06/01/2026
With a heavy heart, I banded all the bucklings last night which means they will only be available as wethers. Nigerians will be available:
1️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ each until 8 weeks old, will slightly increase with each additional week they stay to cover my costs.
Beyond 12 weeks old, they will most likely no longer be available and will stay here to serve other self-sufficiency purposes 🤎💛
The reasoning behind was I didn’t have a pen ready to keep them until 8 weeks of age and with Artemis’s boy trying to extend already, I knew I had to make the decision quickly. It didn’t seem like a project I wanted to drag my farm help into on his only free afternoon after working for pretty much 72 hours straight with 6 hours of sleep total. I really liked the nigerian dwarf bucklings, especially Artemis’s. I mourn in my own quiet way because they were the first “nicer” nigerians I produced. I cried banding them and I still feel heavy thinking about it. But you gotta do what you gotta do.
The local market is tough, people don’t even want to spend $350-400 on a well-bred doeling. I’ve seen some nice does in milk hanging in the market for a while so I knew my goats had a slim chance of moving. Advertising and going back and forth with potential customers is my biggest headache. There has been some lovely solid people who asked whatever questions they needed answers to and promptly replied with “I’m interested, how can I place a deposit,” but the majority is unfortunately people who don’t read ads and look for the cheapest animals possible. I get it, the economy is tough but these animals are expensive to raise.
I was ready to reduce my prices further significantly, especially for the bucklings because I knew someone out there could possibly use them. But honestly, I’m exhausted with the workload, the stress of it all and the “waiting in hopes of” doesn’t help. I realized this is the time - I gotta pick my battles 🤷🏼♀️ The mini nubian bucklings are already in the 27-33 lb range, the nigerians I castrated are 19-22 lb at just 6-6.5 weeks old. They should easily be ready for harvest in the fall 🍂🍁
At the same time, it was my first time banding on my own. Even though it brought me down, I try to look at what actually matters - I’m learning something new about the market, my goats, and I know better how I want to proceed with my herd going forward. I might sell some does once I get a better picture of their production. Some does might not be bred for 2026 or might not be bred right away. All breedings will be spaced out a bit more. For 2027, I will have a pen ready adjacent to the current buck pen with a calf hutch for any meat grow outs/boys that need to be separated.
The goal is to scale down and do it for myself. I’m not really interested in making this a business, I’m not looking to become a dairy that provides the area with fresh milk either. Above everything else, I want to breed best animals for myself and to provide my family with the liquid gold 🥛🐐 Trying to do more than that is just not worth it to me 💛
Enjoy the pictures of the two nigerian dwarves I de-balled yesterday 🥎⚾️⚽️🏀 They are already doing great today.
