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Re: How have you economized your farm?
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In Reply to: Re: How have you economized your farm? posted by Mary on June 13, 2001 at 09:54:13:
I have come full circle. This will be the first year in many where profit is not the bottom line. I have always sold milk, bred for the most saleable purebred stock, sold colostrum, sold meat, vetted and brokered (the most profitable part of goating) Most folks keep way to many pets which means animals who can't make a profit. If you are graining and haying what are your goats costing you per year? Can you then sell their kids for 45$ and even get your costs back? No... Milking for profit means killing your bucks or giving them away at birth. I have never made a profit or seen anybody make a profit on raising bucklings in dairy. The few really nice bucklings that are sold for several hundred dollars never will offset the cost of milk to feed all the others. Only the best doelings can be kept to sell and unless you are talking purebred sales it is always more profitable to sell all doelings and buy replacement first fresheners. A kid born here will drink 10 to 15$ in colostrum and 75$ in saleable milk, now a doeling can be sold for this 85$+ but a buckling? Not always.. The meat market is mostly smoke and mirrors, and only the worst of the worst are butchered, the aim is for 4H market animals. There is nothing wrong with this, but it does mislead newbies. The reality of 700+ animals on range in west Texas also means a huge mortality in kids, no supplementation, vaccinations, survival of the fittest and lots of farming like this is done for Tax writeoff, has very little to do with family type farms like we all have. The purebred market either boer or dairy is not going to make you money unless you show. I have been living off my show laurels for awhile now, hardly showing at all, and will have to get back into the show ring to keep my prices what they are now. Most folks simply don't advertise, then are upset they don't have their stock sold. The lesser breeds in dairy are the worst for sales in our area. Now that I won't be selling milk, my export for milkers that aren't show quality becomes that much more important. The internet has become a valualbe tool to be used to get the word out on what you do have for sale, and for folks like Ron Keener to transport the goats that are for sale. So the profit is there to be made but you have to be diverse. Sell milk and make cheese with the unsold milk. etc. Sell meat goats and sausage with the unsold goats. Sell your meat goats young before you have socked wormer, grain and hay into them. Don't keep anything over the winter because you haven't sold it, put it in the freezer. Vicki
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