Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Top buck brings $1400

The top-performing buck of the 2010 Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test brought $1,400 at the recent sale on October 2.  The buyer was Troy Probst from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

The Purebred Kiko buck was consigned by Craig Adams from Litchfield, Illinois. Craig had three bucks in the top 11.  For this year's test, Craig had both the top-performing buck and the top consignment of bucks.  Adams also had the top-performing buck and top consignment in the 2009 test.

TOP-PERFORMING AND SELLING BUCK
Troy Probst (L) - buyer
Craig Adams (R, with his children) - consignor
Adams' #2 buck excelled in almost every category.  Besides having the highest rate-of-gain (almost twice as much as the test average), the buck had the largest rib eye (according to ultrasound) of any buck in the test.  Two other bucks had the same size rib eye, but these bucks were at least 20 lbs. heavier than the Adams' buck.

#2 never required deworming (or any other treatment) while on test.  His FAMACHA© score was 1 every time it was evaluated.  The #2 buck had an average fecal egg count of 243 eggs per gram.  When you consider the difficult conditions in this year's test, the performance of the #2 buck is truly outstanding.

The purpose of the Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test is to measure the post-weaning performance of bucklings managed in a pasture environment with no supplemental feed.  While this year's extreme drought necessitated the feeding of hay, the goats often refused to eat the hay, instead relying on the drought-ravaged pastures.