have a full-size goat. See if you can get a hold of the local 4-H and see if someone needs a project or take in another for a pet.

Your best bet would be to go on craigslist or bestfarmbuys and see what similar goats are going for.

Don't assume because an ad has been up since last fall, the goat hasn't sold. A lot of people are just lazy and forget to take ads down.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Markets are local.

I'm in NC and I can say for sure that the market here is similar to Woodsie described in Cananda (not sure about the exchange rate)

A registered ND kid of the quality you describe is going to go for $150-$200. Nicer animals with good pedigrees and a dam with show results, $400-$650 or up.

A doe of so-so quality same price. If you have a buck try to sell her bred with her daughter. Ask $250-$300 for here and $200 for the kid and make a deal to breed?

As a matter of fact, I have a similar package I'd like to sell myself

Around here wethers for $75-$100

 

[Ingrid]

Thank you for all of your replies. I ended up keeping the doeling and her mother. However, I sold my wether for 75$ to a very nice home.

 

[OneFineAcre]

I had commented that I had a similar package.

I sold the dam and daughter as a package. The dam was re-bred. I sold them for $250 each and told the buyer I would let her use a buck to breed the daughter when she was ready.

We made some new friends too. The dam has kidded and the buyers contact us all the time for advice which are glad to give for free.

 

[Ingrid]

Yeah that package is a great idea. With all the girls I'm breeding, I'll definitely have to sell the babies next year, and will take that into consideration. Haha, goats are just so collectible as long as the feed bill is manageable.

I had commented that I had a similar package.

I sold the dam and daughter as a package. The dam was re-bred. I sold them for $250 each and told the buyer I would let her use a buck to breed the daughter when she was ready.

We made some new friends too. The dam has kidded and the buyers contact us all the time for advice which are glad to give for free.