The Big Roundup

Tuesday was our big goat roundup.  They were already sold and we had to deliver them to the livestock market on Wednesday. 

 It only took an hour of walking this time to get them all together. 

 Jett (and the three other dogs) watched over the proceedings. 

 Most of the goats herd,

 but some still follow. 

 That's what 148 goats looks like.  We got them all into our large barnlot for Tuesday night.  Then early Wednesday we pushed them on into the barn to start sorting.

We culled a few nannies and kept 51.  We then sorted out 20 nice doelings to keep or sell separately to someone wanting to raise goats.  Then we kept 5 of the really small ones to maybe sell in the spring when they are bigger.   That left 72 kids to sell, our most ever.  But between the end of kidding and selling, we lost 13 to worms and coyotes.   Amazingly, my record keeping proved to be accurate, my paper count matched what we actually had.  Our weights were really down.  Between keeping back 20 of the biggest, the bad worm year, 20 of the nannies being first time kidders, and battling foot problems because of the wet weather, they only averaged 44 pounds.  Maybe next year will be better.