New Addition

This is Ethyl, the newest member of our farm family. She is 6 months old and is a Pygmy Goat. Let me tell you about our little adventure to get her.I really want another dairy goat (I want to be able to enjoy the fresh milk and experiment with some cheese making),so I have been searching all of the online ads that I can think of to find one within a reasonable driving distance. Ah, here is one close to us so my husband calls. They are asking $225 for an doe that has been exposed to a buck. A little bit more than we wanted to spend, but we thought heck maybe for that price they are some nice goats and might be worth it in the long run. So we load up in the Blazer and make the 20 minute drive to check out the goats...no need to call as the man would be out doing chores. Getting out of the car we are greeting by swarms of flies and a putrid stench...neither of these are things that I want to be greeted by, the mangy looking dog was not a nice greeter either. All of the goats are packed into different pens, not out on pasture but in what we call a "dry lot". The feeders were dirty with small piles rotting corn laying in front of them. One of the pens had smaller goats in them, that I hope for their sake was the cull pen. Some of those goats had umbilical hernias the size of softballs, crusty eyes, dirty and just living in unsanitary conditions. First off these goats were not worth the $225 the man was asking for them, regardless if they were bred or not and if we did bring one of them into our herd it could cost us the entire herd if it brings a disease in.My husband tells our 8 year old son not to touch anything and we make fast tracks back to the Blazer, pile in and get out of there as quickly as we can! Now, during the day my husband had also called about a Pygmy goat. I had found the ad online through the credit union where I bank and realized that the goat was for sale in the same small town that we live in. A Pygmy goat would not have been the first choice of a dairy goat for myself, but I thought since they are only 16-23" tall at the shoulder (withers) then it might be the perfect little addition for our son. While driving back from the Filth Farm my husbands phone beeps that he has a new voice mail....we were in a deadzone...where is that Verizon guy anyway? Certainly not out here. The lady says that they still have the goat and to call her back. He gives her a call back gets the address, we stop at our small town bank to use the ATM to get the $20 that they were asking for her...just in case she is a nice goat. Pulling into their farm is like night and day compared to the one we had just been to. Ethyl is out in the yard and follows the man down part way to greet us. We walk up to their very clean barn to discuss Ethyl. He tells us that they got her from a sale barn in March and that they bottle fed her. Ethyl is very affectionate and thinks that she is more dog than goat. The man tells us that the reason why they want to sell her is that their other 2 goats are mean to her....one of the goats just had a baby too and boy was it tiny! The other goat was due to have a baby soon so they thought it was in the best interest of Ethyl to give her a new home. We tell him that Ethyl is great and get out the $20 to pay him and he wont take it! He wants to see Ethyl go to a home where. She is getting lots of love here, Ethyl sure does think that she is a dog too....our son can walk her on a leash. She follows me around the yard and pasture when I am out doing chores. Ethyl also went for a ride in the truck yesterday when my son forgot his lunch. She rode in the front seat and was a perfect little lady, ok, well she did pee but it went on the towel that I had laid on the front seat just in case. We are doing some reading about the Pygmy goat breed....they do make a nice dual purpose goat for both milk and meat. Pygmy goats can milk about 2 quarts of high butterfat milk a day. Did you know that Pygmy goats first came to the United States in the 1950's? Mainly as a novelty for zoos. Like other goats their gestation period is about 150 days but the kids only weigh about 4 pounds when they are born. So far Ethyl has been a joy to have around and maybe in a year or so we will be updating this blog on any kids that she has!?! We are going to wait until March or April of 2009 to find her a boyfriend.