I'm planning on getting
dairy goats, three to start. I really do not want to have a Billygoat. As the son of a shepherding family I have a lot of
experience with Rams, including a big scar on my side from being punctured by one of their horns, I don't have nearly as much experience with Billygoats as I do with Rams but everything that I've read tells me that they're just as aggressive, moreso when accounting for the fact that goats are more wily in general and that their rutting behavior is a bit more extreme. In addition, my
land is not big (2.67 acres, covered in prickly pear cacti, yucca, sagebrush, agave and sparse coniferous
trees) and it'd be nearly impossible for me to keep him separate from the does when I don't need to breed him, especially at night.
I'm thinking that the easiest alternative to keeping a buck is to purchase sperm from the internet and artificially inseminate them. That way I don't have to bother with finding another farmer with a suitable buck (not many goats around here, mostly sheep and
cattle, and the one goat farm that I do know of only has big Boer and Nubian goats, and I think that would be dangerous for small Nigerian dwarf does) and paying stud fees. It'll just be me, so it would have to be something that I would do on my own, have any of you done it? Any tips or experience? I've seen my parents' horse get artificially inseminated when they wanted a mule and she wouldn't let the donkey cover her, she had to be sedated and the vet was basically shoulder deep in her, what's it like with goats?
