Auctions

Ewe from a May 2008 auction


I love animals and I love to go to auctions. Doesnt matter if its a livestock auction or a household goods auction, we do tend to go to more livestock auctions. The picture above is from a May 2008 auction that my husband and I went to. The ewe's face was just so captivating and kind of Hobbit like. I had to use my cell phone camera to take a picture of it. We were walking through the barn looking at the goats and when I turned around there it was just looking at me. It was the only one in the pen who was interested in us....I pulled on my husbands sleeve and was like you have to look at this sheep!Last night we went to a livestock auction to see if we could find a little friend for our Pygmy goat Ethyl. The other goats are pretty mean to her, but that is what goats do. They are herd animals so when someone new enters the herd they have to reestablish the pecking order. Generally by head-butting. We have an older boer doe named Jackie who is the herd queen, the leader of the group. Next is Roseanne, she is a pretty dark brown with a hint of red Boer goat with a hint of Nubian (dairy goat). Ethyl was going to be at the bottom of the herd. She is the smallest of them all and probably weighs half of what our boer kids weigh. We just didnt want her to get hurt and also she will not stay in the electric fence. Anyway, off we go to the auction...plenty early since they started later than the 6:30pm scheduled time. First some sheep went through. 1 lamb that weighed 70 pounds went for $65, then another lamb that was knock kneed came through that weighed 45 pounds went for $5. A big ewe (mature female sheep) that weighed 155 pounds went for $17....we are assuming that this was by the hundred weight so about $26.35 total. A group of 11 ewes went through then a buck goat. We got excited since finally we were to the goats. The buck goat was neat with long horns that swept back and to the side a bit. He weighed 150 pounds and went for $57.50. Goats they price per head not per hundred weight like they do for the other livestock. Sadly he was the only goat to go through so no new goats for us last night! I did check some websites and found some phone numbers to call regarding some goats. Part of the reason of getting our acreage is to raise some of our food. The goats are great because you can get meat from them and milk which can then be made into cheese, yogurt, butter and even icecream, YUM. We do have two goats that we are going to butcher when the weather cools off a bit more. However we do not have milk. Pasha, our dairy goat, is still a mystery. We dont know if she is still pregnant or not....she has shown no signs of being close to kidding or even any signs of heat. That was one of our main reasons for getting the goats was the fresh milk and right now we have 11 goats and no milk. They are addictive and so much fun to watch. The ones that were really shy before will now come up for a treat and a little scratch. Nothing too much and we certainly cant pet all over them like we can with some of the goats but at least they arent running away when we come up. Off to search for a dairy goat....think good goaty thoughts for us. Once milk comes in I want to put information on milking and maybe cheese making. Maybe with a video segment?