I thought I would write about a bad experience that we have had with a goat breeder in the hopes that other folks looking to get into the boer business would not be taken advantage of. It is unfortunate that there are such people in the business. I'm not going to mention the breeder by name for legal reasons. I'm here to offer advice to others looking to purchase animals. I have always tried to live my life as I should and I would never intentionally be dishonest with anyone looking to purchase an animal or for anything else for that matter.
I have a love of non traditional boers and have been working the last few years to build a program around them. The story starts when we purchased a well known spotted/dappled boer buck in October 2010 for $2200. Quality fullblood and percentage spotted boers are expensive, that is certainly no secret. He was listed in an online only sale by a breeder that has been around for years. The breeder had a standard "breeders guarantee" on their website of notifying them within five months of purchase if an animal could not breed. This spotted/dappled buck was an older animal, but he was still sold as a breeding buck, in fact he was even listed as being a year round breeder. He was delivered to us (for an additional $600) on November 14, 2010 by the seller. We had him scheduled to be collected five days later. The collection was on a Saturday, a mere hour from our farm. He had not been around any other animals at our house until the collection. When collected there was absolutely no semen either dead or alive in the sample. We started him on antibiotics as a precaution that day and I contacted the seller who "acted" shocked that there was an issue. The person that collected him stated that in his experience if a buck was sick at the time of collection his semen count would be low, but not non existent. The following Monday I took him to our vet, at this point he was acting a little under the weather. Our vet put him on additional, stronger antibiotics to cover all bases. Our vet informed us that it was possible that the buck spiked a fever on the transport to GA and could be temporarily sterile for 30-60 days. Our vet believed that if he was not already sterile for some reason before the transport that he would be fine after 60 days had passed. I contacted the seller with this information who then tells me that she also contacted her vet who did not believe his sterility was due to transport, but to simple depletion from all the breeding he had done for them. The seller was still being quite civil at this point. To make a long story short we pampered this buck for months, had multiple vet and collection trips in trying to prove whether he was sterile or not. We have wasted huge amounts of time and money on him. We set up five different does, three that had previously kidded and two that had not, he mounted all of them. We've gotten NOTHING from him. No does bred, no semen. The seller says that the animal was fine when he left their farm and that they even have kids that he fathered off of 10 does shortly before being transported. It's funny that when I looked on the ABGA online registry recently (6/10/11) the last kid listed was born on 3/28/10. I guess maybe they just haven't gotten around to registering those supposed kids yet. The seller has refused to do anything to make this right. The seller would not even give us a few straws of semen on him (they are actively marketing and selling semen on him.) The seller did not honor their breeders guarantee. The seller basically said he is now sterile because we stressed him exposing him to those few does after the stress of transport.. Wow! Who knew that trying to get a breeding buck to breed would stress him to sterility! I guess I learn something new every day. He was exposed to these does over the course of months after he had been cleared from the vet. The interesting thing to me is that this was not the first animal that I have purchased that has had to be transported a great distance; none of them ever became sterile from transport. Oh that's right…the seller first said his semen supply was depleted, and then the story changed to me causing the sterility.
This has been a very expensive, hard lesson for us. We purchased what was supposed to be a breeding buck and received a teaser buck. We talked to an attorney about small claims court but were basically told with it being out of state and all we would pretty much be throwing more good money after bad. I contacted ABGA about filing a formal complaint, but that would have required me to put out even more money with no guaranteed result. We have already wasted so much money on him; it would sicken me to waste anymore. My advice to others looking to purchase animals is to stay away from breeders whose main business is online sales. Online only sales can easily be manipulated by the seller. Just because a breeder has been around for years and spends a lot of money on advertising certainly does not mean that they are honest. I would also advise to ask other breeders for recommendations of good, honest breeders. I have also learned through this ordeal that a breeder's guarantee doesn't really mean anything. I suppose like most things in the livestock industry, transactions are mainly based on mutual trust. When I finally threw my hands up with this buck and took him to the sale barn I told them when I dropped him off that he needed to go to slaughter because he was sterile. I am by no means perfect but I am honest. I know that when I lay my head down at night it is with a clear conscience. This experience has left me wondering how some people sleep at night. I wish the best of luck to anyone entering into the goat business. There are plenty of good, honest breeders out there.
I have a love of non traditional boers and have been working the last few years to build a program around them. The story starts when we purchased a well known spotted/dappled boer buck in October 2010 for $2200. Quality fullblood and percentage spotted boers are expensive, that is certainly no secret. He was listed in an online only sale by a breeder that has been around for years. The breeder had a standard "breeders guarantee" on their website of notifying them within five months of purchase if an animal could not breed. This spotted/dappled buck was an older animal, but he was still sold as a breeding buck, in fact he was even listed as being a year round breeder. He was delivered to us (for an additional $600) on November 14, 2010 by the seller. We had him scheduled to be collected five days later. The collection was on a Saturday, a mere hour from our farm. He had not been around any other animals at our house until the collection. When collected there was absolutely no semen either dead or alive in the sample. We started him on antibiotics as a precaution that day and I contacted the seller who "acted" shocked that there was an issue. The person that collected him stated that in his experience if a buck was sick at the time of collection his semen count would be low, but not non existent. The following Monday I took him to our vet, at this point he was acting a little under the weather. Our vet put him on additional, stronger antibiotics to cover all bases. Our vet informed us that it was possible that the buck spiked a fever on the transport to GA and could be temporarily sterile for 30-60 days. Our vet believed that if he was not already sterile for some reason before the transport that he would be fine after 60 days had passed. I contacted the seller with this information who then tells me that she also contacted her vet who did not believe his sterility was due to transport, but to simple depletion from all the breeding he had done for them. The seller was still being quite civil at this point. To make a long story short we pampered this buck for months, had multiple vet and collection trips in trying to prove whether he was sterile or not. We have wasted huge amounts of time and money on him. We set up five different does, three that had previously kidded and two that had not, he mounted all of them. We've gotten NOTHING from him. No does bred, no semen. The seller says that the animal was fine when he left their farm and that they even have kids that he fathered off of 10 does shortly before being transported. It's funny that when I looked on the ABGA online registry recently (6/10/11) the last kid listed was born on 3/28/10. I guess maybe they just haven't gotten around to registering those supposed kids yet. The seller has refused to do anything to make this right. The seller would not even give us a few straws of semen on him (they are actively marketing and selling semen on him.) The seller did not honor their breeders guarantee. The seller basically said he is now sterile because we stressed him exposing him to those few does after the stress of transport.. Wow! Who knew that trying to get a breeding buck to breed would stress him to sterility! I guess I learn something new every day. He was exposed to these does over the course of months after he had been cleared from the vet. The interesting thing to me is that this was not the first animal that I have purchased that has had to be transported a great distance; none of them ever became sterile from transport. Oh that's right…the seller first said his semen supply was depleted, and then the story changed to me causing the sterility.
This has been a very expensive, hard lesson for us. We purchased what was supposed to be a breeding buck and received a teaser buck. We talked to an attorney about small claims court but were basically told with it being out of state and all we would pretty much be throwing more good money after bad. I contacted ABGA about filing a formal complaint, but that would have required me to put out even more money with no guaranteed result. We have already wasted so much money on him; it would sicken me to waste anymore. My advice to others looking to purchase animals is to stay away from breeders whose main business is online sales. Online only sales can easily be manipulated by the seller. Just because a breeder has been around for years and spends a lot of money on advertising certainly does not mean that they are honest. I would also advise to ask other breeders for recommendations of good, honest breeders. I have also learned through this ordeal that a breeder's guarantee doesn't really mean anything. I suppose like most things in the livestock industry, transactions are mainly based on mutual trust. When I finally threw my hands up with this buck and took him to the sale barn I told them when I dropped him off that he needed to go to slaughter because he was sterile. I am by no means perfect but I am honest. I know that when I lay my head down at night it is with a clear conscience. This experience has left me wondering how some people sleep at night. I wish the best of luck to anyone entering into the goat business. There are plenty of good, honest breeders out there.
READ ABOUT OUR BAD EXPERIENCE IN PURCHASING A BUCK IN AN ONLINE SALE
UPDATE!
I checked the ABGA online registry recently on 2/5/12 and there are still no new kids registered on the buck in question. BUYER BEWARE of online only goat sales!
I checked the ABGA online registry recently on 2/5/12 and there are still no new kids registered on the buck in question. BUYER BEWARE of online only goat sales!