Meet Mo

Thursday, we drove to and from Springfield to pick up this little gem. 

You may be thinking, "Ashley, don't you have enough goats?"  Or, possibly, "Didn't you have 5 bucklings born on your farm this year that you've already sold?"

But, the thing about a dairy herd is that unless you want to breed a doe with her grandfather or half-brother, you've got to periodically introduce some new blood to the herd.  So, I've been shopping for a new buckling to raise up for breeding. 

Let me just tell you that shopping for a goat now that I've spent a few years with goats is drastically different than the way we shopped for our first goats.  Back then, we were pleased as punch to have found a Nubian milker from breeding lines that we'd heard of. 

Shopping for this fella involved months of combing online goat sales' resources, enduring a Facebook newsfeed cluttered with close-ups of udders, and managing umpteen emails and messages with breeders asking all kinds of questions about everything from teat placement to udder attachment to test results to freshenings to pounds of milk.  I knew what I wanted.  It was just a matter of finding all the criteria in one goat that was within my price range and within driving distance. 

It's late in the kidding season.  I'd just about given up hope.  Then, I saw him in my newsfeed one day.  He hails from even further north, but his breeder was willing to meet us in Springfield.  On his registration papers, he has a nice, fancy name.  But, to us, he's Mo -- after his birth state.

To some, he may look like a goat.  You may not be able to see what it is about him that's so special.  He's not super flashy, with loud spots, like some of our new ladies.  But this fella has the bloodlines and the stature to produce some amazing animals for us.  I can see it in the way he stands in the field -- the way he carries himself. 

The boys have not been too hard on him so far, but poor Mo is taking a little time to get adjusted.   He bawled himself hoarse his first night here, and the other guys are mostly keeping their distance.  He's a sweet, gentle fella;  I know that soon enough, the guys will welcome him into their herd. 

And, all this shopping, all this planning -- and then, spur of the moment on Thursday, I ended up buying another goat, too.  But, that story will have to wait until the next post.  :)