[Hermit]

Hi Goaty folks, I have some people that want to use my Billy for stud purposes. These are strangers to me so I do want to charge real money so he can pay for himself a bit. (When I borrow a ram it is just a neighbourly barter for a crate of beer). How much would a stud fee for an unregistered Saanen be? I was thinking about £15.00 a nanny. Shetland only has a few goats , they are not bought and sold or put to market, it would purely be to get a Nanny back in milk not for any pedigree breeding. He has only been chosen cause he is new blood to Shetland and not related to the other goats ! The nannies would have to be brought here so food would have to go in the price. Any ideas please ?

[sokel]

In the past when we have used Billys we pay £25 per nanny we dont leave our goat with the billy though.
they are unloaded the billy is lead out and she is mated usualy try for 2-3 matings and we have her back in the trailer and on the way hom within the hour .
Is your Billy CAE tested ?

[wytsend]

Do make sure that the female is CAE negative.....there are a lot of females sold away from commercial herds that re carrying it.  It is sexually transmitted as well as thro milk.
Your male should also be tested before using him on other females.
If you are boarding thenm you should charge around £2 per day and the service fee bearing in mind where you are situated, should be in the region of £15 minimum.  So a weeks sex bed & breakfast (!) would bring you around £27 in total.
I  personally charge £3 a day per goat plus £50 stud fee..........but you are paying for a pedigree.

[ballingall]

Obviously you are in a different situation to most of us Hermit, but I do agree that you need to charge. £2 a day for boarding is reasonable (per goat).


The current "going rate" around here is £30 for a stud fee. But that is for a fully registered pure bred male. It could be more than that if the male is particularly well bred- or is especially proven. Ie has won all his tickets to be a breed champion or a full champion, or has produced particularly nice offspring. For example my mother had a particularly nice male last year and his "official" stud fee was £50.


I would think £15-20 is reasonable. Or an exchange of course- does the person have anything useful you could trade for?


Beth

[Anke]

RE th CAE issue - I would have a word with your vets up there, just I don't know if this is as much an issue on Shetland as it is on the Mainland where goats come and go on a much largfer scale. Your vet will tell you if a) you need your boy tested and b) if them you can insist on any female to be tested.
Also I personally wouldn't board females, rather send the prospective goat owner a smelly rag from your billy to help her owner decide when the female is in season and then she will have to come on the day or the next. Most goats stay in season for 48 hours, especially in the main time Nov - Jan. However if boarding is the only option then you would need a separate pen for the incoming girl and they probably shouldn't be running all together outside. There is always quite a significant biosecurity risk with other gotas coming on to stay with yours. When I have boarded my females before I have taken a good amount of feed with me so she can have what she is used to in the "goat hotel" too. On returning I have wormed,  treated with spot-on for lice and other creepy crawlies that may have hitched a ride. The goat would then stay in in her own pen for a few days to allow any worm eggs/lice to come out/fall off.  (I have found that even if the nannies go out for just the mating they inevitably come back with lice...
The male owners I have taken my females to either always have a small pen/secure area where the mating takes place, with only one boy being present!

[Hermit]

Thanks for all the replies, they have been a great help. I see I am going to have to think about this a great deal. I dont really want to get involved with others goats at all as I prefer to do my own thing , that is why I got my own  Billy in the first place. I feel very selfish in not offering him to the few others ( I can only think of four on Shetland) that keep goats and dont know where to get their next Billy from at all. I dont think I will mention it again and see who comes forward in a desperate situation.

[jaykay]

I don't keep and would struggle to do so, so for me someone who will allow me to bring my girls to one is vital.

I take mine to another goat keeper nearby when they are clearly in season. So the same evening really. We walk the girls to the billy field, the owner brings out the chosen billy, he does his job a couple of times and then I load my girl up and go home.

The owner charges me £10 for this - I'd happily pay £20.

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks for all the replies, they have been a great help. I see I am going to have to think about this a great deal. I dont really want to get involved with others goats at all as I prefer to do my own thing , that is why I got my own  Billy in the first place. I feel very selfish in not offering him to the few others ( I can only think of four on Shetland) that keep goats and dont know where to get their next Billy from at all. I dont think I will mention it again and see who comes forward in a desperate situation.

If you don't want to get involved with other goats simple - price yourself out of the market  .
If you have any male kids I would think they (or at least one) would be snapped up by other goat keepers for their 'new blood'.
Definitely get CAE tested and make sure theirs are, if they really want to use your billy they'll do it, and have a certificate to show.
I've usually paid about £10 for a registered mating, but that's through goat club or a friend who is keen to promote Toggenburgs. I know thats very cheap.

[Lesley Silvester]

I paid £25 for a registered pedigree male, plus £5 per day boarding (five days because she came back out of season as soon as we got there and didn't come back in til the fifth day.    )  I would expect to pay less than that for a cross.

[Hermit]

Well , thats one lot of nannies arranged. The owners just knocked on the door and introduced them selves.Absolutely lovely people, I think  you met them at the show Anke! I showed them the goats and they were very pleased them  and with the billy , especially his offsprings size and conformation. We talked a while , I used everyones advice from here and made sure everything would be in order.  So they are ringing back when their goats come in season and Billy will be a happy boy. I arranged £15.00 +food per nanny and they were happy with that, as he has no papers I thought that was fair .
I think he knew they were sussing him out as he did prance and stand tall.

[Anke]

If they just come on the day it is all over in a flash, mine normally don't stop to eat... , but one place I use we normally pop the girl in an empty stable with some water and hay, do the paperwork and then the boy has another go for good measure... but that's a 3 hour drive from ours.

[wytsend]

How do you go about the 6 day standstill  which should operate on the mainland.
 

[chickenfeed]

How do you go about the 6 day standstill  which should operate on the mainland.

if i remember rightly if your goat has been in a defra approved isolation pen for 6 days prior to breeding you will not trigger a stand still or something along them lines.

[Anke]

How do you go about the 6 day standstill  which should operate on the mainland.

All my goats are mated in approved isolation units. So although I have a 13 day (Scotland) standstill on returning from mating, the holding I use does not. All their males are kept in the isolation unit, so it's fine.
So far not been asked about it on my SAMU forms, and I do include "move for mating/return from mating". 

[jaykay]