You’ve Goat to be Kidding Me! Introducing Goats to Your Herd

Reader Contribution by Corinne Gompf and Heritage Harvest Farm
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Whew! The past month, I have been overwhelmed with back-to-school shopping, the Morrow County Fair, the first day of school, planning my 10-year-old’s birthday party, etc., that I haven’t been able to sit down and write a grocery list, let alone a blog post. Needless to say, I’ve missed it. And now that we’re back into the routine, and the kids are out of my hair for a few hours a day, I’m ready to get back to writing.

Speaking of kids (goat kids, that is), Fletcher did exceptionally well for his first year showing at the fair. He took his two Boer doelings, Mandy and Danae, and both placed in their BBR (bred, born, and raised in MoCo) classes, as well as weight classes. Fletcher even won rate-of-gain champion for Mandy and third in beginner showmanship, and is so proud of his banner, rosettes, and ribbons (Mom’s just a little proud, too!).

The plan was to keep the bigger doe, Mandy, to breed next year, and for Fletcher to sell Danae in a private sale once the fair was over (boy, does he want the money to buy a new Xbox One!). Well, after placing second in both her BBR and weight classes (beating a lot of wethers), a guy who knows a heck of a lot more about goats than we do, approached my husband, Matt, after the show and, let’s just say, “politely encouraged” us to keep both does to breed in 2019.

So, we loaded up the girls and brought them back to the barn. But wait, there’s more! My nephew headed off to college a few weeks ago and made a deal with Matt to keep and breed his two does while he is away. Matt picked them up Saturday. So, we went from the original plan to have just three goats to a herd of six in a week.

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