Goat Gossip

Before Gwen and I moved to the Promised Land and started our lives as goat ranchers in the land of Milk and Honey we lived in Galveston. Now Galveston is a fine little city if you like everything little. Little houses on little lots. So close together that you can hear your neighbor snore! There’s not a lot to do in Galveston except go to the beach and fish if you care to but both get old after a while. We used to watch TV a lot and we really liked the scifi dramas like the various Star Trek series and other space ship programs that came and went. I really liked Star Trek: The Next Generation with good old Captain Picard and Data. They would fly around, sticking their space noses in other spacefolk’s space bidnez! The squabbled with the Feringi, the Romulans, and my favorite Bad Guys. The Borg!

Them Borg was something else! They would capture other species and assimilate them into their culture, half animal and half machine. Could you imagine a goat as a Borg?! They would say “Baaaa! We will assimilate you! Resistance is Futile!” Then poke you with their mechanical horn!

Now right about this time you may be thinking “Where’s this nut going with this?” and I wouldn’t blame ya’ll for such wonderment. For years Gwen and I have purchased our stock at various types of sales and from different Ranches throughout Texas. We enjoyed the travel and camaraderie with all kinds of folks in our buying trips. A while back we finally got high speed internet and began to enjoy how much of the information world we could see and enjoy. We also joined the Yahoo goat groups and learned and communicated with goat folks about our favorite subject: GOATS!

On the goat groups we learned about sales and how they are broadcast on-line and you could go on the Auction Web Site and watch and even bid on goats. Sometimes we would just watch and wish we were there to possibly buy some, but we were always too scared to register to buy some goats on-line.

One Saturday we were sitting at the house and I was surfing the net and looked in on an on-line auction. The few goats in the auction we going for good prices with an occasional inexpensive one and I pointed this out to Gwen. She took a look and before you know it she was registered to bid and we started buying goats. The sale’s site was in West Monroe, Louisiana so I went to James Tugwell and borrowed his good livestock trailer (All the lights worked!) and off I went!

By the time I got to Jacksonville we were up to 4 online goats. By Henderson we were up to 6 or 7. By Marshall we were up to 9 on-line goats. When I got to Shreveport the final count was up to 11 on-line goats! I picked up the load of new on-line goats and skedaddled back to Dew!

After getting home in the wee hours of the night I just pulled into the back yard and opened the trailer and put out some feed and water and went to bed. In the harsh light of the morning we took a look at our new purchases. Some were old, some were young, some were big and some small. We showed a few just for fun and came in at the bottom of the classes. We tried to breed them all and learned a valuable lesson about buying goats on-line. If they don’t come with a breeders guarantee then they aren’t worth the paper that their pedigree is written on. Only five out of the eleven would breed and two of those are old and probably won’t stay around much longer.

The final results of that batch of on-line goats kind of soured us on doing that sort of thing ever again. Both Gwen and I swore up and down that we would never waste our money buying goats at an online auction! Never again!!!

Until the Showstopper sale came on recently. We were “interested” to see what some of the bucks were going for. We were shocked to see how low that some of them were going for. The next thing you know, Gwen was bidding on DCW Full Throttle, a buck we purchased. If Kelly had turned the EGGS buck previous to Full Throttle to where we could have seen his butt, we would have owned him. Gwen ended up buying an older “welfare” doe bred to Bo Jangle too. As them Borg says, “Resistance is Futile!”

The East Texas Goat Raisers Association will have its general membership meeting on Saturday, October 9, 2010 at the association land. Educational program to be announced. For more information about the ETGRA and it’s events go to HYPERLINK "http://www.etgra. com" http://www.etgra.com

The North East Texas Goat Raiser’s Association (NETGRA) is a non-profit organization established in 2003 through the Texas Cooperative Extension Service and is headed by a Board of Directors who are elected by the general membership. Whether you are new to raising goats or have been involved in the industry for years, NETGRA is a great place to meet and visit with goat producers and to participate in a variety of events designed to increase your general knowledge of goats & to help you be more successful in your operation.

Meetings and other events are often held in the centralized Greenville & Sulphur Springs areas in an attempt to better accommodate all members. NETGRA holds regular meetings & sponsors many events throughout the year such as educational seminars, sanctioned ABGA and/ or IBGA (Boer Goat) & TJLA shows, educational field days, and an annual Christmas party.

If you are interested in becoming a member of the NETGRA you may contact the group directly at netgra@ netgra.com or go to HYPERLINK "http://www.netgra. com" www.netgra.com.

Callene Zapalac of Zaptex Boers ( HYPERLINK "http://www.zaptexboergoats. com/" http://www.zaptexboergoats. com/) is holding a show in Plainview, Texas. Callene has the following announcement: SAVE THE DATE: We will be hosting the Colder than Hale Winter Classic in Plainview on November 13-14. Entry deadline: 11/11/10, $20 per head per show. Early entries only-any animals entered in all 3 Open shows qualify for $50 combined entry fee. We will have 1 Jr. Show and 2 Open Shows on Saturday and 1 Open Show on Sunday. Confirmed judges are Jeremy Church for the Junior Show and John Edwards for the first Open Show. Ron Dilley will judge the last open show on Saturday and Dr. Josh Lackey will judge the Open Show on Sunday. Shavings will be available at the concession stand. For More info call: RaeAnne King (806)292-3288 Callene Zapalac (806)292-1649 or go to the Website: HYPERLINK "http://www.colderthanhale. com" www.colderthanhale. com

You can go to the Texas Boer Goat Association web site at HYPERLINK "http:// www.texasboergoatassociation. com" http://www.texasboergoatassociation. com to get the latest info on Texas and Southwestern shows, sales, and events. Callene will fill ya’ll in on more details on the Plainview show on the Shows page or the message board HYPERLINK "http://tbga. websitetoolbox.com/" http:// tbga.websitetoolbox.com/. She has a good message board with a lot of show folks participating and passing on info.

That’s all I’ve got for now. If your hear tell of any training stuff or any other events then let me know so can spread the word. Please support your favorite local, area, or national goat breeders associations. Call me 903-388-8528 or e-mail HYPERLINK "mailto:clwyer@ gmail.com" clwyer@gmail. com if you have any goat gossip or want to chat. Bye, for now.