What a weekend.  Duke, Mikey and I traveled south.  It was worth the trip to see that high of quality of wethers for sale.  Lots of rumours about this set of goats.  Who bought what before hand, where the high sellers went, etc, etc,…  Doesn’t make a rat’s donkey in the end.  The good feeders and showers will rise to the top.  My opinion was that was one heck of a top shelf set of wethers.

Sunday was not only mother’s day, but also Kela’s 21st birthday.  We had a large turnout on a  really hot May 8 Sunday.  Big fun.  As everybody knows, it doesn’t take much for me to find an excuse to smoke ribs and round steak as well as the required side dishes.  Also clipped some prospect wethers while still on the doe.  I am really high on this set of goats–wethers & doe kids.

Also put out fresh salt and mineral for all goats.  It is amazing how easy it is to forget simple, cheap things like salt and mineral.  I almost never run out, but I don’t check it on a daily basis. 

Duke and I are headed south today.  We have a lot of orders to start filling for Tulsa, Phoenix, Woodward, Enid and OYE.  I feel very good about the goats in our pens.  I am not extremely confident in being able to fill a lot of these orders.  It seems like prices are higher again this year.  A dollar just doesn’t go very far.  Oh well, we will just have to buy what we can afford and hope our showers can out feed, out work and out show the competition.  This should be an adventure.  Duke likes to travel and he is good at catching goats.  I just wish he could drive.

It will be interesting to see how the high fuel prices affect goat sales this year.  I have always enjoyed driving all across OK and Texas to look at as many goats as possible.  But it might be cheaper to pay more for goats at one or two farms and not drive as much.  I’ve got a lot of orders to fill and I don’t won’t to fill a tank very often.  Might have to car pool.  Fred says that he isn’t traveling this year, so maybe that will help gas mileage.

Congrats to Chacey on winning the plant science division of the State FFA Speech Contest.  She was also 2nd overall in the State finals to represent OK at the National Convention.  She was also 3rd in natural resources and 4th in extemp.  Way to finish up a phenomenal public speaking career.  Of all the awards that Kela won, her winning a state FFA speech contest was, in my opinion, her biggest accomplishment.  It won’t be long until Duke can start his speaking career.  Should be interesting.

Made it to Pfeiffer’s sale last night.  Good crowd.  A lot of goats and dollars changed hands.  Top end sold extremely well.  Goats were greener than I was expecting.  Some goats sold higher than they should have, but there were bargains to be found.  There will be premium sale wethers out of that sale that sold for $500 or less.  It is amazing how high these goat sales have gotten.  It does take a lot of money to raise a good one.  The bucks cost a pile, feed is high and good facilities/fences are a must in order to build good goats.  I do enjoy selling goats for a lot of money, but on the other hand, it isn’t fun trying to buy good goats.  Going to Mike Kelly’s sale next Saturday.  I doubt there will be very many of those come back to Oklahoma.  By all accounts, they have a whale of a good set. 

Is there anything more fun than burning horns on goats?  Not an enjoyable job, but it must be done.  Duke and I have a set to do today.  I am excited about this set.  Spent a lot of miles and a lot of money looking for new bucks last summer.  This set of kids is out of Freak on a Leash and Joe Dirt.  I am real pleased with the way this set of kids looks.  Extremely consistent and very good.  This is by far the best set of kids that we have produced. 

Maybe I’m wrong.  I doubt it, but just maybe.  It seems to me like it would be common courtesy to NOT call a breeder and ask them what the judge at Tulsa will like and what goats at Pfeiffers will work for that judge.  I will gladly answer questions, but it seems to me like it would help if the person asking the question had EVER bought a goat from me or even been to my place and looked.  Point being, if you haven’t done business with a breeder, don’t call them.  Call the person that you are buying your goats from.  If they don’t know, maybe you need to find a different breeder to deal with.

Should have started this blog six months ago.  FInally got an inch of rain here at our little piece of paradise west of Fairview.  Hope it rained west of here.  One thing about it, goats don’t like to ever get wet.

with almost no rain.  Did have to turn the wipers on for a minute.  Had the honor of judging the NW district speech contest.  Very good division with really good speakers.  Public speaking is quite possibly the best part of the FFA program.  Of course, this meant it was after ten before I got to do my chores tonight.  Kind of reminds me of my teaching days.

Welcome to the Blog section of Kelln Livestock.  Thanks to Julie Milligan for helping build all of this. I hope to use this blog to dispense pertinent goat information, happenings at Kelln Livestock and random Kelln thoughts, which can be dangerous and sometimes politically not quite right. If you have a question or concern that you would like me to answer, please e-mail me and I will try to answer it.