× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! For some, goat marketing is a necessary evil but if you raise goats, marketing is a necessity. Your ability to get your goats in front of the right people is a major part of determining how successful your goat operation will be. The following tips and pointers are designed to help you streamline the process of goat marketing and identify how and when to focus your efforts so you can not only find buyers for your goats but also establish the foundation of a solid, thriving brand – your goat farm. Goat Marketing 101: Be Willing to Spend the Time I often read comments online from goat breeders saying things like, Read More
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9 Reasons to Have a Website for Your Goat Business
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! I’m not into fear mongering. I don’t feel like the proverbial sky is falling in the world of online livestock sales, but I do believe some things are changing and if you’re trying to make a business with your goats, you may need to be changing as well. If you’re into social media, you probably have heard the murmurings of Facebook’s recent crackdown on livestock sales. Major groups that focus on animals, even if they weren’t sale groups, have been taken down without a warning. I’ve heard rumors of Facebook business pages being removed as well. PETA’s recent venture into Facebook stockholder status is going to cause an increase in this Read More
Costs of Raising Goats 2020
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! Every year, I like to write up a current breakdown of how much it costs us to raise goats. In 2018, the cost of raising goats came out to $480 per doe per year. The 2019 cost changed little, coming in at $483 per doe per year. This coming year, 2020, our numbers have increased, so let’s walk through the costs of raising goats again and see how we compared to the last two years. First off, we plan to winter 21 does and 2 bucks, or 23 total, up from 19 for 2019. (Wait til you see the 2021 numbers we’re planning, that’ll change things!). Let’s look at the costs Read More
Hatching Eggs without an Incubator
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! In the last article, I talked about how we were able to incubate our 25-day-old duck eggs after their mother was killed, using only a heat pad and some elbow grease. In this article, I will lay out the process that happened to transition them to our non working incubator shell and hatch successfully. We incubated them for 10 days, caring for them four times per day, swapping out wet rags to keep the humidity level up. Despite all odds, I heard peeping one night when I was giving them the last wet rag at bedtime. Hallelujah! The next day, there were three pipped eggs. I could hardly contain my excitement. Read More
Incubating Eggs without an Incubator
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! A raccoon killed my favorite duck hen the other day, leaving her 20+ day old eggs without a mother. When we discovered it the next morning, the eggs were cold. There was little hope, but there’s a saying in the farm world, “It’s not dead until it’s warm and dead.” More than once, we’ve warmed up a lifeless body (think rabbits in particular) to find a miraculous recovery. The problem with the eggs is that we have a non working incubator, something to do with a puppy and wires. How could we keep the eggs going without it? I’ve always been told you can’t, which means I needed to set out Read More
Making Tree Hay for Winter Feed
× Looking for minerals and goat supplies? Head over to our shop at GoatCare.com! What did livestock owners do for hay in ancient times? This is a question I’ve pondered and yearned to know, because we strive to live life as non mechanized as possible. When I heard about tree hay, I instantly knew it was what I’d been looking for. Tree hay is one of the oldest hay production methods in recorded history. Ancient pollards, or trees cut specifically for branchy growth as is used in tree hay making, have been found across Europe and it is even mentioned in ancient Roman times. What is Tree Hay?