Goat math...

When we bought our place, we were THINKING about dairy/ fiber goats, and John was not even sure about the 2 does I was begging for, for Spring of 2020. Last August, I found a sweet mother/ daughter pair of Nigoras, but realizing there was NO ONE within 200miles with a buck of the same breed, John (grudgingly) and I agreed to take the incredibly sweet bottle-boy buck, who was the the younger doe's sire. We drove from central MO to central NB, in November, to pick up the little trio. So, my goat math started. When we were getting closer to milking time, and separated out our sweet buck, he became very lonely and needy. The original plan had been to hold onto the first buckling, to be his buddy - but, we lost him. So, in June, we started looking for another sweet Nigora buck, to join our little herd - and picked him up, last week. I'm perfectly content with these 4, but looking forward to breeding time. I started doing the gestation math, to plan it. As I'm trying to decide how far apart I want to shoot for my girls kidding...

John piped up, out of the blue last night, with, "I'm getting goats!" Me: blink, blink. John: "I'm going to get boers." Me: "mmmkay... this is going to be *your* project, then???" John: "Yes. No getting attached. These are freezer goats. I'm going to get a buck and 2 or 3 does." Me: blink, blink. "Ok! When?" John:"I found a breeder, and they will deliver a buck, next week. " Me: BLINK, BLINK, BLINK "Wow! That's... fast." John:"And?" Me:"ohh... nuttin. It's all good." My brain: GOAT MATH IS CONTAGIOUS!!!

Now that is a whole new level of goat math! two herds. does that mean everything gets squared? now instead of getting 4 kids from two does it is now 2 does squared? goat math hahah

I think our lives are going to get exponentially crazier....😉🤣😅

... and tastier!

Question - is it altogether necessary for him to get a Boer buck?  Why not use your Nigora?  You'd get a bit of a trade off in terms of carcass quality, weighed up against not carrying another mouth to feed and keep separate from your buck so they don't fight and try and outdo each other in terms of smell...

This sounds (unsurprisingly) like my husband and chicken math.  He was kicking and screaming before I brought home 4 chicks, begrudgingly built a coop, and complained incessantly.  We lost two (including his favorite) this spring.  I recently bought (with his great encouragement) two new pullets!  I can tell he thinks about letting our oft-broody Buff Orpington hatch out some eggs, and she has been somewhat appeased by getting to mother the 7-week-old pullets.  The question turns on getting meat birds (I think he can't quite handle "no attachment), or building a new coop that's bigger, and how heartbreaking future losses will be.  But he is definitely hooked!

Hester Winterbourne wrote:Question - is it altogether necessary for him to get a Boer buck?  Why not use your Nigora?  You'd get a bit of a trade off in terms of carcass quality, weighed up against not carrying another mouth to feed and keep separate from your buck so they don't fight and try and outdo each other in terms of smell...

The Nigora adult males top out at around 50 - 60lbs, and are bred for milk and wool, so their muscle mass is very low. Male Boers, by comparison, run about 200lbs, and it's mostly meaty muscle. This is what John wants. I'm good with that, and there really isn't an issue, in our case, nor anything to debate. The post was for the humor of the classic near-inevitability of 'goat math'. Very similar to the 'chicken math' Anne mentioned. If I was upset about it, or not wanting to do it, this would have been a very different post, if I'd have posted it, at all.

We went to look at a pair of nubian does, this morning. And... we bought the trio. Apparently, we've completely forgotten how to count.