A trip to the livestock sale

About a week ago I decided to head over to the local livestock sale that is held each Monday. It’s only about a ten minute drive from where I live.

My hope was to find a buck goat for breeding, so I could get at least one of my girls pregnant this fall. Autumn is mating season for goats. Female goats will go into heat every twenty-one days from August through January. Kids (baby goats) are born 148-152 days after conception. During this time of year, males go into what is called “rut” and stink like hell. They pee on their faces and legs so the females will find them attractive. Seriously, not kidding here.

As luck would have it, there were around 15 goats being sold that day, of various breeds and sizes. As luck would NOT have it, only one of them was a boy. The boy was a young LaMancha type, which is a dairy breed with no ears. A very creepy-ass looking thing if you ask me. But whatever.

So I grabbed a cheeseburger and a Mountain Dew (‘cuz that’s what all the locals were drinking) from the Amish-run cafeteria and took my seat to wait for the auction to begin. There weren’t many people there today. It’s usually jam-packed with Amish. They must have had something more important to do. Perhaps a barn raising or something, or whatever Amish do… I don’t know. But this too, turned out to be in my favor.

The cows soon began passing through the viewing area and the auctioneer sprang in to action, cracking his mallet on the counter and shouting out numbers and words that mostly sounded like foreign gibberish to my brain. How anyone can really understand the guy is beyond me. It’s seriously annoying. I have no clue how much I’m ever bidding. I just go with the flow and hope I get what I’m after. And I wanted that boy goat. The buck. And I had $150 to blow…

Finally, they were done selling the smelly, poop covered cows and started to bring out the goats. My palms were sweating and my heart was racing from the Mountain Dew. I was beginning to think something happened with the boy goat until they brought him out. Last, of course.

Flashing up my number card and waiving frantically I bid, and bid, and bid some more. After a few stressful seconds and $102 later, he was mine. I could finally relax and finish drinking my can of yellow sugar-water while watching the other animals pass through the sale.

The Pigs were next. And I still had some money left. There were a lot of pigs for sale that day. But not a lot of buyers. Another good thing. I figured I might was well try to buy a pig to boot. And I ended up getting a two-month old pig for $36. [Happy dance]

Things got even better. The goat was actually nice. He even knew how to lead.  He looked well cared for, hooves trimmed nice and all.  When I brought Riley and Sweet Pea home from the sale neither were tame. They screamed like hell. It took me months to get them to come near me. Sweet Pea still won’t approach anyone.

The day turned out great and I headed back home with my sugar-induced high, my stinky goat and a terrified pig. Neither of which have names yet. Now I just have to watch, be patient and hope the buck is old enough to get “the job” done this year… ~A