Summer Into Fall
It’s not quite fall yet here in the northern hemisphere, but technically the meteorological Fall begins on September 1st each year. This year I can definitely feel the differences in the morning and evening temperatures as the seasons change. Mother Nature was actually very kind to our SE Colorado location this summer. We had several generous rainfalls and very little in the way of the destructive blowing dirt that we’ve experienced the past several years. This unusually ample moisture we’ve received throughout the last few months has brought us a great amount of pasture weeds and grass for which we and the goats are definitely grateful!
Quite a bit has gone on during these past few months both geopolitically and in the goat world in general. I observed with some surprise that during the spring and summer months, as fuel prices rose dramatically, goat prices in general also rose as well. For now market prices have dropped somewhat and prices seem to have stabilized. But I feel pretty confident that the demand for goats of any type is going to remain steady for many months to come. As summer draws to a close, I see where many meat producers are already factoring in their production forecasts for the winter and early 2023 market goats.
With the growing demand for weed mitigation across the nation (and around the world), goats of any type seem to be a good investment and valuable commodity for those who are able to have at least a few “browsers” in their portfolio.
On the GoatWorld web site side of things, we had a lot of big plans to accomplish for this year yet there is still time to go for getting a number of these improvements and updates checked off that list. Some of you may notice that I resumed posting goat news and related headlines on a nearly daily basis. Some days are tougher than others simply because the word “goat” has become largely associated with sports figures. Trying to determine which news stories that pertain to actual goats and not people is a challenge. And then of course, there are those celebrities who are considered G.O.A.T.s in their own right, who also happen to own a goat or two…lol.
On a different note, we often receive requests from people who would like to write guest posts and blog share. I have had to turn down the majority of these requests for not being goat or ag-related. While I would love to host some guest authors, the majority of the requests thus far seem to be coming from a growing number of freelance writers who would simply like to capitalize on our well-earned high traffic in order to promote their own wares and services rather than to help enhance the GoatWorld community. It’s been my ongoing commitment to our GoatWorld community to keep it as free of non-related content as possible, so that we don’t appear to be overly pro this or that, especially in the midst of this ever-changing social climate which can be quite hostile for no good reason. Things are tough enough without subjecting our members to unnecessary struggles over non-goat-related things when all they really want is a peaceful environment in which to learn how to take proper care of their animals. So yes we definitely need more content contributors, but it needs to be the right content for us and our members!
That being said, I have entertained the notion for quite some time not to promote GoatWorld as vigorously or perhaps eventually not at all, on social media as I once did, if things on those sites don’t start to improve. The simple fact is that GoatWorld was around long before many social media sites and had to meet many challenges in that wild Internet frontier just to get where we are today. I’m finding that the work it takes to deal with the hostility and constantly moving goal posts on social media sites is taking away time and energy I could have been pouring into GoatWorld itself. I was excited at first to embrace the new technology, but am finding the constant changing of the rules and imposition of unfair and unnecessary (IMHO) restrictions on content on their sites is taking away from providing our site members more content of the kind I had envisioned for our website and our growing community. I want to spend more time promoting our main GoatWorld site rather than walking on eggshells on the social media sites and putting up with the drama that their administrators allow and often create on purpose to meet their political and financial desires. Many of these social media sites have also become extremely restrictive in their policies and while I can understand why, it doesn’t mean that I should follow suit with my own web site policies and change or restrict the content I include or allow on GoatWorld.com.
We do offer opportunities for people to advertise and sell their goats here on our site, which many social media sites do not. Because of this, we have seen quite a bit more interest in advertising on our site with regard to the sale of goat-related services, sales or products. This is one area that we hope to have fully developed and operational very soon! If this sounds like a need or desire your situation could benefit from and you have a goat or agriculture related product, ranch, farm or homestead or service to promote that could benefit our community, please get in touch with us and see what we can do for you. We don’t advertise our site, services or products in the manner that seems commonplace nowadays aka repetitive commercials; we rely upon our name, reputation and word of mouth from our customers. Ours is a name you can trust and lots we still want to do to keep making GoatWorld better than ever. Similarly, if you have experience you would like to contribute in the way of time and energy by writing articles, being a moderator in our Chat Rooms or becoming a Capri-Medic for Goat911.com, chances are we can use your help. Just let us know and we’ll look at all offers to advertise or help out our community. Worst case we can say “Sorry, not a good fit for us.” Or, best case…we can welcome you with open arms in the hope that you will become a valuable contributor in some way to our mission of education and building camaraderie with goat owners, breeders and entrepreneurs around the world. Give us a call – who knows what the future holds?
All these social changes, worries and drama we see in the headlines every day can be quite stressful.. So another area we are going to be growing on our site is that of homesteading and survival education. There are lots of people doing that kind of thing on Youtube and other places. I’m not sure we have the time or energy for all that, but we have been gathering a great deal of what we feel will be tremendously helpful information and links to help our members solve many of their individual homesteading and goat raising challenges. We have been finding a ton of shareable, relevant tips and info in the areas of Gardening, DIY’s and saving money during these tough times. By stepping away from the daily chaos of Social Media and Internet and coding for awhile, we have been able to learn to relax and work more on our own property and animals instead of fretting about things we can’t control. As the temperatures have begun to change, we’ve had quite a bit to do outside as I am sure many of you do as well. Getting ready for winter is always on minds, especially as the the nighttime temperatures get closer to freezing. Getting in plenty of straw gathered for winter bedding, making sure enclosures and pens are secure and well as obtaining enough hay and grain to make it through to Spring are just a few things I know are important right now while there is still time to get it done.
Of course for those that breed for Winter Kiddings, there is a whole slew of preparations to make as well. Personally, it seems to me our goats choose the coldest winter day or night to bring their new kids into the world. In the past it has been commonplace here to have a couple if not several, Dollar Store plastic tubs ready for those kids who would freeze otherwise. Rather than risk the use of heat lamps, we prefer bringing the less thrifty kids in right away and bottle feeding, before turning them out. As some of you know, goats can take some pretty cold temperatures. But they need to be strong and healthy to begin with before being able to survive those cold temperatures.
In the coming months, I will try to focus on “Preparing for Winter” in general and “Preparing for Winter Kiddings” in particular. As always, I will provide various articles and links on our main site. I encourage you, especially if you are a member of our Facebook group to start using our Goatworld Article Library more often and share links to it with new goat owners you may meet, whether online or offline. If there are any specific topics that you would like me to address, please feel free to contact me and let me know. This especially applies to “newbies”, aka first time goat owners. I tell anyone raising goats, “Don’t be scared of winter. Be prepared for winter!” In my experience I’ve sadly lost more goats in the extreme heat of summer than the extreme cold of winter. And over the years these losses have become less and less just because I had gained more experience, listened more closely to my wife, and been far more prepared beforehand rather than waiting til’ the snow falls or the temperatures drop at the last minute. When you are more prepared, you have more time to enjoy those you put in the hard work to take care of.
Til’ next time, may your pastures be green and your goats happy and healthy!
Gary & Pamela Pfalzbot