Goat Gossip

To sell or not to sell, that is the question!?

Let the Battle Royal begin! In this corner at five feet four inches tall and weighing in at XXX pounds, the Sheena from Pasa-get-down-dena, Gwen!!! In this corner a six feet tall and weighing in at XXX pounds, the Mouth that Roared, Fred!!! This will be a Texas Cage Match with the winner deciding which doelings get to stay on at the Rancho as breeding nannettes and which go to the sale!!!

Yes, my wife and I do fight, but not over which dress has to go back to the store or whether to buy her that new car she has been dreaming about. We fight over, of all things, Goats! She wants to cull these goats and I don’t want to. I want to keep these doelings and she wants to put them in the sale. About the only thing we agree on is the fact that we HAVE TO put three Billies for breeding or meat and at least three nannies for meat in the sale. No doubt about it. We also have about 6-10 culls from the spring kids that have got to go! I hope some folks show up wanting meat goats!?

Selecting the nannettes that get to stay on and enter our breeding program is something that Gwen and I will talk, hash, fuss, fight, argue, and all of the other various verbs to vociferously vocalize our feelings to one another about the subject. If it was up to me we would keep all of them. If it was up to Gwen they would all be sold. You might say that it is the only thing that we can agree to really disagree on because we are both passionate about our stance on the subject.

The six to eight nannettes that I am talking about look really good and are a sign that our herd is improving with each generation. It is getting really hard to choose which will be sold and which will be retained for breeding. I guess it is a conundrum that many goat breeders would like to be faced with, but my problem is that I would rather just keep them all and enlarge the herd.

My dear, darling Wife on the other hand, thinks that we have reached the point that we are starting to have too many goats and need to cull heavily. I can see her point, but this is the last batch of doelings that were sired by Anacacho and we will be able breed them to T-Bolt and Prospector without getting into the inbreeding dilemma. Well, we still have 4 weeks to debate the point and come to an agreement that we can both approve of. And the goats can stand there and stare at us like we are crazy!

The Freestone County Goat Breeders Association would like to invite all goat breeders to participate in the Great Goat Gather Open Pen Sale. The sale will be held at the Ike Carden Show Arena at the Fairgrounds in Fairfield, Texas on Saturday, September 26th from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m.

This will be an open pen sale for everyone to participate in no matter if you are from Buffalo or Brownsville! Come and buy, sell, or trade to your hearts content. There will be a special meat goat pen to sell your healthy meat goats for an average market price.

Pens can be rented for $10 each. There will be a limit of 5 goats or one Buck per pen. The meat goat pen will be $2 per meat goat. Meat goats will be numbered and will be weighed upon sale and sold for an average market price to be determined.

This will be a private treaty sale with prices agreed upon by the buyer and seller. The average market price for meat goats will be agreed to by the seller on the day of the sale unless the price is renegotiated by the buyer and seller. The FCGBA and its members will provide the facilities and livestock scales for the sale but will not be held responsible or liable for the condition or sale of any animal sold.

Our members hope you all come out and find the Breeding Buck, Doe, Show Wether, or Dinner that you are looking for! For information or to reserve some pens call Fred VanderMartin at 903-388-8528 or e-mail clwyer@ gmail.com or call Gary Tugwell at 903-390-7780 or e-mail ggtugwell2@windstream. net. We ask that sellers call ahead or e-mail with some numbers so that we can get a number of pens for the sellers built.

Concessions will be provided by the Dew 4-H. We hope to see you there!

Thank you for your support in our efforts to assist in the education of our Young Adults. The Freestone County Goat Breeders Association is selling Christmas Wreaths for our scholarship fund raiser. These are beautiful wreaths and we hope that you find them attractive also and help us in helping some hardworking youngsters to realize their dream of a college education. The price is $35 per wreath and can be shipped directly to your friends or loved ones. The order form for the wreaths can be found on our web site at www.freestonecountygoats. org. Mail your order form with payment to: FCGBA, P.O. Box 1553, Fairfield, Texas, 75840. Orders must be received by October 13th. If you have any questions or need assistance in regards to our fund raiser you can give Fred Vander- Martin a call at 903-388-8528 or e-mail clwyer@gmail.com or Gary Tugwell at 903-390- 7780 or e-mail ggtugwell2@ windstream.net

The ETGRA will have its General Membership Meeting and educational program on October 17th. It will be held at SFA Goat Research Center, highway 259 north of Nacogdoches and begin at 10am. Topic of the program is buck selection and care, advanced reproduction and introduction to Artificial Insemination. Speakers include Dr. Erin Brown of SFA, Dr. Nuti of Prairie View A & M and Scott Horner also from Prairie View A & M.

The ETGRA is having a raffle for a portable hayrack. Tickets are $5 each or 6 for $25. The hayrack was made by Greg Ashabranner and consists of three pieces. It can be assembled by one person in about five minutes and holds one square bale of hay. The hayrack is easy to move from pasture to pasture as you rotate your herd. The winning ticket will be drawn at the January, 2010 general membership meeting. Tickets will be sold at all association events. Tickets may also be purchased by mail, please include your name, address, contact phone number. Make checks payable to ETGRA and mail to P O Box 152937; Lufkin, TX 75915. For more information about the meeting or raffle go to www.etgra. com.

The NETGRA will be holding their general membership meeting Saturday, Sept. 19th - 10:00am at the Hunt County Fairgrounds. They will be holding a Showmanship Clinic and will also be inspecting and taking pictures of animals consigned to the Nov. Catalogue Sale beginning at 9am.

NETGRA's Fall Celebration October 10th - Jackpot Show (Goats, Heifers, and Lambs) Hunt County Fairgrounds - See special events page at www.netgra.com for more info.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope and pray that you all get the all of the rain that you need or care for. IF you have any goat gossip then phone 903-388-8528 or e-mail clwyer@gmail.com. Bye, for now.