I have to go to the pumpkin farm this weekend for our annual slog through the wet muddy ground to buy a $30 pumpkin, but one of the things I always look forward to is getting a few handfuls of feed and feeding the goats at the petting zoo and I started thinking how cool it would be to have my own goat. Just out of idle curiosity, how much does a live goat usually go for? I don’t need anything fancy, no exotic fainting goats or anything, just your standard billy goat. Yes, I’d want a guy one with cool twisty horns too, if that increases the price.
Then as an aside, what does goat upkeep usually run? Basically I’m just wondering if I could afford to have one. Note: I live in a townhouse in the middle of suburbia so it’s not going to happen anyway.
We bought a 300 pound pig for around $300. I’m guessing an adult goat would be about 120-150 pounds. I’d imagine you could pick one up for $120 to $150.
It’s an actual totally SFW site that lists goat breeders and their contact info. Some of the breeders have their own sites linked with price lists and in some cases pictures of the goats for sale. If the smilie was throwing you, that was more to indicate that I found myself funny with the dowry joke. (I realize it wasn’t really that funny)
Hey cool, goats seem to be much cheaper than dogs both in cost and upkeep, and plus they can headbut things and then if you feel like eating them one day, nobody can have you arrested. This keeps getting better and better.
You can get a cute little fainting goat here in Tennessee for about $100. I’d bet you can get a boer goat for $65-85. They’re easy keepers, willing to eat stuff horses and cattle won’t . They don’t need alfalfa hay, plain grass should be just fine. Square bales of grass hay will run about $4/bale here. Goats are hard to keep in and will escape given any opportunity.
I used to have a dog that did that, but if a $65 goat ran away and I never saw it again I’d be a bit less torn up than if a $800 dog did it.
Once again, I live in a townhouse and am not actually going to be buying a goat. I don’t have enough room and besides, my girlfriend would probably be kind of annoyed. No goats in the laundry room, no ducks in the bathtub, no penguins in the freezer. She’s like that.
On a side note, you may be interested in the work of Heifer.org. It’s a charity that allows you to buy whole or shares of livestock for donation to subsistence farmers and the like. Looking around at the site is interesting too, especially how things are priced (goat is $120).
I can see why she wouldn’t want goats or ducks, but no penguins in the freezer is just irrational.
Since you are into hypotheticals, Here in PR you could have it almost for free. Although they are not that popular (this is pig country, with cows for decoration), you can always find a friendly neighbor willing to give you one for free or almost ($50 if he plain hates you), and then you just dump it in your land. They really need no looking after.
As someone said, though, they are hard to keep where you want them to stay. You better have good locks in that laundry room of yours.
I bought my ex a pygmy goat about 10 years ago. She cost me $125, we had her for about a year. She started to become ornery, even our dogs who used to play with her began to avoid her. I think she didn’t like being the only goat. I sold her back to the person I bought her from for the same I paid. Goat chow was rather expensive though, $45 for a 20 pound bag that would last a couple weeks. She was in a normal sized backyard and did not have a lot of grazing space. She did keep the blackberries in check and she crapped in the same spot making compost her droppings easy.
Oh, that’s fair enough. Everyone knows that penguins go in the biscuit tin.
Pity you can’t have a goat, though. I now find myself wondering whether it’s true about Byron and the bear. Have you thought of having a bear, if the objections only cover goats, ducks, and penguins?
Might you keep bats in the belfry? How about eels in your hovercraft?
Also, what’s this nonsense about feeding alfa alfa bales and goat chow? The whole point of goats is they eat any crap that no other animal will touch. They can live off of barbed wire and thorn bushes.
I now find myself wondering whether it’s true about Byron and the bear. Have you thought of having a bear, if the objections only cover goats, ducks, and penguins?