Chat
10-18-2016, 03:25 PM
This is a similar situation to what I was in years ago, packed 1 deer out myself on a very long hike and told myself THERES GOTTA BE A BETTER WAY haha. Here is my .02 on what I have learned but hey I'm still learning.
So far I have owned 6 goats in the last 4 years of having pack goats, the first pair I bought were Obers from a guy off of a hunting forum and they worked fine until the smallest one decided to quite working ( jerry ) and became a total PITA to deal with, which wasn't to big of a deal since his bigger counterpart ( samson ) was a work horse and was fine with just hunting and hiking with me while I left the lame duck at home with my 2 younger alpines ( loki and pan ). This worked out great until I came home from a short hunt to find samson dead from reasons unknown. Know I had 2 babys and a non worker literally 1 week before a planned wilderness hunt. UGH
After that I found 2 very large boys ( moe and eustis ) off of a goat forum that were rescue goats and gave Jerry to a nice family down the road from me who needed a companion for there other goat they had. but now I was down to 2 baby goats and 2 untested goats so there wasn't much happening that hunting season as the 2 big goats were getting used to there surroundings and I didn't want them mixed in with the baby goats as eustis was very aggressive towards both of them.
After afew months they settled in and eustis calmed down abit ( at least when I was around ) so we started hiking. Right off the bat moe was kinda a PITA , not following, more interested in eating than hiking , which would screw everything up as he is the "top goat" . So I began hiking with just the young goats or just the big goats as I didn't want moes tendencies to rub off on my younger guys. So far its been good but I can't hike with all of them. I can hike with just eustis but I have to leave the younger ones at home or moe will completely lose his mind trying to get out, and he always does whether he jumps the fence, smashes trough it or whatever.
Through all of this though my 2 youngest goats ( loki and pan ) who I got from Dave at trinity farms have been hands down the best pack goats due to having them after they turned 3 months old and working with them and taking them on as much trips as possible, whether its a hiking trip or camping or working trip they usually go with me.
My Point?
You get what you get from Craigslist and forums....Some goats turn out great but some are just well....barn turds and alot of the time when you buy 2 or more I feel your getting one great goat and then the " problem goat " that the previous owner didn't want to deal with and can't see getting rid of just the one " problem goat ". Maybe I'm wrong but this has been my short experience with goats. I would highly suggest buying them younger and freshly weaned but It'll take 2-3 years before you can really put a decent pack load on them, or buy acouple younger ones and a couple older ones and be prepared to get rid of the duds putting your working goat string together. My Ideal pack string will be 3 goats as I primarily hunt deer and next year I will be hunting with loki, pan and eustis. Again this is just my experience.
So far I have owned 6 goats in the last 4 years of having pack goats, the first pair I bought were Obers from a guy off of a hunting forum and they worked fine until the smallest one decided to quite working ( jerry ) and became a total PITA to deal with, which wasn't to big of a deal since his bigger counterpart ( samson ) was a work horse and was fine with just hunting and hiking with me while I left the lame duck at home with my 2 younger alpines ( loki and pan ). This worked out great until I came home from a short hunt to find samson dead from reasons unknown. Know I had 2 babys and a non worker literally 1 week before a planned wilderness hunt. UGH
After that I found 2 very large boys ( moe and eustis ) off of a goat forum that were rescue goats and gave Jerry to a nice family down the road from me who needed a companion for there other goat they had. but now I was down to 2 baby goats and 2 untested goats so there wasn't much happening that hunting season as the 2 big goats were getting used to there surroundings and I didn't want them mixed in with the baby goats as eustis was very aggressive towards both of them.
After afew months they settled in and eustis calmed down abit ( at least when I was around ) so we started hiking. Right off the bat moe was kinda a PITA , not following, more interested in eating than hiking , which would screw everything up as he is the "top goat" . So I began hiking with just the young goats or just the big goats as I didn't want moes tendencies to rub off on my younger guys. So far its been good but I can't hike with all of them. I can hike with just eustis but I have to leave the younger ones at home or moe will completely lose his mind trying to get out, and he always does whether he jumps the fence, smashes trough it or whatever.
Through all of this though my 2 youngest goats ( loki and pan ) who I got from Dave at trinity farms have been hands down the best pack goats due to having them after they turned 3 months old and working with them and taking them on as much trips as possible, whether its a hiking trip or camping or working trip they usually go with me.
My Point?
You get what you get from Craigslist and forums....Some goats turn out great but some are just well....barn turds and alot of the time when you buy 2 or more I feel your getting one great goat and then the " problem goat " that the previous owner didn't want to deal with and can't see getting rid of just the one " problem goat ". Maybe I'm wrong but this has been my short experience with goats. I would highly suggest buying them younger and freshly weaned but It'll take 2-3 years before you can really put a decent pack load on them, or buy acouple younger ones and a couple older ones and be prepared to get rid of the duds putting your working goat string together. My Ideal pack string will be 3 goats as I primarily hunt deer and next year I will be hunting with loki, pan and eustis. Again this is just my experience.