Buddy’s sale brings first bucks

By Jennifer Ashawasegai

ALBAN – We have finally made a buck on our hobby farm! It’s still going to take a really long time before we break even.

I sold Buddy to a farmer not that long ago. Buddy was our stud goat, and I felt we didn’t need him any longer since his job here is done. Willow had two beautiful little doelings in the beginning of the summer and I didn’t want Buddy to breed with his off-spring.

Now, there’s more room in the barn and more food to share, and more importantly, at least to Ken and I, there is no more smelly goat. Intact male goats are smelly things, because, to attract the females, they urinate on their beards. Gross right? Not only do they do that, they like to spread their aroma around and enjoy rubbing their heads on people. Although attractive to lady goats, it’s not so charming for us humans!

Originally, I thought it a great idea to purchase a stud goat for the females in the herd, but I hadn’t considered the possibility of inbreeding. It’s also hard not to let nature takes its due course, and I was starting to get nervous as the doeling twins approached four months of age, breeding age for goats.

So I put old Buddy up for sale on Kijiji.

Posting animals for sale on Kijiji is  quite an experience. Let’s just say I had to screen a few people before settling on the right buyer. Also, finding a buyer for Buddy wasn’t easy, because he was kind of homely. Actually, he was downright ugly… and smelly. He wasn’t the kind of goat that people wanted to take home right away because of the scurs (horned material) on his head from not having been dis-budded properly by the farmer I purchased him from.

What Buddy had going for him was that he was very friendly and gentle for an intact male. You’ve heard tales of ornery goats that like to butt people? Well, that’s pretty typical, but Buddy was different.

What I didn’t know when I purchased him was that he was sick. Once I brought him home, I noticed he was rapidly losing weight, and off to the vet we went. Buddy was infested with worms and parasites and needed very aggressive medication and monitoring to get rid of the nasty things. He was indeed a very sickly goat, and received much attention and care due to his illness. The illness worked in our favour because he turned out to be a gentle guy.

It was his gentle nature that endeared him to a cattle farmer who was getting into raising goats for his children. The farmer wanted a male goat for the all-female herd he had just purchased, but he wanted one that was docile so his children would be able to handle it easily enough. Buddy fit the bill perfectly.