Back in June, I would’ve said that there was no way our goats would do well at the fair. Then again I had no idea at that time they would bounce back as well as they did. As an athlete, bouncing back from an injury can be a very tough chore. As a livestock showman, trying to save an animal back from an illness that is invested with a great deal of money is an even tougher chore. My sisters and I were faced with this problem this past summer with our red-headed and white-bodied Boer Market Wether Goats.

In early May we purchased our goats from Joel Parrett out of Oakwood, Ohio, and we were quite impressed with the build of these goats this year compared to what we had the prior year, which were not something to write home about. These goats had correct structure and great muscle definition, and they also had great potential to do well in the show ring at the Defiance County Fair in late August. Once I saw these goats, I just kept thinking, ‘We’re going to do well in August,’ but at that time I had little clue of what was actually going to happen.
On June the first was central tagging when the barn supervisors from the fair tag the goats for identification, and they also weigh them to see how much weight they gain from that day until weigh in at the fair. On that morning when we walked out to the barn, we noticed that my sister Korbyn’s goat had Coccidiosis, which is basically diarrhea, so the poop was really runny and messy. The next day my goat happened to have the same symptoms with runny, unformed poop and a messy butt. Then the following day, my other sister Kortni’s goat contracted the same illness. We believe that the cause of the illness was a rapid change in weather. It went from being hot, humid weather to cold and dreary weather, which their bodies were not ready for, and the Coccidiosis took over.

During their illness, the goats stopped eating their feed, so we had to start giving them our pygmy goat feed because they would actually eat this feed. It was disappointing because this feed was low in protein compared to what they need to have, which is about sixteen percent protein. The pygmy feed happened to be fourteen percent, and yes, two percent does make a huge difference. Korbyn’s goat, after a couple of days, went back to its normal self and pooped in form. It took Kortni’s goat about four days for it to return back to normal, but my goat was struggling to get back to itself. About two weeks into June, my goat looked like a stick figure. It lost four pounds in two weeks, so my Ag teacher, Mr. Hammersmith, let me borrow a medicine to help treat them. He gave me Corrid, which is a thick powdered substance that mixes into the water, but the Corrid didn’t seem to work. After a couple of days, none of them weren’t eating the pygmy goat feed. We then contacted Joel, whom we bought them from. He brought over a mixed feed that contained oats, corn, and many other ingredients that goats seem to enjoy. Our goats started to finally eat like pigs again. We ended up getting right back on track with our feeding program by slowly increasing the amount the amount of feed daily.
In about four week’s time, they ate a combined ten pounds of feed per day. July came around, and we were right back on track with our feeding and exercising program. Our grandpa built a wooden chariot that could be hitched on to the back of a lawnmower that our goats would walk behind, and this really helped our goats get back to where they needed to be because using the chariot put a good amount of stress on their back leg muscles. Looking for good muscle expression, goat judges concentrate on the back legs of goats when they are judging. Feeding them a high protein supplement called Champion Drive also helped boost their systems.
From July up to the fair, the goats were to gain four to six pounds each week, and we weighed them consistently every Saturday morning. Throughout July and August, I had to keep telling myself, ‘It’s not too late to make up lost ground. I need to keep on working with them.’
The fair came, and there were no surprises, as far as weight goes. My goat obviously was a lightweight because of how long it took for it to bounce back from the illness, but Kortni’s goat made it in the first middle weight class, while Korbyn’s goat was put in the second middle weight class.

Sunday night was the time of the show, and all of our goats were all spruced up and ready to go. The lightweight class was the first class, so it was my turn. I took home a first place ribbon, granted it seemed to be a weak class, but I still at least earned a shot in the Final Drive. Kortni’s goat ended up getting fourth in her class, which wasn’t bad because her class was pretty competitive. Then came Korbyn’s turn, and her goat bounced back the best from the illness in June. She was also in a very tough class, but she came up on top and punched her ticket into the Final Drive with me. The Final Drive is basically the Championship for any livestock show. I obviously didn’t think I had a chance because my goat didn’t really match up well to any of the goats in the Final Drive, but Korbyn’s goat definitely had a shot. The judge lined up the goats two by two in the show ring. The goats that finished first place in their class were on the left, and the goats that finished second were on the right. The judge felt all of these goats and looked them over and then went over to the microphone to crown the Grand Champion. At that time of the show, it was very dark outside, so the Strausbaugh Show Arena was illuminated. She gave the Grand Champion to the girl with the first place in the heavy weight, and then she went on to crown the Reserve Grand Champion. After that, I kept thinking to myself, ‘Keep bracing your goat, Korbyn, keep bracing your goat.’ Bracing is what’s done to get the goat’s muscles to be expressed greatly. The Judge finally announced the Reserve and she said, “I’m going to go with the goat that is right behind the Champion.” At first we were confused when she announced the Reserve Grand Champion because the judge said she was giving it to the goat behind the Grand Champion, so we weren’t sure if she was talking about the second place in the heavy weight since they were lined up two by two or Korbyn’s goat which was lined up behind. The family of the goat that won second place in the heavy weight started cheering because they thought they won, but they didn’t. The judge was actually talking about Korbyn’s goat, so she was granted Reserve Grand Champion Boer Market Wether at the 2013 Defiance County Jr. Fair.

Afterwards the goat had to get a urine test and hair sample to make sure it was clean from any illegal drugs like steroids. What was funny about the whole ordeal was that the guy who helped get the urine sample was the exact same guy that said the day before at weigh in that Korbyn’s goat looked skinny and also said it didn’t look good. I remember saying to Korbyn during the test, “I guess this goat wasn’t so skinny after all.” Hoping that the man heard me, I said it when we were right by him, but he didn’t say anything back. I was very excited and happy for Korbyn that she won.

Korbyn winning Reserve Grand Champion was very emotional for me. I worked so hard during the summer to help myself and my sisters raise our goats to the best of our ability so that way they would do exceptionally well on show day. Joel Parrett, who was very surprised that we were able to get them to bounce back that way that we did, was very emotional because it was the first time he’d ever raised off his farm a Champion Boer goat. During a picture with Korbyn afterwards, I remember telling myself, ‘Don’t tear up,’ and then I did because I knew I helped her a great deal for her to earn that honor. It feels good to say that I helped my sister raise a Champion boer goat because I’ve always dreamt of raising one myself. Hopefully, I will be able to do that at least once in my last two years showing goats at the Defiance Country Fair.