I have been looking at a buck to lease and when we got down to the price I am not sure she is being reasonable. She wants to charge me $60 per breeding (OK, that's fine) + she wants to charge me $20 each month I have him? What!? Why would I pay anything to have him except the breeding fee themselves? She said the reason she is charging the additional fee is because the buck does not carry her herdname so the breedings do not benefit her herd, only the farm the buck came from. To a certain extent I can see where she is coming from but then again he will have more kids on the ground to prove himself even more so it benefits her IMO, too. The owner of the buck has a small herd and is not even using him this breeding season because she has a new buck she is breeding to everyone. So by me having him he will put more kids on the ground to evaluate,and I will be feeding and caring for him making her job a little easier. Am I being stiff or is she being unreasonable?
She also said anything that happens to him while in my care was on me and I would have to pay the sum of his worth, which I fully agree too. But what she said was if he contracts any diseases making him non breed able I would be help responsible. She asks for me to test for CAE and CL and to my knowledge that is all he has been tested for too. She says if he catches ANY disease while here then I am responsible, but I feel like I should only be responsible for the ones he is tested for prior to coming here because how are either of us supposed to know if he has them prior to coming here if he wasn't tested?
What are your opinions on this? Should I fallow through on this or confront her that she is being unreasonable with some of the stuff she is asking?
Replies
I did read that discussion. I am waiting to hear back from her and if she is not willing to work with me I am going to have to tell her I am going to look for another buck. I will send her to that link so she might get a idea of how disease works. Thanks!
And check out this discussion for more details on time and testing:
http://nigeriandwarfgoats.ning.com/forum/topics/testing-for-cae-and...
Deborah,
She is a new breeder and got her first goats about a year 1/2 to two years ago. I thought the $20 was just ridiculous and didn't make sense to me either. She has never told me about disease testing in her herd but I did ask when the last time the buck was tested and am still waiting to hear back from her. She said she doesn't offer breeding services or anything like this usually, except with exception to one other herd, but when I explained my situation to her she took it into consideration. When she told me she would be gone around the time I wanted to breed I asked about leasing him. I went to her farm and looked at the buck and all her does and they all looked very nice and healthy. I don't know that she knows a whole lot about disease but I will explain to her what you did me, which I did not know either. I think the way we should handle this part is we both test our goats for the same things ans if they all come back negative then everything is good and no one is responsible for anything the goats may contact later as there is no telling how they got it. He is such a nice buck and I hate to pass this deal up, but if she is not willing to work with me I will have to. Thank you so much Deborah, you really made this easier!
I personally would be looking for another breeder. The $20 is weird, and her explanation is one that I have never heard and really doesn't make any sense to me.
The disease thing is scary and would have me running away from this deal. If she is that "careful" about biosecurity, then I would assume she has shared with you a complete whole-herd negative test for every one of her goats, including this buck, and that the test was done within the last few months. I would also assume that she has a closed herd, which doesn't totally make sense because she is leasing a buck. But if she is bringing in any new goats, or goats go somewhere and come back, they could bring in a disease. Based upon what you've said that she said, it sounds like she doesn't totally understand how goat diseases work. (Check out the current discussion on "CAE and Johnes testing" for more details.) It can take months for a goat to test positive, so testing him the day you bring him back would be a waste of money as far as determining whether he contracted anything at your farm. Testing him six months later does not mean that he picked up something at your farm because he's been gone for six months. It is NOT as simple as she makes it sound, and if she thinks it's that simple, I would not want to deal with her.