[carolm]

First of all I guess I need to say I have 22 PET, TAME, friendly goats and I hope there are some Austin Area members here.

I need to add 14 to my pygmy herd for my ag exemption SOON and I was told the auction rarely has them but when they do they go dirt cheap. Like $35. for bred nanny and 3 or 4 kids. This is about my price range, unfortunately.

I would like to find a contact there who could tell me when they are going to have some so I dont waste a lot of time and gas going to look at old cows.

I am south of Taylor about 20 minutes and dont know of any other auctions that are close. Are there any animal rescues that have goats they need to rehome? My truck is a gas guzzler so I dont want to drive more than 30 minutes.

I saw the posting from the lady who got one at a slaughter house? Whats that about?????

Any other ideas how to get 14 goats with very little cash (SSDisabilty income) maybe barter, so I can save over $500 on my property taxes.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I knew nothing about goats when a renter bought this small herd and left them for me when he left. Its been real!!!!!!

Bless you and have a glorious New Year!!

Carol

 

[StaceyRosado]

Hi Carol and welcome to our forum. Not sure but i think cjpup may be near you and if she doesn't have something for sale she may know someone who does.

here is her website http://finepygmypals.com/default.aspx

 

[sweetgoats]

Welcome to TGS. It is a great place to be.
I know there are LOTS of pygmy goats in NM. I have a friend that shows there are a BUNCH of the NM people come up here to do shows. BUT there they are registered and they charge a ridiculing price of like $300.00-400.00 for a doe.
I would find out where the big auctions are and try to go there.
My In Laws are in Malakoff, isn't that pretty close to you?

 

[sweetgoats]

I just read another Post, and that reminded me. Try Craigslist.com. Go to all the different towns that are somewhat near you and post in the pet section and the Farm and Ranch. Ask if anyone has any pygmy that they would like to sell.
Do you have to stick with Pygmy goats? I do believe in TX you will have a lot better chance of finding Boer and Cashmere goats.

 

[sweetgoats]

I just looked at our craigs list here in Colorado. I just found a posting that has Pygmy goats for sale in Southern CO. I will try to put the link on here for you. i have no idea if that is to far for you.
http://cosprings.craigslist.org/grd/533863881.html

 

[carolm]

Boy you guys are quick! Anything outside the Austin, TX area is too far. I never heard of Malakoff so I dont think its close. There are a few for sale in Craigslist but they are the $75 and up ones. Boers are all over the place here because there are so many who eat them. I have not seen any cashmere ads (never saw one except pics) I am raising PETS! Little ones I can pick up or pull by the horns if they get stubborn. I am alone and slightly over 50. I dont want to tangle with anything bigger than my baby pygmies. My biggest hurdle at this point is CASH. I have been hoping to wake up one morning to find the goat fairies had left me a herd of dwarfs but for some reason that hasn't happened yet.

If I might add a technical question - the appraisal district told me i need to have 36 animals and they arrived at that by some weight formula for goats. If I added a couple cows or something big with a lot of weight would that count? This is hypothetical of course, as I have no intention of trying to buy feed, barns, etc for them. I am thinking it probably varies by County and TX has the most screwed up laws - different than any state I have ever lived in.

Thanks so much for your caring help. I believe God makes a way where there is no way, so I know it will work out, some how, in time. If this offends anyone, I am sorry. I know you all have to be loving people if you care for his babies and help others care for theirs.

May you all be blessed and prospered in the New Year!

Carol

 

[cjpup]

Whoa....wait a sec!!! They told you you had to have 36 animals? THATS CRAZY!! When we got our ag exempt, all they told us was that we had to have a certain amount of acreage. No animal requirement at all as long as we were paying feed. I would call your county and see exactly what the requirements are because that sounds insane!! When we got our (last year) we told them we had about 150 goats go through our herd a year (a little exagerated now but at the biggining with the original 40 goats we had, it was true). All they did was come out and see that we had a herd (no size requirement) and a certain amount of acrage. I would call someone to make sure if I were you.

Thank You Stacey for referring us to her!!! I was surprised when I saw that! LOL!. Right now, I dont have anything available but may have 2 does with kids at side after they birth in February and also some other kids. I know you dont want to travel much but that is what I have. I also have contacts in Weatherford if your interested I can give you her email adress.

I hope you can get this worked out but to have 36 animals mandatory is silly......! But I guess it could change depend on your county.

CJ

 

[StaceyRosado]

Thank You Stacey for referring us to her!!! I was surprised when I saw that! LOL!
CJ

now why are you surprised? I am aways trying to help people get connected with other people in their geographical location - hey we may not see eye to eye on every aspect of goat raising but were are not the first to encounter such differences and nor will we be the last.

 

[carolm]

Im in Bastrop County and you have to have a minimum of 10 acres. I only have 9 but they are giving me a break because the land was under ag exemption but got lost a couple years ago, and I am disabled and they know I have problems with paying the difference in the non-ag rate.

You had a lot of animals to start with. When we started we had 5 pg nannies, a buck and an orphan. My dogs immediately got at either end of the little buck and he was gone. My neighbor shot one of the pg nannies for fun. If i had 100 acres I would still only need 36 I THINK. They go by animal UNITS. I dont remember exactly how it works but say a cow is 1 unit. It takes 6 goats to equal a cow and you need 6 units. anyway it came out to 36. Thats the minimum but I dont know if you have to have more the more acreage you have.

The bummer of the whole thing is my neighbor with 6 acres was supposed to do this with me. I turned in the paperwork for 15 acres together, and we needed 36 animals, we had to have a lease in one name, mine of course, then I had the goats and I guess he thought I was going to buy them all?? Just so I could give HIM an ag exemption??? SO, thats another reason the appraisal district is giving me leniency on the 10 acre minimum rule. He backed out on the lease.

I used to pay less than $2 a year for the 6 acres my house is not on. Now its over $500. If I had that $500 i could have added to the herd and been all legal.

Was there an exemption on your land when you started your herd? Here you have to be under ag exemption 5 of the last 7 years or you have to start from scratch and have 5 years showing compliance and all recordkeeping to qualify. It was 2 years without as of 1/1/08 but they dont come out to inspect til about March. If I dont make it, I have to start over until I have 5 out of the last 7 years, and I have wasted a bunch of money taking care of these babies that I needed to pay my taxes.

I could have sold the babies and made more than enough to pay for feed and medical bills but I kept them all trying to get the number up. I have 5 bucks one of them was an orphan someone gave me - a registered DAIRY goat! Plus 4 more bucklings out of the last round. Its fun trying to keep the boys and girls apart.

One thing in Texas, the laws are different even by county concerning most everything, even the usual government programs for low income people. You can look at the .GOV site and it will tell you about all these programs for people in your income group and when you go to apply they have no funds.

I have been wanting to get away from this community for years, and when I get the chance I am going to investigate all the laws of that county before I even start looking at land!!!!

My dream life is to find some other adults who love animals, gardening, working together, and have a multitude of trade skills to have a nice community on a BIG piece of land with a lot of water, small lake, stream, etc and be as self sufficient as possible and have a lot more $$$ for things other than bills. Its hard to try and take care of my property alone. I need another pair of hands for a lot of the work that needs to be done. As far as friendships, I have been in this town 17 years and know a bunch of people to stop and talk to when we pass, but no real FRIENDS and few that I trust.
Sad that places like this really exist.

Bless you all for caring and sharing!!!!