Crickets.
Some people are trying to sell their dairy animal at lower prices as unregistered stock, and still no takers.
Prices drop week over week.
Folks, we are in a dairy goat depression.
There is no question that dairy goat sales are at an all-time low. Most people do not want to ship their goats to the auction yard because that is not a happy ending for the goat, but it is a necessary step in this period of retrenchment.
Doe kids are not selling, except for those of a few top herds.
I'm here to posit that maybe this is an important sea change for Canadian dairy goats, and Nigerian Dwarves in particular, where people are finally not able to sell every kid that hits the ground. It's time to weed this garden.
Our experience
It cost me a fortune to get re-established in Nigerians when I moved back home to Canada in 2021. I am sorry to say that while I spent $500-800 per goat, 75% of these ended up ranking as culls in my herd due to abysmal milk production (or carpal hyperextension, which is another story for another day).
I'm speaking of Nigerians in particular, the main market that has crashed. They were wildly popular for a long time, which generally does not bode well for any species. I don't know what most people were breeding for, but it sure as heck was not sustained, productive lactations, or even butterfat.
Let's not blame blue eyes and moonspots. Those are just colors, the problem runs far deeper than that. Some of the best Dwarves I incorporated into my breeding program in the US (thank you, DesertNanny) had amazing wild colors, bright blue eyes and rock-solid production to go with.
Let's not blame the closed border. I am at a loss as to why the Canadian herd is lacking, because the border was only shut down a few years ago. This is the only breed in which I'm seeing the problem, and we've got a huge number of these goats compared to say, Toggenburgs or Alpines.
We can still selectively sift our own stock for conformation and production.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night... unless you're a Nigerian Dwarf
With apologies to Herodotus, I've adapted the ancient courier's creed to a different sort of mission: making milk.
In 2023, While our Oberhaslis were busy producing under all weather conditions, the stress of showing, eating all levels of feed quality* and other challenges, 80% of our Nigerian's milk output dropped precipitously in the early fall (they also started packing on fat in August as quickly as their production dropped).
I quickly learned that the majority of Nigerian breeders simply stopped milking in late August or early September, after the last show. They were hobbyists dabbling in a production space and I can't even fault them - we all keep dairy goats for different reasons, and their goals were simply not aligned with nigh, sustained lactations. There is a place for pet goats!
I surmise that over the last few decades there has been little selection for productivity over a 305-day lactation in this breed, and because almost every kid born could be sold to a boom market... there was little, if any, real culling.
Many of these low performance goats could still earn milking stars, because breeders would undertake a One Day Milk Test early in their lactation, when these does were actually productive. This sort of burst lactation celebration becomes misleading for people who seek meaningful long-term milk production.
I no longer want to see the posts about what a doe milked at her peak, as exciting as that is for all of us; I want to see what she's producing at 8, 9 months into her lactation.
*As proof of resilience, one of our Obis almost died from a terrible pneumonia last April, became almost skeletal after two weeks at death's doorstep, but once she recovered, still managed to earn her 305-day *P award.
What about the Nigerian's legendary high butterfat? It ain't there, people.
I enrolled in DHIA 305-day test to prove my point and to start rectifying the situation in my herd with a track record to record progress.
I now have a record for butterfat for Nigerians in my herd that freshened in 2023 who did not make their *P, and that I milked for as long as I could before they just dried themselves up.
I hope you're as shocked as I was: 2.11%, 2.28%, 1.88%, 2.73%, 1.45%, 4.58%. Guess which one is still in the herd.
(The three that did make their *P came in at 5.61%, 7.91%, 4.61% BF)
In future, I will not buy any Nigerian stock unless it comes from a DHIA 305-day test herd, period. Let's see how they're milking in November! The herds that cater to the "pet trade" can keep their animals.
I'm hitting the auction in a few weeks with the late-born bucklings and yes, another load of does from the bottom 25% of our herd. They have great conformation, scoring in the VG range, but they fail at their primary role in our herd: making milk.
Anyone who is looking for pretty show goats and doesn't care that they'll dry up on a dime at the end of the month, message me. ;P
Our Oberhaslis, and now the first-freshening LaManchas, are steady, productive and continue to prove my point:
Pound for pound, it costs as much to feed, house, and provide for a poor goat as it does for a good goat.
Now, to figure out how to get our BGS-registered Guernseys on official milk test too!
Yours in goats,
Linda
PS. the picture in this post is our Potting Shed MM Austin Rose, who is an absolute and utter jerk on the milk stand, but who DID earn her *P last year and classified EX this spring. :D