Raising Meat Goats for Profit, Chapter 4, Buying your First Goats

Chapter 4. This chapter includes how to choose a meat goat herd, what to look for in a meat goat or boer goat, how to find a respectable goat breeder.

The very first and most important thing I tell people is, "Don´t buy at the auctions and sale yards!"  No matter what you are going to do with your stock, a healthy goat will grow and produce better than a sick animal. It has been my experience that auctions are a good place to get rid of problem animals, and a perfect place to acquire someone else´s problems. Think about it. Why would a reputable breeder sell his animals at auction, where he has no control over price, if he could sell them by private treaty? Unless, he needed money fast, or didn´t want to damage his reputation because there was some problem with the goats. Whether you are looking for good foundation stock, or good fullblood breeding stock, the answer is the same: Find a reputable breeder!

This chapter includes buying fullbloods, bloodlines, buying a meat herd, what to look for in a meat goat, choosing a doe, and choosing a buck.