Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Problem Goats

I know I've mentioned them before, but I have two problem goats in the herd. Number 10 has a lot of Spanish influence in her, which makes her a good jumper. She can jump the electric fence from a stand. Mostly, she stays put, but she knows she can jump out any time she wants. She's also one of the most skittish of our goats, and these two things make it very difficult to catch her for deworming and hoof trimming.

Number 6 has learned how to get her nose under the bottom wire of fence (which isn't hot) and then scoots her way under it. She gets zapped a little bit, but not enough to stop her. A lot of times Bantini squirts through with her. I could probably stop her by staking down the bottom strand of fence all around the paddock, but that kind of defeats the purpose of movable fencing.

These two goats have an ultimatum. If they don't produce kids this year, they're going to auction. I might be willing to put up with their escape habits if they were good producers, but otherwise they have no place in our flock.

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