Hello folks!
Brand spankin' new to this forum. I just got my first two goats this year and I fell in love immediately... didn't we all? I traded 65 bales of hay for two Saanen girls from a good friend of mine. I actually bought them for my ailing mother who wanted to make soaps and lotions from goats milk to sell. Well, these two gals cast a spell on me! I started looking more into goats, different breeds, purposes, etc. I settled on Nigerian Dwarves. I love the idea of small milking goats that are friendly and easy to care for. The breed seems absolutely fantastic to me, and I am on a mission to find some breeding stock from good milking line close to me. (Southeast Iowa)
That will be a mission indeed as the closest non-pet breeder I have found is 3.5 hours away.
Anyway, other things about me... I am 22 years old and live at home with my mother so I can take care of her. Dad is an over the road trucker for Wal-Mart and he isn't here two weeks at a time. I came back here to help mom, and fell in love with the country again after trying to make it in the rat race since I was 18. I decided to rejuvenate the farm. I want to make it my life. My goal is to have a large market garden and sell some animals and such on the side for multiple income streams. I love to garden and animal husbandry fulfills me in a way that nothing else ever has. This year I have collected a dexter milk cow and her calf, 12 chickens and a rooster, the two goats and two pot belly pigs. I hope that within 5 years I can work my farm without an outside job.
I am very excited to have found this forum and all help/opinions/advice is very much welcome.
Thanks!
Hannah
Replies
Yes, that's me!
Hannah Marlar said:
Thank you everyone for the support and advice! I don't intend to make any purchases until the spring, and I may even wait a little longer until I know exactly what I want.
Deborah, do you have a website? I have visited so many pages, and of course forgot to bookmark some. You may very well be the one I was looking at. I think I google mapped the place, and it was north of Bloomington and kinda by pontiac? Dunno.
Welcome to the group! You're a woman after my own heart! In addition to our NDs, we have Dexters, American Guinea Hogs, Shetland sheep, and poultry. I'm in Central IL, so I'm wondering if I'm the breeder you found that's 3.5 hours away? I'm about an hour east of Peoria. Best of luck with all your plans!
Welcome to the group!!
Hi Hannah, I love what and how you have written to us. You have come to the perfect place and made brave and wonderful choices. I wish you all the success in the world, and totally understand where you are coming from and where you want to go from here.
I can not stress enough to you how good the advice is that Sandra and Patty have given you. I suggest that you consider each word of that advice very carefully. Starting out right is extremely important to your success.
I would suggest that you search through the forum and read as much as you can stand. Learning now is so much easier than after you have made mistakes. You will make them,.. lots of them... we all have...but you will make a lot less if you learn a lot first! This is the perfect place for that. The people here are totally awesome and you can not imagine just how much you can learn here! I believe from the bottom of my heart that there is no better connection for success with your venture than what is available here!
Looking forward to watching you succeed!
Nice to meet you, Hannah! :) Wow! You're tackling a big dream/goal, but a worthy one. I truly wish you the very best with your plans.
I have some hard earned advice for you with the goats. Start with the very best you can afford, even having them shipped to you if need be. It's hard to change things if you don't start with the best. It's hard to think of spending more $ on better animals when you already have animals that you are in love with.
Also, look for someone with milk records who really knows what their goats produce over time.
Think about whether you plan to dam raise the kids or not, and if you do, get them from someone who also dam raises if possible. If they don't dam raise, they won't know what kind of mothers the does from those lines will be. I have one doe who came from a farm where the kids are all bottle babies. I really have to watch her closely, because she's totally inconsistent as a mother.
Once again, best wishes!
Go for it, Hannah! If you are not a business person by nature, giving equal time at the start to learning and implementing marketing 'strategies' will be such a positive action for success.
Sandra Hess
Heartland Midwifery
Fresno, Ohio