Wilbur's Goat Fest

This was our fourth year bringing our goat kids to town for a little goatie love. Lots of children and parents come to see the goats... This is the guy who makes it all happen... he wuvs the baby goats! What a softie...

One little boy (not the one below - tho his stance helps to illustrate my story) was having a merry old time with the goats... laughing, giggling... the goats nibble. They nibble shirt hems and pants and pockets and zippers.

This particular boy had some cargo pants on. There were many, many zippers and pockets to nibble. He was giggling and telling his Mama, "Mama, Mama! They like to eat my zippers!" and then....

Oh lordy.... you can see it coming....

The goat kid moved around front and began to investigate the boy's fly zipper... "OH! Mama! They like eating my pee pee too!"

Try explaining THAT story to your friends later....

There are lots of adults that don't want to come in the pen and you can tell they are just itchin' to pet a goat. I like to keep one up on the "wall" for people to see, touch, ask questions about...

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There were some college boys that stopped by. "What IS that?" When I told them it was a goat kid, they exclaimed, "Dude. That is SICK!" They called a couple friends to tell them they were petting a goat.... they took a couple pix with their camera phone.... totally sick.

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I know. Right?

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Seriously.

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Mostly we get questions about what happened to their ears? Nothing, they are Lamanchas and their ears come out that way. Little gopher ears that make them look like Kermit the Frog... or like grasshopper heads....

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How big do they get? 180 - 200 lbs, about mid-top thigh high...males being bigger

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Are those their horns growing in? No they are disbudded...

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Why do you take the horns off? Because their heads get stuck in fences, they can injure themselves or us... (I know others do not disbud and it's all good, there are a ga-zillion ways to raise goats!)

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What do you do with them? We milk the does and use the milk for drinking, cheese, yogurt, soap, lotion etc. Males usually go to homes to be companions for other animals or as pets or people raise them and eat them....

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I bet the goats eat everything huh? Actually no. They will go straight for your expensive landscape vs. the weeds you want them to eat!

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Is goat milk really different? Not if it's handled right. We have taste tests all the time with people using whole cows milk from the store and our goat milk. In 6 yrs one person picked the goat milk. Everyone else says the grocery store milk must be our goat milk.

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We had leashes on the goats this year which worked well. Many people hesitate or linger at the gate to come in. The gate stays open and baby goats are quick! If one escaped, it would not fare very well against the cars in the busy parking lot.

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I'm guessing a smooshed goat kid would cause lots of emotional trauma to the young children.... years of therapy... Do you still hear the lambs screaming Clarice?

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If a goat was eyeing the open gate, a foot on the leash or grabbing up the leash worked like a charm. Besides, little humans like to have something to DO with the goats and this way they could "walk" the babies. Not that there was much room to go a'walkin'. The children don't seem to care.

One more successful goat fest under our belts!