Sales Information / Policy
Please read carefully and ask questions if you don't understand. When you purchase a goat from us you are expected to have read and agreed to these terms. Thank you in advance!
Our policy is very straight forward. If you want to buy a goat, and we want to sell it to you; then we work out the details together to accommodate schedules - both ours and yours.
A $100.00 non-refundable deposit can be made for a reservation for kids not yet born from pairings found on our "breeding schedule" page. If your selected choice is not born or if we deem the kid has any defects, your deposit can be applied to another available kid or refunded.
You will be notified as soon as your selected kid has been born and you will then have 2 weeks to pay for 1/2 of the remaining balance due.
Goats offered for sale may be tested for any disease desired at the buyer's expense. Please note: depending on the tests requested, the cost may include a Vet farm visit charge, fees for the vet to draw blood, shipping fees, lab fees for testing, and the vet charge for any documentation needed. Our original herd was tested and we have kept a closed herd and watch our herd closely, as well as follow careful bio security measures. **See Info at bottom of this page for more details on testing and why we make the decisions we do on that topic.
Goats offered for sale are healthy and free of disqualifying defects (disqualifying defects are those listed in the ADGA guidebook that would make the animal ineligible for the show ring) at the time of the sale, and the buyer, by completing the purchase, is agreeing to purchase the animal “as is”. For obvious reasons, the health and future development of any goat cannot be guaranteed after it leaves our farm. Buyers, or their representative picking up the goat, are responsible for checking a goat for signs of defects, illness or injury before they leave the property. We always trim hooves, and provide natural herbs and vitamins prior to travel. In addition, no registered goat will leave our farm prior to being tattooed.
When a goat is out of our sight, and therefore out of our control, we can't be responsible for its health or future development or fertility beyond the ADGA recommendations for the sale of breeding stock. However we always make ourselves available to assist anyone who purchases a goat from us. We will be here for you if you have questions or need assistance!
Every goat and all related charges (including transportation, testing, CVI, etc.) must be paid in full before a goat leaves the farm. No exceptions.
Since banks are reluctant to verify funds on checking accounts due to privacy issues (and fraud), we cannot take a check for final payment unless the check can be deposited at least 2 weeks prior to pick up or shipment of the goat. Please bring cash for final payment unless we have a prior arrangement.
We will, under certain circumstances, take Pay Pal for deposits and final payments. But, please contact us by email or text prior to sending a PayPal deposit or payment for a goat and we will send you an invoice.
Please understand that all deposits are non-refundable because you are asking us to take an animal off the market and reject other possible offers. (With the exception of a deposit on a kid that is not yet born, in the event the gender you wanted is not available.)
Regardless of the age of the goat, we will need to agree on a pickup date when the deposit is made. Everyone is busy, we understand that. Everyone has family, job, and/or farm obligations. We too are quite busy as well with farm, jobs and homeschooling our children so we understand how things can become quite busy. Therefore, boarding charges will be $5.00 per day per goat for every day past the agreed upon pick up date. Since that will mount up in a hurry, we hope to never have to charge boarding fees. Please note the deposit is subject to forfeiture and the goat or goats may be offered for sale again at any time after our agreed upon pickup date. Thank you for your understanding.
If for some reason the goat is not available due to death, injury or illness, on the pick up date, the deposit may be refunded or, if the customer chooses, the deposit may be applied to another goat that is offered for sale. If a customer leaves a goat in our care for an extended time past the pick up date, there will be no offer to refund money to the customer if the goat should become injured, ill, or die. In that case, the goat will be replaced with another goat only after the balance due on the original purchase and all boarding fees have been paid.
We do not transport goats via air under any circumstances. If ground transportation is desired, that would need to be arranged by you, the purchaser. We will work with you if this is desired.
We pray each animal goes to a home who will understand the quality of the goats we have raised and the stock from which they came.
Kids and Adults will be listed below as they become available.
To make a reservation, see our "breeding schedule" page. Or contact us via email, text or phone!
*TESTING FOR CL (Caseous Lymphadenitis)
It is a hot topic, the idea of a tested or non-tested herd. And we understand the concern! However, our original herd was tested as well as any goat brought on to our farm from outside. We otherwise run a closed herd. However, we do not continue our testing unless a buyer specifically requests it and pays for it and here is why we have made this choice: Blood tests for CL are not 100% accurate; false positives and false negatives are a strong possibility. Testing the pus from an actual lump is the only way to be 100% sure what the organism is.
A "positive" blood test means that the goat possesses antibodies to the disease. It does not mean that the goat is a carrier or shedder of the bacteria or is infected with that organism. A positive titer means that the goat's immune system has encountered that organism before, either naturally or by vaccination, and its immune system has either mounted a response against it or it has received passive antibodies from its mother. A "positive goat may never display clinical signs of CL (abscesses) nor does it have to be contagious to other goats. EXPOSED DOES NOT MEAN INFECTED. So we simply do not worry about this in our herd, given our specific situation. Some situations may be quite different and would require a different approach.
We focus on raising goats with strong immune systems, on rotated pastures (7 of them) in a clean, stress-free environment.
*TESTING FOR JONES (Pronounced Yo-nees) DISEASE
There may be an age-related resistance to Johne's Disease and the older goats we have read about that have contracted it were in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. OF course, any goat could get this but much of it is dependent upon management practices and the soil. We have goats that are 13 years old and have never had signs of it and any new goat has been tested previously. We do not continue annual tests for this reason.
In addition, we do not test because the three common available tests are not always reliable. In fact, if you read the statistics you will find none of these are ever 100% accurate. We will list them for your reference and research:
Culturing fecal matter to detect the organism is possible, but the bacteria grows slowly, taking the test 6 weeks to complete. IF the number of bacteria in the feces is low, it is possible that not enough will survive to produce a positive culture, even thought the goat is infected.
The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test detects the genetic material of MAP in feces, but the number of bacteria, especially in recently-infected animals, may be so low that there is not enough DNA to be detected. The PCR test is only 40-45% accurate in light shedders. Only the very heavy shedders are likely to show up.
The AGID (Agar-Gel Immune Diffusion) test and the ELIZA (Enzyme-Linked Immuosorbent Assey) test detect antibodies and are done on blood samples. Each of these tests have their short-comings. Sensitivity of the AGID Test (ability to detect lower amounts of the antibody) is much lower than the ELIZA test and can produce false negatives, but specificity is high, so there are also a few false positives.
The ELIZA Test is very sensitive (detects small amounts of the antibody) but can cross react with the bacteria that causes Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL) and give a false positive. To be accurate, the ELIZA test must be species specific, i.e. it must use components specific for goats if the blood sample is from a goat. Unfortunately, some labes are using bovine (cattle) components when they test goats, which can result in false positivies.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hopefully this explains why we have made the choices we have with our herd. We are confident that our heard is healthy and handle and watch them closely. There are no guarantees when you own farm animals of any type! But we purpose to use good practices that give us goats with strong immune systems so that they can fight off most issues. We also use bio-security to ensure the cleanest pastures, always on rotation. We have never had a case of either of these - not even a suspected case - on our farm since we started almost 10 years ago. We will gladly have a goat tested at buyers expense, but we always give information up front that these tests are not always accurate. It is best to visit, observe the herd, inspect them, see the living conditions and make your decision from there. That goes for any farm you might consider purchasing from.
In short, there is no such thing as a "clean tested herd" - there is such thing as a tested herd. But given the inaccuracy of the tests, there is no guarantee. That is why we recommend visiting the farm, inspecting the living conditions and make a decision based on the overall health of the herd.