The Replacements

We went to Centerton Livestock Auction on Saturday night in hopes of getting some chickens to replace the ones that disappeared while we were on vacation and to see if we could find any other animals we could not pass up. Unfortunately, for some reason chickens go for a lot there so I had to pay an arm and a leg to get a few. But we needed some to have some eggs so I bought 4. They are good looking chickens and we have already been getting eggs. We also have ordered some baby chicks and they should be here in June sometime.



Overall, it was a slow day at the auction. There were not nearly as many animals as there usually is. The prices of goats were down as well which is fine with me because I was not selling, I was buying. So I bought two goats. They look to be twins and about 1-2 years old and are mixed breed but they probably have some sort of dairy goat in them (maybe Saanen), but they might also have kiko in them, who knows. If they do turn out to be good milk producers that would be fine with us because Margo and I have been talking about trying to do goat cheese, lotion, and soap.

Here they are.


I also hoped to find a billy to buy to breed with my goats this fall but was unable to find one there to buy. However, one of my good friends, Travis, had told me his brother had bought some billy goats from a guy he worked with for a pretty good price so on Sunday after church Margo and I went to look at them and ended up buying a billy. He is a full blood Nubian which is kind of a dual purpose breed but used more for dairy purposes. He is still small but should be big enough to breed this fall. He is super cute and really friendly. Part of the reason I decided to get him and not a meat goat billy is I would like to get some dairy in my goats and this will make them have better milk and raise better kids. The nubians are also a bigger sized goat which will increase the size of my herd if I keep any kids out of him.

Isn't he cute, he is about 3 months old.


I also wanted to take some time to talk about our goats. I have lots of people ask what kind of goats we have and why we have them and stuff like that so I thought I would give a brief overview of why we have goats and why we have the ones we do. Goats are my favorite animal and they are one of Margo's specialties that she deals with at work. We have them because we like them and they do a good job of eating weeds and brush including stuff like briars and poison ivy. As for what kind of goats we have, we don't have any particular breed or kind. We have mixed breed goats and mostly meat goats. Boer goats are the popular meat goat with most people right now but they can have lots of problems and there are lots of bad blood lines so we are trying to stay away from them if we can. People don't cull them out like they should and that creates problems. We are trying to raise goats that are good mothers, have multiple babies and take care of them, are parasite resistant, and are good brush controllers, and don't need much care from us. We think a good way to get all of these qualities is to have mixed breed goats and only keep ones that meet our standards. Over time, I hope to have some of the most hardy and best goats you will find. But, they will not be one particular breed and therefore will not be high priced goats but I don't have them to just try to make a bunch of money. If I was to start doing a certain breed at some point I would probably do Kiko or Spanish goats because they have a lot of the qualities I am looking for as well. I hope this helps explain a little as to why we have goats, we really like them, they are fun animals to have.