I took my daughter to our first FFA goat auction. I was prepared to spend upwards of $500 for our goat. We looked over all the animals. There were sixty. We made notes on several. We registered for our bidding number. Wow, we are really going home with one of these critters. It was fun.A good friend with 17 years of FFA animal husbandry experience went with us to help us along. He warned us that competitive goats could go for as high as $4500. My eyes popped wide. Who pays that kind of money in a recession for a goat? Not many he assured me.
However, we were confident we could take home a good quality goat at a reasonable price and, yes, $500 was reasonable to us. If we didn't win tonight there were many more opportunities to come.
There were sixty goats to sell. I realized we could be here for a long time. We weren't.
The auction started. The pace was lightning fast. All the animals were sold in forty-five minutes. It went so fast that by the time our chosen goats were up they were way passed our bid before the auctioneer finished his first sentence of auction-ese. The last of the sixty baby goats was auctioned for $18,000.
Amazing! You say. Who would pay that much money for one goat? You could buy a new Harley for that! We learned, someone who really, really wants to win the state goat showing competition. It's like a beauty pageant for goats. Never mind top prize is only $12,000. Just let that news rattle around in your head for a moment.
Incredible! Experts say. The goat was what they called a wether goat. Which means he will not be a daddy goat. Umm, ever. He will be strictly for show.
Unbelievable! I say.
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