hi all,

i have 4 pygmy goats i'd like to get rid of...real cheap, if you live in NE WA state! namely, Kettle Falls, near Orient. Please give me a call. we've decided to go with sheep and the goats are tooooo pushy! I have 3 does, one is the mom of the other 2, and 1 wether. they push and head butt the sheep too much. we have enuf grazing land (50 acres) but since it's winter, it's tuf to sell these critters. any takers, give me a call. 509-684-5334, gloria. thanks so much. BTW, has anyone ever harvested and ate these type?

-- gg (gloria@riverbendlodge.com), January 02, 2002

Answers

Absolutly nothing!!!!!!! Say it again!!!!!! ;) Sorry couldn't resist! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 02, 2002.

VICKY you have such a wonderful way with words,couldnt said it better myself. Bob se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@kans.com), January 02, 2002.

chilli

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 03, 2002.

Keeping Pygmy goat herders employed ?

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.

A lot of folk have them around here strictly as pets for their small children, they are as cheap to keep as a dog, so I guess that is a resonable expectation of their use.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2002.

Personaly I plan on goat barbeque. I know some people have a problem with that but in my case home raised meat is my only option. My body refuses to digest any store bought meat and I am definately a carnivore.After all pygmies are a meat anmal in their native country.

-- VickiP. (countrymous@webtv.net), January 03, 2002.

OK guys!! I guess I'll stick up for them. I love my Pygmies & sell them way quicker than my dairy goats. Mainly for pets & weed control. Mine are not pushy. Very loving. Depends on how they are raised. I bottlefeed all my kids. They are wonderful for human kids because of their size. A lot of kids are scared of the big dairy breeds. You can milk them. I had a couple of does that had very nice udders. You need a small bowl to milk into because they are so short, but their milk is very good. Very high butterfat. They are also good for meat. I haven't ever eaten any of mine, but I know people that do. Please don't trash the little guys! They are all not bad. Just like I have had some really snotty dairy breeds that weren't good for much, but that doesn't mean they are all useless & stupid.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.

Good for nothing???? There's a tremendous market for them!! Why my sister in law gave away 3 only last year. Never mind the three she kept are friendly little things, pretty popular around here anyhow

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 03, 2002.

I guess it depends on what part of the country one is in. I'm in West Michigan and around here, people sell P.G. kids for around $30 to 50 each. The registered ones with impressive pedigrees go for $100. They are very popular with the 4-H kids and the P.G. classes at the area fairs (we have three fairs in our county) are huge -- bigger than the dairy goat classes in some cases. Personally, I got a Pygmy goat as a companion for my milk goat which has worked out very well. "Sweet Pea" costs practically nothing to feed, has proven herself very hardy even in our hard winters, and is easy to handle. -- Cheers, Renee M.

-- Renee Martin (icehorse@altelco.net), January 03, 2002.

Footballs with legs.

-- sport (goats@pet.com), January 03, 2002.

I've been collecting them lately to use for training the younger pups on herding. He He He. I do get rid of their nasty horns so they can't get someone by accident. I have 10 so far, wish you weren't so far away.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 03, 2002.

I always kept a small group of pigmys for clearing brush and mowing small weedy areas. They were heck on poison ivy, multiflora rose, and even ironweed if you pushed them. Iron weed was not candy to them...more like brussel sprouts I guess. To rid my pastures of tall thickest of rose, I surrounded the thicket with electronet and put a nice group of pigmys in it with plenty of water. They went about eating all of the foliage that they could reach and wet their horns on the resulting naked branches knocking some down to browse off the tops. Then I would jump in with them and hack down a bunch of the bushes with a machete so that they could eat the tops and twigs. This would go on for a few days until the patch was more or less nibbles to the ground. Really heavy stems of an inch or so in diameter would not be shredded, but the earth reclaimed them soon enough. in a season, if the goats visited the same thicket area when there were new sprouts, they managed to kill the roses within 1.5 seasons. I loved the whole process and i never had to fix the shredder mower, nor another punctured tractor tire after I started doing that. I sold the goats to folks of middle eastern cultures to eat. Those folks particularly liked that i did not dehorn, nor did I de scent. I also sold some to neighbors with 4-H kids.

They are masters of escape and comical and a pain, but like all creatures they have a place in my heart and had a place on my cattle farm

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), January 03, 2002.

In central Illinois they sell from 0 to twenty dollars unless they are for show.A lady in Spingfield adverised some billies and they were a hundred+ but there must not been too much of a market as she had thirty five of various ages. I think their greatest value is going to be converting briars and weeds into organic fertilizer,I have two now but intend to get many next spring when I get my five wire Hi tensile fence finished to keep them in and hopefully predaters out.So far I have them in chain link fence with my fruit and nut trees protected by four ft. plastic snow fence. One of the does can jump four feet vertically to a guinea feeding platfom and walk out four ft. on a 2x4 roost,so they are fun. Keith

-- Keith Etheridge (grandpa@chipsnet.com), January 03, 2002.

Those of you who haven't taken the time to really get to know these little goats are really missing out. My goats are extremely affectionate and playful. They answer me when I talk to them, play tag and chase with me and are very loving. What are they good for? That's like saying what is a dog good for! Unfortunately, I'm in further south, or I'd take your goats off your hands, gladly. Oh, and don't cut off the horns, whoever said that. That is cruel. These horns are there for a reason, they house nutrients and vitamins that are released through time into their systems. Goats with horns are always healthier and in better mental health. All of my goats have their horns --maybe that's why mine love me so much! Good luck with goats!!

-- p.kirksey (psquare@primeline.com), January 04, 2002.

We have raised NPGA Reg pygmies for 12 years & show at Npga shows around the midwest. We have a list of people waiting for does, starting at $350, and are shipping bucks across the country. We had 6 bucks born in Nov & all are sold.It depends how active you are with them, 7 what bloodlines you have, I guess close to the same as raising show dogs. They have great personalities, and are cute1 My kids got into them for 4-H & we fell in love with them.

-- Gail Brinkley (dinsmore@qtm.net), January 05, 2002.

yard art.

-- renee o'neill (oneillsr@home.com), January 05, 2002.

Well... let's see... they are good for anythin' that a standard size goat is good for (showing, meat, milk, reproduction--sale of little ones, keepin' larger livestock company--ie horses/cows, brush reduction, weeding, pets) AND they are good for a small farm set up as you can keep two to three of them in the same space that you can keep one of the standard size breeds... some people have also gotten into Kinders... a cross between Nubians and Pygmys (Nubie doe and Pygmy buck) ... takes a few generations to get there, but they seem to have real promise... just a few passing thoughts, :) Lesa a.k.a. porch

-- Lesa Kosteck (porchswinger2000@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002.

Been trying to talk hubby into buying a couple of pygmies, but didn't have a good reason. Just because they're so darn cute is not a viable reason. If someone can tell me that PGs will eat Russian Thistle (aka tumble weed) then I won't be able to stop him from buying a small herd. We're in southern Utah where Russian Thistle is as prevlant as Kudzu in the south. If you stand still for more than a minute it will grow up between your feet. If I use a portable electric fence system would it be possible to clear small areas one at time?

-- Jenny Malone (doggarden@msn.com), January 07, 2002.