Goat Farmer

I am wrapping up my time here in Lakeview. And I have to say goodbye to folks I've been working with all year. Today I said goodbye to the goat farmer I've been working with since February.

This man is 73 years old. I met him in February. At the time his goats were delivering babies. Tons of them. About 40 total. He called us for help so he could build a fence so the goats had a healthy goat to acreage ratio. I've gotten to know him pretty well over the past few months. My friends and mom have met him. He is kind and old and quick to smile. He always says that he doesn't want to end up sitting on the couch all day watching TV with a fuzzy blanket. And I don't blame him.

This man has also shared so much of his life story with me. He told me about the time in 1979 he decided to expand his successful feed lot in California. Less then a year after he borrowed 250k from Farm and Home Agency (its something like that I forget, but a department in the federal government) the market shattered. Cattle went from selling at $3 a pound to 18cents. He lost everything overnight and paid it back. I think he finished paying it back in the late '90s. And he mentioned he did not participate in a class-action lawsuit against the federal government. He doesn't regret it. He loves this country. He served for 14 years in the army and fought in Korea. He just doesn't understand how he has ended up so poor. He worked hard his whole life and did everything above the table and he is still dirt poor. So poor he can't improve his small herd of goat.

This man has had goats for about 6 years. He bought three goats for less then $100 and now he has about 100 head. The two years prior to this he began to breed his does. And for two years in a row he had a crop of stillborn babies. And he had no idea why. Can you imagine delivering 30 dead goat babies. Two years in a row and not knowing why. I can't imagine anything more horrific. He thinks he feed them bad hay. Unlike cows, goats have very sensitive stomachs and cannot digest even a tiny bit of moldy hay. And this is the kind of mold that the regular eye cannot see.

This man was so happy and relieved to have 47 healthy baby goats this year. He was finally looking forward to having a business.

As it turns out, I was unable to help him find money to build his fence. And with the price of fuel being so high and in turn the price of feed being so high he must make a choice about whether to continue with the business of goat farming or scale down to make it a manageable hobby. I've been hoping he does the latter. But it is hard to tell a 73 year old that when you are 27.

As of today he has decided to downsize the herd. He is going to start taking them to a livestock auction in Fresno starting in a couple weeks.