Kinder goat sales collapsed this year. Of the registered kids I had on offer, I didn't even receive an inquiry on any of them. Of people who wanted to be notified of this year's batch, no one was still interested. In one of my rare visits to the Kinder Goat Breeder Association's facebook page, I discovered that I wasn't alone. Breeder after breeder across the US was reporting no sales, no interest, and people backing out of previously arranged sales. Individual goats and entire herds were being advertised for sale at big discounts.
This is a huge turnaround from when I first got into Kinders. Then, I had a 2-year waiting list for kids. Most breeders did. This year, I made the decision to cancel my fall breeding plans until I could do something about thinning my herd. If I couldn't get down to manageable winter numbers, I wasn't going to add more goats. It was definitely time to rethink things.
I've never considered myself a professional breeder. While I love the breed and have had fun working toward improving my stock according to the breed standard, it's never been a business or a money-maker for me. I've been fortunate that since I started with registered Kinders, I've been able to break even. Every year I've made enough sales to buy feed and hay until the next year's sales. My goats have been self-supporting. The bonus for us has been the milk and dairy products I make, manure, brush control, some occasional chevon, a sense of purpose, and hours of entertainment and joy. Kinders' personalities and antics never cease to make us happy.
The knee jerk reaction to this turnaround is to blame the economy. I do think this is the underlying problem. Animal feeds, for example, have skyrocketed. Except for the lucky few, most of us have gotten to the point of having to make tough decisions about our household finances. I've overheard sad conversations in the grocery stores of people having to give up their pets. We've managed because of our homesteading lifestyle. Yes, we've been forced to choose to not buy many things, but because we produce quite a bit of our own food, we've been able to hang in there. Even with our pets because our cats are working animals. They keep the rodent population down and supplement their own diet in the process. To that I add eggs and milk, and so keep the boughten kibble to a manageable amount.
Of course the economy always rises and falls. This is nothing new. But one thing that I find different from the past, is that in the past, what was seen as an untrustworthy economy usually found people flocking to buy land, seeds, and livestock to become more self-sufficient. My first experience of this was the anti-establishment back-to-the-land movement, of which I was a part. Eventually, participants trickled back to society as we know it and sold off. Life went on.
But that wasn't the only time I observed this as a social trend.
- The 1980s, when my kids were little and breakfast cereal was pushed up to $4 a box (absurd then, but we topped that this go-round!) Self-sufficiency was the buzzword and people started flocking to the country.
- Y2K. The most memorable story was told by someone in my weavers guild. She was contacted by a woman who wanted to learn to spin and weave, because she was thinking she'd have to learn how to grow her own cotton and make her own bed sheets.
- Eight years ago, I had contacts about buying goats because of fears over the new administration's economy.
So it is curious to me, that this time, people have been reacting differently. There has been no trend to get land and get self-sufficient. The biggest difference that I can identify is that now, society is totally consumed with the internet.
Anyway, after putting my goat breeding plans on hold, my next action was to start advertising my extra goats as Nubian-crosses instead of registered Kinders. Kinder genetics are a 50/50 cross between Nubians and Pygmies, which has resulted in a stout mid-size goat with excellent production and great personalities. Most people aren't familiar with Kinders, but they do go for Nubians.
Along with that, I asked bargain basement prices and managed to sell off five goats and get my herd to a manageable number. Every buyer was delighted with their purchases, and between you and me, they got some absolutely excellent breeding stock at prices that would make a Kinder breeder cry. But value is ultimately relative and needs must.
With my herd thinned appropriately (with one more I would be willing to sell), I could once again entertain breeding plans. As much as they are like big dogs, our goats have never been pets. We love them dearly, but they make a contribution in return for good care. I chose goats over sheep for their milk and everything I can make from that milk. It's an important source of protein and calcium for our diet.
For now, I'm going to breed two does for next year's milk. Of their kids, it's wait and see. I've chosen an optimistic outlook because I'm tired of the doom and gloom. I need a healthier new normal. We all do.
23 comments:
A very interesting post. I hope you aren't correct about your assessment of the internet being a possible culprit. It that is the case, I imagine there are lots and lots of other things that will probably go haywire too.
Livestock has always been sort of cyclic in prices as shortages and surpluses come around. Is it possible there is just an excess of goats on the market right now? I know the Amish up around us were raising lots of goats for the last decade or 15 years but have recently in the last 2 or 3 years switched to sheep, largely because goat prices have been falling and sheep prices have been going up. But kinders don't sound like a breed for their meat so perhaps this sort of thing doesn't really apply to them.
Ed, of livestock, yeah, that's how it's always been. I'm guessing it's harder for people who rely on production for income. I thought about it in the early years, but now am so glad I never tried to go that route. Everything has a cycle, but as it is, we're able to weather the storms.
Of the internet, it's a curious thing just ripe for study. But a proper study requires objectivity, which definitely isn't a trend right now. Of course, manipulating public opinion is as old as mankind itself. The internet just seems to have made it easier. Or at least it held hopes of making it easier.
I agree about the cost of feed causing less people to be interested with goats. When we had our dairy goats, we had a horrible time selling the newborns. Most times we had to lower the price and they were Lamancha goats. Very good milk! I made the cheeses and we drank the milk. My husband has no interest in raising them again.
The economy is terrible right now, and the main reason I do not create handmade anything for craft shows. We sold very little at the last one we even did. People would rather buy China made items with a sticker created on it. I don't understand it either. I have zero neighbors close by that even live a self sufficient life.
I'm sorry about your situation, but you do illustrate the wisdom of several income streams, for anyone, farmer or not. And the wisdom of accepting the situation and working with it, no time wasted.
Kristina, artists and artisans always seem to be the first to feel it when folks are pinched for money. The same is true for art and music programs in schools. I have to admit though, that even in a better economy, I was never very successful at selling what I made. I've been amazed that you've had opportunities to do as well as you have in the past.
What it brings home for me, though, examining why I create. I figured out that I do it because I love to do it. I have a large chest full of samples, dishtowels, and scarves that I'm currently going through for gifting. I'm glad to be able to do that!
Liz, multiple income streams is always, always a wise plan. And I can't say I'm totally unhappy with our situation. I made enough in sales to buy hay, which keeps the monthly trips to the feed store manageable.
In some ways, I always expected a downturn even if the economy remained booming. This is because of market saturation. Goats are something for which there isn't an infinite market, plus, I've been selling Kinders long enough so that most breeders in the surrounding six states all have my herd's genetics in their! Down-scaling was always in the plans and now was the time to do it.
I didn't sell any of my available stock this year, either, and I have the largest flock I've ever had. I did lose one ewe, and decided to breed just one ewe who didn't settle last year to a ram who is leaving for a new home this winter. I'm supposed to receive a new ram in trade, but with as many sheep as I have, I'm going to take a rain check. No 'fire sales' planned, though. I don't spend much time analyzing "the world and its ways;" I live in it but that is not where my security or future is. I've read the end of the book; it's going to get a lot worse before the ultimate "better."
Amen, Michelle.
And I've JUST been thinking about whether I could add a dairy goat because my herd is down to 12. Wish we lived closer together, Leigh!
Quinn, I wouldn't mind adding a fiber goat to mine! :)
Down to 12 still sounds like a good size herd to me. I'm down to seven.
Well, if you feel like making a road trip, I'll bet we could work something out :)
:)
Leigh, the observation about the expense of animals (and their abandonment is spot on. Every animal shelter I follow is essentially full because people are abandoning pets, whether by surrendering them or simply turning them loose to make it on their own.
I feel the sense we are in a rough economy - yet at least here in New Home 2.0, I do not know that you could tell if you just looked. I think it is something more caught out of the corner of one's eye even at this point.
TB, I suppose unless businesses start shutting their doors and boarding up their windows, the realities of the state of the economy are pretty much a personal struggle for folks. Unless they announce them, which the internet has allowed people to do.
The official indicators used to determine the so-called health of the economy never made much sense to me because they seem to reflect the concerns of investors rather than the struggles of individuals and their day-to-day lives. I think credit cards help mask the problem as well. And I'm sure the philosophies of state and local politics play a part as well. Of course, that's just me and I'm not terribly knowledgeable on such things. On the other hand, given the discrepancy of what we've been told versus what we've experienced, I'm not so sure the experts know what they're talking about either.
Two things you might not have thought of in this economy. In our area it is more and more difficult to get good vet care. Large animal vets are scarce mostly because we have evolved from a farming county to an old folks county. For pet vets, there is no longer a nearby emergency service. All of the pet vet hospitals have been purchased by conglomerates and you have to drive nearly an hour to an all night facility. Secondly, it is difficult to find contractors to do work, and building materials are so much more expensive than 5 years ago. Gravel pits are closing. Contractors are traveling to our area from hours away because the is work here, but no one to do it. The Boomer generation of contractors is retiring and their kids do not have the 'round the clock work ethic. I cannot tell you how many times we have called a contractor to be told... "I'm on vacation in the Caribbean but I'll call you when I get back" and then they just don't because there is so much work available already.
These are two things that complicate the lives of both small farm and pet owners.
Alex, excellent points and our experience confirms yours. How an economy is truly doing is really a lot of little things that eventually began to add up. At least for those paying attention and who can fit the puzzle pieces together.
I thought about Kinders, had a neighbor who had a small, mixed goat herd, more for pets than actual farming. I looked into their conformity and suitability and as I was on the other side of goats, for meat not for milk production(cuz' I really hate milking goats, my fingers just don't like curling backwards...) I thought they were more of a boutique animal, even with their Nubian heritage. I kept my Boers (35 does) and did have five Saleens for milk production to feed kids that the does abandoned or where unable to freshen. (Yes, I had to milk them...)
As to Smart Alex, I was lucky, I was a RN and when I moved to Southern Alabama and started my herd in earnest I found an old country vet in the Community of Mathews and ending up working as his surgical assistant as I was a operating scrub nurse. I learned a lot of animal husbandry from him and also took extension courses on animal care and emergency vet medicine. It wouldn't be a bad idea to learn as much as you can to diagnose and treat animals. It sure saved my a ton of expense and frustration able to properly care for my herd of goats and my three miniature donkeys and my racking mule and my dogs and barn cats.
Another point to Saleens, they were more apt to adopt a kid than Boers are.
Kevin, gosh, that worked out fantastically well for you, given your own medical background plus the need to learn more about medical care for goats. Even livestock vets don't get much call to doctor goats.
Kinder teats - yeah, some of them are way too short to milk by hand. I hear they're good for milking machines, but I was never interested in going that route. I've always sold off short teated does and bred for nice size teats that I could milk comfortably. Their milk is wonderfully rich, at about 7% butterfat on average. Good protein content as well, which makes excellent cheeses. Most of mine are gallon-a-day milkers, but I never get that much since I milk-share with the kids.
I seriously considered a goat milking machine and if we had been another year or two of farming I would have. It would have saved a lot of time for milking. I wished goats teats were like cows, a pull or two and you have a flow... It was that pinching off and curling your fingers that got to me.
Years ago I found a DIY hand milker, based on the principles of the Henry Milker. I made it but could never get it to work. It still required hand pumping, but theoretically it should have worked well on short teats. Failing that, I just started selling does anytime I had trouble milking them. In the longrun, it did pay off.
Very interesting. Hope it gets better.
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Regine, me too!
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