Nanny Goats

Nanny Boer Goats

As I said in my post about our Billy goat, I was not in love with the idea of having goats again.  However, I gave in and we purchased our billy.  About a month later we found some reasonably priced nannies that are not registered but are supposed to be 100% boer.  As we were picking them out I knew I wanted some that were the red head, white body for a good mix of color with our red billy.  They were all wild in the pen and crying like crazy.  First, I picked the one little goat that had a heart-shaped white patch on her forehead.  My daughter wanted the dairy goat, which if we weren't after meat goats only she probably would have had!  We were, though, wanting meat goats, so the other we picked was the medium sized little girl.  The smaller one was skinny and looked somewhat unhealthy and the biggest one had a mangy looking coat.  When we stopped for a snack on the way home they both bauled like someone was hurting them.  I felt like a "kidnapper".  I bet people there thought we were crazy. 

We have kept them in the smaller pen separate from the billy.  They are about 5 months old now and both look much healthier than when we picked them up.  We feed them pasture and some goat feed each day.  They were wild and crazy when they arrived, but have tamed down enough to come near us now.  They still don't like being touched but hopefully that will come.  We like our animals to be tame mainly so the kids can play with them and take them to the fair if they want to.  

At least our little girls don't get their heads stuck in the fence as Billy does.  They do however get out with the Billy from time to time.  Or Billy gets in with them.  It wouldn't matter if they were old enough to breed, but as of now they are only 5 months old.  We need them to wait until about October or 7 months old to get bred.  We are looking forward to the babies in March! 

Overall, our goat endeavors are going well so far, I have learned a lot in the short time we have had them and they have not been a huge investment.  So far I would suggest goats to anyone wanting small animals to eat down weeds in the pasture, for your kids to work with and possibly make a little money in the process.   I am looking forward to our goat herd growing this spring, if he doesn't talk me in to more yet this fall. 

Have a great day!