Intro
I started managing my herd of goats 15 years ago in 2006 and it started the usual way. A friend gave me a bottle baby buckling to raise and of course, the buckling needed a friend, and so on and so on until within two years, I had a herd of 10+. My father dabbled in goats and his father dabbled in dairy goats and then they just sort of ended up here. Looking back at it, I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn and grow with my herds. I had some amazing mentors over the years and have met some of the honest to goodness best people but I’ll be real honest with you… the business can be a tough one.
Much like the horse business or ranching and farming of any kind… the highs are the highest you’ll ever feel and the lows are the most heart-wrenching. I don’t know what the statistics are but I would say that across the board the average of new people going into goats and lasting longer than 5 years is really, really, really low. It’s my opinion some of this is because of their own bad decisions. If I’d not already had the experience of the horse business and a supportive family and great mentors I’d be out, actually… I’ve tried to quit several times but it just doesn’t seem to stick for me.
So, my plan is once a week to add a blog post that will hopefully help those who are reading to become educated, to do your research, be smart about your herd and your business, and if I can make you smile a little while doing that then I’ll consider this venture well worth it. I need to point out this is all just from my own experience, trials, failures (and there have been a lot of those), and tears (probably been even more of those!). You can ask 10 different goat people how to do something or what they think and get 15 different answers. I don’t believe that there is an exact right formula and you can always learn something more.
To get on with the first business-related article this week I decided to jump into the deep water feet first and hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. One of the most frequently asked questions I think I’ve ever gotten from new people is: Why does the goat cost so much? How do you determine the value of a goat? When I sat down and started thinking about this answer I realized this is so much more than just an easy, informative article...I think I am going to have to break this down into at least two articles: Determining the Value of a Goat When Purchasing, and Determining the Value of a goat When Selling. Yeah, I already know that there are a lot of similarities in this but somehow I think those need to be neatly organized and separately explained from two different points of view.
Keep in mind throughout this article that a product (in this case, a goat) is only worth what someone will pay. That is a truth that hurts. I would love to sell bucklings from first freshners for $1,000 but are they worth that? No, and not because of a lack of quality but because that is not what most people are going to pay for one. And what one animal might be worth to you, might not be the same amount that the animals is worth to another buyer, or even to the seller. This article is meant to break down how to best determine the value of a goat for you (the buyer). A successful sale of a goat (or any product) is when the seller's determined value is met by a buyer's determined value. So, how does a buyer determine the value? Here's how we start:
Goals, Plans, Budget, and Realistic Expectations
Bet that title already sounds fun, doesn’t it?! Let’s be honest, your first goat probably should not be a free bottle baby buckling that you got from that kooky, goat-loving friend of yours that you decided spur of the moment since it was free that it would be perfect living in the backyard. Like any pet, as a responsible owner, you need to have a plan with definable goals. Are you just wanting a couple of pets? Do you want to raise them and sell them? Are you thinking about buying them for a purpose such as for milk or meat or even their hair? What do you want to do with them? If you can’t answer that question you need to stop and think about it because it will greatly affect your plans and budget.
If you are just wanting a couple for pets, your plans and budget would be much lower than someone who wants to raise registered show animals or someone looking for a high-production animal. That is definitely not to say that you have to have a bottomless wallet to be successful because you don’t. When I started with Nubians, I bought a recorded grade doeling from a clean tested herd from high production lines for a mere $150 and bred her back to an American Nubian Buckling that I’d bought for $125 because he’d broken his leg as a baby and needed time to heal instead of being put in with the larger babies. Their first set of kids took me to a first and second in the Fort Worth Stock Show and later earned me my first Grand Champion.
I’m not saying that it will always be that easy because usually it never is. I happened to have the time to wait and even then it was still truly a blessing. Chances are, you aren’t going to buy something that is a Show Winner and Healthy with Stellar genetics for anything less than a nice little chunk of cash. This is where Realistic Expectations comes in.
As a newcomer, give yourself some credit and be patient. There is nothing that says you have to go to your first show and win everything or take your does to their appraisal and have the highest scores of the day. Remember you are starting and no one ever starts out knowing everything. The people you see there winning and selling their goats for substantial amounts of money… most of them earned that spot of reverence. Be content in knowing that you did everything you could to give yourself the leg up you needed starting but know that you are starting. Leave room to grow and improve. The goat business is a master class in patience.
Cost Vs. Quality: What that really means?
I touched a little on it above, but the price tag you paid for your goat does not denote whether or not you will win a rosette or raise the next National Champion. The price does not denote your success. Let’s repeat that slowly for those in the back: The price of your goat does not denote your success.
Learn to look for quality rather than numbers. Educate yourself. Look at websites (on a side note, this is why websites are so important still yet - if you are a breeder without an informative webpage shame on you). After you look at a few dozen… or a few hundred dozen you’ll start seeing things you like or don’t like. You’ll see similarities in the successful animals. Maybe you will start piecing together what you like the look of? For me, I know it’s silly but I love long elegant necks that tie in really nice to the brisket. Another pet peeve for me is feet, nothing I hate more than a goat with hooves that aren’t sound. These are just examples of what I look for, maybe you like a goat with a super level topline, or maybe you are drawn to a more elegant, refined sort of body type? It doesn’t matter because if you are breeding something that you don’t want or like, you aren’t going to be in this for the long haul and I’d recommend you not even waste your time or money.
Use your money the best way possible, if your budget is small… look at lesser-known herds or consider saving up for the kind of animals you are wanting. Never rush into any purchase. Do not overspend your budget! Too many times over the years have I seen this come back and bite people in the butts. They overspend thinking they had to in order to be competitive, but the truth is… they didn’t know enough, and played with ‘scared money' (Anyone play the stock market and familiar with that term? Well, the livestock market is the same way). Scared money leads to unrealistic expectations and pressure to be successful in an extremely mercurial business.
Chances are that if you have established goals and budgets, researched, and learned to distinguish quality from a price tag you’ll have a pretty good idea of a plan on how to achieve what it is you want. Maybe you’ll start with just two or three pretty good goats and plan to upgrade slowly? Or, perhaps you are going to take a gamble on an older doe but you’ve got a great vet who might help you along the way? I wouldn’t even rule out buying a really, really amazing doe with a known issue such as CAE and knowing you are going to have to take precautions and micro-manage your herd. I’ll probably get some heat from saying that but there have been a lot of famous herds in the history of showing that have started that way. Everyone has to find and establish a working plan for both their goals and their budget. One last time please repeat: The price of your goat does not denote your success.
To Summarize That...
Now that you know that before you even start your journey in purchasing that:
You have a goal.
You have decided upon a budget, and you are not going into this with money you can’t afford to risk (aka scared money).
You have a plan on how you are going to achieve your goals: I suggest an outline of all your goals and then break it down into what you want to accomplish this year and what you want to accomplish in 5 years and so on…
You’ve developed reasonable expectations for this venture. Rome wasn’t built in a day, your goat empire… yeah, that wasn’t built in a day either. Try and think long-term instead of searching for that instant gratification.
And lastly, that you have researched and have an idea of quality. It costs as much to feed a good goat as it does a bad goat (perhaps even a little less after you figure in the issues such as medical bills, etc. that go along with an inferior one). But, you’ve done your research and can recognize what will fit best into your goals and plans.
Now to the hard stuff… It’s time to break down how we determine the value of a goat when purchasing and what factors we look at. I’ll break down in another article exactly what it is that I look for but these are just things we keep in mind and how they affect the value ranking I keep in my head when shopping.
How do we determine the value of an animal?
I need to begin by saying that you can’t put a value on some animals, not emotionally and honestly not in business either. It brings to mind a story about Samuel Riddle… for those of you heathens that don’t keep up with horse racing, he was the man who owned Man o' War. Samuel Riddle was offered a million dollars for Man o' War, which was unheard of amount at that time for a horse and his reply was something along the lines of, “Lots of men have a million dollars, but only one can own Man o' War.” It went a little further when he was given a blank check for the horse and told to just write in how much he wanted for the stallion. Again, he declined saying, “You go to France and bring back the Tomb of Napoleon. You go to India and buy the Taj Mahal. Then I’ll put a price on Man o' War.”
I have heard people laughingly say in the horse world, “Oh, I’m just a poor horse trainer, everything is for sale here.” Sometimes that’s true… and sometimes that is not. Sometimes an animal is just not-for-sale, but this isn’t an article about that. This is about determining what the value of a goat is that you are considering purchasing, and this is how we figure that out.
Price & Location
The internet has made shopping (not just for goats but all things… don’t get me started about Amazon Prime) so much more accessible. If I could there would be so many herds from all over the country that I’d be shipping goats in from, but for me and my goals and plans right now that isn’t feasible and it’s that way for a lot of people starting.
We try to keep our goat shopping in a radius of a day or weekend trip if I am picking the goat up myself, which is my personal preference. A lot of people have had great success with using reliable transports but for me and my hyper-paranoia or just overthinking things, I like to pick the animals up. For every great story I’ve heard, I’ve heard a couple of horror stories that just… give me goosebumps. I’m not opposed to transports or flying goats in, but I am wary.
Would I ever consider doing it? Sure, definitely. If the right animal became available and the price for the quality was still reasonable with the added transportation costs. I wouldn’t hesitate. The secret though is, does the price for that quality offset the transportation costs; or, is the goat priced to the point that with the addition of the transportation costs is? It may be more expensive than what you are getting in quality.
It’s not uncommon for goat flight fees to run somewhere in the ballpark of $350 if you have an international airport nearby. When you add that to the price of your goat look at this scenario:
Goat (several states away): $600.00
Transportation Costs: $350.00
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Total: $950.00
Can you find something closer to home that is equal to or better for that same amount that you’d have been paying for the goat + transportation fees? If you include that transportation cost you could look at a goat that was possibly closer and better quality in the $1,000 range vs. the $600 range. And I’ve found that there is a huge gap in quality between those ranges.
Marketability
This is a touchy one that I believe a lot of people overlook. Just because you are buying from Breeder X, who is fantastic, does not mean that your goat will be marketable to your future buyers. While you want to breed something that appeals to you, please remember you have to keep marketability in mind.
This was a mistake, I made with my Nubians. I started with Recorded Grade… I loved… LOVED the line I had. They milked amazingly. They showed amazingly. They never disappointed me. Until it was pointed out to me that there were a lot of people who wouldn’t be interested in American Nubians because they had Purebred herds. Now, this isn’t an issue of American vs. Purebreds because now we have Nigerians but there are other things with Nigerians such as the ever-popular debate of Quality vs. Color. I’m just saying keep a balance with genetics and marketability with what you like. This will play a big part in how successful you are later on down the road. Because if you are making this into a business, at some point you are going to have to be able to sell your stock and you don’t want to end up with a super amazing herd of goats that have little to no marketability because they aren’t what buyers are looking for.
Health & Genetics & Production
This is one of those factors that is a bit more fickle and something you need to use your discretion on. I’ve seen some really amazing animals that have come out of bad situations that could have been bought for a really good value. Perhaps, Goat A had all of the genetics and ability but wasn’t given the opportunities to bloom that Goat B was. Something as simple as a change in diet or the animal’s management can completely change it so that Goat A is a better goat than Goat B was. At the same time, realize animals like that are an even larger gamble.
I do always want to know about health practices used at the farm. Do they have disease tests? What are the results? What are their protocols for deworming and vaccinating and hoof trimming? And then, what about the individual animal. What known health issues has that animal had? What about known health issues in that line? Rates of growth? Is it a slow maturing line? Do their udders hold up? How do they milk? Don’t be afraid to ask questions and become informed. Your seller shouldn’t blink at answering these questions. I even just recently asked for a video before I put down a deposit on a doe.
On younger stock, I want to know about those first three generations. Those are the ones that really will play a large part in making up that animal. It could just be my imagination but I have seen the sire and the sire’s dam play a more significant role in does and dam’s and dam’s sires play a more important role in bucks. This isn’t the case though if there is a potent animal in the gene pool. You’ll hear terms like ‘They are a producer.’ Well, this is what they are talking about. That animal genetically ‘stamps’ its offspring. And the opposite can be said, sometimes you’ll have an animal that never passes any of its traits along.
Just because an animal doesn’t ‘stamp’ its offspring doesn’t mean it’s worthless in a herd, what I want to see is predictability in production.
An example, one of my very first does was this awful-looking Spanish milk goat cross, and she looked like she probably should be tied to a cart in a third-world country. But, whatever I bred her too took after the sire (except with her coloring). She was bred to 3 different bucks over the years and every single time she produced what she was bred to. I had some of the prettiest Boer babies that were true 50% that could hold their own in the show ring. You’d have never believed they were out of the doe that looked like she belonged tied to a cart.
Conformation & Individual Animal
This is another one to use discretion on and why it is so important to see an animal in person (and if you can see the herd). Is that buck you are looking at really dropped in the pasterns? Or is it because of his hoof trimming? Are the rest of their herd suffering from the same dropped pasterns? Pictures can be pretty deceiving too. The angle you take the picture can make a goat appear longer or shorter. You give their proportions an optical illusion. And then, there is the hair (especially on the Niggies). Look past the hair, put your hands on the animal. What’s under the hair? Are they really that wide or is it fluff?
Does the animal look healthy? Is the animal what you thought? Better or Worse? Mentally you should be running a Pros & Cons list in your head and weighing whether or not all of these things are worth the asking price and meet your needs for your goals and your plan that you’ve formed. Can you fix the problems with an appropriate diet, deworming; or is this going to be too much of a gamble. Be wary of bringing problem animals home without a plan and a quarantine. You can’t just throw that animal into your herd. Personally, even starting… with no other goats in your herd I would still have a small pen away from where you are intending to keep your herd that would be your quarantine pen and quarantine it even if it’s the first animals in your herd. Issues don’t always pop up when you see them in person and they need at least 30 days. Deworm. De-lice. Hoof-Trim. You want to do all of that in quarantine so that when you put them in your future herd pens you aren’t carrying over issues. But that is an article for another day.
Use common sense, for the asking price. Does this animal meet my needs, my plan, and my budget?
Supply & Demand
And lastly, and I think this is a biggie. The greater the supply the smaller the demand and vice versa, the smaller the supply the greater the demand. The goat market much like the stock market has trends. On a month to month but also on a much larger scale too. As of right now, Nigerian Dwarfs are very popular, and the supply is not meeting the demand which drives the prices up. Be both aware and wary in these cases. You have to be prepared to pay a higher price because quality animals could have 5-10 people already interested in them. At the same time, there are people out there who take advantage and do price animals with fad pricing. Don’t fall into that trap…
Fads will come and go and this is why and where quality and staying within your budget will keep you safe. Search the market and know what the prices are going for, keep a mental list (or a post-it…) of what is selling, why you think that animal sold, how long from the first advertisement did you see that animal sell, and how much did that animal sell for. After a little while, you’ll see a pattern of value and can see what comparable animals are selling for, give or take.
You’ll find kid prices drop in the spring and late summer as breeders are clearing out the last of their kid crops. Buck prices increase late summer into early fall as breeders are looking for their next herd sires for the upcoming breeding seasons. And does, look out for them right after kidding season and or in late fall as breeders are making cuts and preparing for the next year.
If you can wait, the right animal will come available when the time is right. I’d rather pass on an animal than purchase one and then in 3 months hate myself for purchasing it. There will always be another goat, remind yourself of that. If it doesn’t fit into your goals, plans, or budget: PASS. If you can, take a couple of days and think about it. If you can’t, make sure that you are 110% happy with your choice. Any questions in your mind… PASS.
In conclusion
It’s much simpler in action than in discussion. Determine value by your goals, plans, budget, and the market. Do your research and become an informed buyer. Be proactive and think about what this investment will do to help or hinder your plans. Look past fad trends. Remember quality always adds to the value. I highly recommend keeping a pros and cons list and figure out what is the most important thing to you and base your budget and the market price of similar animals as a comparison.
I hope this article helped, definitely feel free to drop a comment here or msg us on Facebook. Happy Monday!