Homestead Happenings

My first trip to the auction

One of the purposes of this blog is to share our experience as we adjust to our "country life" (10 miles out of the city) after being city folk all of our lives.  That includes the good as well as the bad.  My auction experience does not fit in the good category.

We had 5 goats to sell.  I sold 2 privately and took 3 to the auction.  I was in a bit of a hurry to get rid of them since I had too many on our pasture and they were only eating our pasture and feed and not giving anything back.  Being on 1 acre we only have room for livestock and not pets.

Here are 2 of the goats we sold:

The top one and the one on pictured were Pygmies (one banded male and one buck) and the last one was a Nubian cross buck.

During the auction we saw a lot of goats in bad shape go for $50 or more.  These poor things were scruffy and their hooves were so overgrown that they could not even walk straight.  The udders and teats on some were so mal-formed that they could never be milked.  So imagine my surprise when my well-cared for goats went for about $20 each!  I was not happy.  On top of that the auction house gets $8 per head selling fee.  So I made a total of $38.50 for 3 goats!!! 

Part of the problem could have been that we arrived at the auction only 15 minutes before starting so our goats did not come up until 90 minutes into the auction and some of the buyers already left.  Next time (if there is one)  we will get there at least an hour early.

Since I had decided before hand that I would not buy anything I did not register as a buyer.  There was one goat I would have liked to buy.  She was a white Nubian, already bred, with a good udder and teats.  She went for $90.  Right now I am saving my "goat money" to buy the kids from friend that has a doe who was bred to a huge Boer Buck.  We are hoping she has at least 2 doelings.  My goal is still to have enough good milk does to not have to buy store milk at all.  I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading about our ups and downs as we learn.  Bye!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Too Bad!

{ 10:55, Friday, November 7, 2008 } { Posted by Nicole }

Sorry to hear about your auction not turning out so well. At least it's a stepping stone in the learning process. I'm sure it was neat to do though.

Poor goats, the first one was a doll!

Untitled Comment

{ 09:41, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 } { Posted by mommaofmany }

Well, look not to the profit you expected only, but to the feed you won't have to feed them, and for your pasture to grow back faster. Baby steps in the learning process, right?