I am new to goats. I am considering ND does in milk from two different breeders. One is a little over one hour away....considered local for us out in the boonies. She's from a dairy/soap-making gal. I have bought milk from her in the past. I have not spoken to her about the details of the goat yet. The CL ad says that she is extremely docile and gentle, 1.5 year-old first fresheners, giving about a qt. per day, $150 unregistered, I assume.
The other two does (yearlings) are 3 1/2 hours away. They are registered and from champion bloodlines, show-quality genetics. They each give 2 lbs and 3 lbs per day respectively, as FFs. These are $500 each and I was told that they are friendly, lead well and milk well.
Would love some help with this. Is it better to buy registered vs unregistered? I guess kids would bring more money if registered, but it is a higher investment initially. We are mostly interested in milk and traveling with them, not showing them.
Is it better to buy locally, as opposed to far away? Since one of the $500 does produces 2 lbs also, I wonder if the unregistered doe, this 1 1/2 year old, would produce as much as the registered one as she gets older? Is there a way to tell? Would registered does with show quality genetics yield more milk than unregistered. Thanks in advance for your input!
Replies
It costs the same to care for a registered or unregistered goat, and you can sell registered kids for more money. Registered kids do not necessarily produce more milk than unregistered, BUT there is generally a reason for goats to be unregistered. I would never sell a quality animal without papers when I could sell it for 3-4 times as much money with papers. I will NOT sell a goat with papers, however, if it has some kind of disqualifying defect, such as extra teats. If a goat is unregistered, it could be that one of its ancestors had some type of genetic problem. Or it could be that it was mixed with another breed at some point, which could be good in terms of production or bad in terms of knowing what size kids you will get.
I don't think I'd spend $500 on a kid that did not come from a doe that was on milk test. That is one of the advantages of buying a registered kid -- the parents can be on milk test. Maybe if BOTH of the kid's grandmothers were on milk test, and they were bucket busters, but not if no one in the kid's pedigree was on milk test, because then you have no idea whether it's any better a milker than the unregistered goat. In any case, if you want a milk goat, you need to buy from someone who milks their goats and at least keeps barn records on production, if they are not on milk test.
I personally have based all of my purchases on quality of goats and pedigree with zero attention to where the goat was located. I live in Illinois but have never bought a goat here. They have all come from out of state, some from as far away as Massachusetts and Alaska.