Beware of Goats No More

It's the end of an era.

Well, perhaps not an era, but the end of a "season" at our house.

We purchased our first three goats (Tom, Ma and Jolly) in 2004. We were clearing some of our land for pasture and wanted the goats to help clear the brush. They did a wonderful job and it wasn't long before we added five more, then three, then another five or six. Goats have a gestation period of about five months, so we frequently had babies. They reach sexual maturity well before they're a year old, so you can imagine... our goat herd grew by leaps and bounds. This was not without its pitfalls, though. Those who followed my 360 blog saw frequent entries about the ups and downs of raising goats. Coyotes and dog packs are an ongoing problem and we lost far too many kids and young goats to attacks. We also learned about mastitis, mineral deficiencies and many other things that can go wrong.

The coyotes have been especially bad in the past month. Since selling John and five of his buddies (along with Debbie the donkey) and losing Tom in September, we were down to just a few goats. Ma was killed in October and I think that was sort of the last straw. We sold our remaining four goats (Phyllis, Pammy, Samson and Muley-head) and they left with their new owner last night.