Precursor to smart purchasing

Wanna know my hot take?

Buying a goat for thousands of dollars is probably not going to improve your herd, and is not where people need to actually start.

Now, if you spent $40k on a single goat and thats exactly what you were wanting - fantastic! I am happy for you and I genuinely hope you are both excited and satisfied with your purchase. I am not referencing experienced breeders that know exactly what their herd is lacking, excelling at, or where they want to be and using those as informed points of reference for their purchases. Don't @ me without bothering to read further.

I am referencing people feeling pressured to make purchases just to appease future new buyers, people who say "x lines ONLY!". Which... also isnt a horrible thing on its own. Many different breeders excel with many different things. My issue is, when you ask these people what they are looking for specifically in "x line", 99% of the time they dont have a fine-tuned reason. Its just a name they see brought up a lot, they see winning in shows, from an online auction that brought in crazy money, etc. Let me tell you one thing: if you are buying for show wins, show judges transform what they like seeing CONSTANTLY. I used to show Herefords. I used to show my goats (I'd still love to, but I'm a one-person operation and leaving for an entire day to travel out of state is damn near impossible, much less leaving for 3-5 days. I dont even have anyone to do a single milking for me if I'm deathly ill ). I got to watch the Hereford show world transform before my eyes into something I didnt recognize at all, and I ended up moving to Jerseys and Brown Swiss. What is winning now in shows for NDs, is very different from when I started my goat herd. Some of the changes I find abhorrent, some are amazing. Point being: a show win or a big dollar sale shouldn't ever be a breeder's focus, as those factors will ALWAYS fluctuate with the wind. The goat itself and how they fit into your vision and herd should be.

The main takeaway is this: build your herd around what YOU want to see in the breed. Learn about conformation, production, the gentle balance between hardiness and function. Figure out what sorts of attributes bring the most to the table for YOU. It might not align at all with what you're seeing out in the wild. It might not even be something that exists right now. Thats okay! Write it all down, think about it while youre trying to fall asleep, research different lines and exactly what they do badly and exactly what is improving with every new generation. Stare at that picture of a pinched down show goat until your retinas detach. Practice seeing that goat without the herd name or lineage attached for what they are and how they would fit into your herd. Make a plan, yes a generic dumb 5- or 10- year plan like a typical Type A person, of where you want your herd to be and how you think is the best way to achieve it, and what roadblocks you may encounter along the way.

Because the simple truth is that there are many (certainly not all or even most, but many) goats from high value lines that are outproduced and overall lower quality than that doe in a blurry picture with no-name lineages on their registration from your local market group. I personally have made the mistake of buying absolutely shitty goats for waaaaay too much money based on name alone. I have, on a whim, bought random registered does from nobodies and have ended up VERY happy with where they are on their first lactation with me, or a single generation further because I could see how their faults could meld seamlessly into my herd's strengths and be improved upon very quickly.

This is not an anti-"big breeder" post. I regularly praise many different big name breeders and have several fancy shmancy expensive big names in my own herd that I'm very happy with. This is not a "buy from me, I'm the only GOOD one " post. I will turn away buyers quicker than I can down an entire bag of unwrapped kitkats (very fast. Unimaginably fast). And also, I literally only have wethers rn lol.

This is simply something that I want new people to see. Your herd does not need to start with the world's most incredible, well-established lines. You can start with no-names and mediocre goats. Its how you BUILD your herd through time. Maybe the next addition you NEED to get where you wanna be is that doe in a spotlight sale for $40,000. But maybe the next addition you need is a $300 goat that you see a couple interesting qualities in. Maybe your $40k goat wont even place in a show while your $300 one brings home a blue ribbon. Maybe at the next show, they're completely flip flopped in placement. I watch the goat market trend upwards and downwards every few years.

Experimenting is okay. Getting it wrong sometimes is okay. Pressuring yourself into financial ruin or stressing over not placing in a show because you think something expensive always equates to something valuable.... is not okay. If you have a vision and put some sweat into it, your goats will ALWAYS have incredible value regardless of the market or show world.