Guys and their goats
continued from page 11
sold at an auction house, then slaughtered for market. Drew said they have had a good year, but next year should be even better in terms of quality animals. Most of their customers buy the animals to show or for breeding to build their own herds. Many of their wethers were raised specifically for use by junior exhibitors at county fairs.
Besides the farm outside Mechanicsburg, Thornridge last year expanded to what its Web site calls “The North Division.” It’s the 20-acre place established when Mike and his new wife, Melissa, purchased property near Buffalo Hart, 15 miles northeast of Springfield.
“This beautiful property is surrounded by majestic oaks and rolling hills,” says the Web site. The North Division is also the site of a specially built kidding room: an insulated and heated shed where the does give birth to kids. “You have to be right there,” said Mike. “It is very intense during the birth. We stay there through the whole process, get the kids dried off right away and get ’em going. If they get the slightest bit cold, it’s pretty much game over. It’s a struggle, and in January and February, it’s stressful, out there every three hours a night, then working all day at our jobs. It takes a toll on you.”
The brothers give a special blend of feed to the wethers they are bulking up with meat for junior exhibitors to show and have developed a specially formulated feed that they give to the females that are pregnant and need the extra nutrition.
With its four-chamber stomach, Boer goats can digest materials most other animals cannot. That’s what makes them so affordable to raise.
“The first year I went and got alfalfa, clover and grass mix, went out and tore up our pasture and planted it all in there. Well, it grew real nice,” recalled Mike. “They nibbled on it a little bit but I didn’t understand why they didn’t eat more grass. I was used to cattle. Cattle would mow it down. “As the summer wore on, the weeds started coming on, the burrs, the jimson weed and thistle. They go right after that stuff. They’d bite the burr right off a jimson weed. It’s a learning process. We learn something new every day.”
Rick Wade is a freelance writer and lifelong central Illinois resident. He currently lives in Pekin, with his wife, two dogs and a cat. He may be contacted at [email protected].
