REFLECTIONS - 2001

Looks like kidding season is winding down across the country and what a great one it has been. If the quality of goat kids I’ve seen in my travels are any indication of what’s going on I must say you, the breeders, are doing a great job. It seems everyone I talk to is steadily striving to improve their herd. What a turn-around for an industry that just ten short years ago was producing just goats. Now it has gotten to the point that we all want to produce the "best" goats. When I look back at all the years we sold goats for $35.00 a head or less and then at the process we are getting today, I have to think how far we have come. For many years there wasn’t much of an incentive to produce quality, but man has that changed now. With goats now selling by the pound instead of by the head it is worth it to invest in a good billy goat regardless of the breed. Heavier weaning weights mean more dollars in your pocket and that is what it’s all about after all. We also now have market goat classes at a good many State livestock fairs across the U.S. and therefore a strong market for the best wethers we produce annually. And often times can sell these better animals at quite a premium over slaughter prices. I do urge you to stay reasonable on your prices charged for them.

Another development has been the establishment of breeding goat shows at many of these same fairs and expositions. While in the past some breeders had good stock, they had no place to show them off. And while showing is not everyone’s cup of tea, we all have to admit that the showing of any breed of livestock helps to better that industry as a whole. After all these persons show only the finest representatives of any class of stock and act as ambassadors for their respective industries.

I appreciate the efforts of these showmen and women and hope that they will keep up the good work. At the same time I hope all of the participants in these shows including the judges will keep in perspective what’s important in the breeding classes. It would be a terrible thing if the meat goat industry goes the way of many other livestock shows in regards to type of breeding stock shown. In many segments of the livestock industry today what wins in the show-ring loses in the pasture. This is mainly due to a divergence in what type makes a show animal and what type’s really a production animal. Many of the heifers shown for example would never make a mama cow by any stretch of the imagination. It is still early enough on in the meat goat showing arena to keep this from happening to us in the meat goat industry. Let’s keep our animals on track and remember the most important part of production agriculture in the goat industry is production! While I like a pretty goat as well as the next person, performance in the pasture is more important to me. It really appears we are heading in the right direction and at great speed still. We’ve got it going on and are still growing nationwide, as the demand for goat meat and quality breeding stock remains strong. Let’s just not run our gravy train off the tracks and down the wrong road.