Never Adopt Goats from Craigslist

If 19 chickens weren't enough fun, we decided to add two goats to the family this fall. We adopted two 7-year old Tannen / Sonnenburg goats from a family near Portland, OR. We placed an ad on Craigslist for anyone needing to relocate their goats. That was a major mistake that led an unforgettable story of how we got our two goats - Cody and Benji!

​This idea started when we bought the farm and tested our soil. We discovered our sand (it's not rich enough to be called soil yet) was devoid of most key nutrients. It has zero Potash and Nitrogen, but was off-the-charts high in Phosphorus. It appears the previous owners used very heavy commercial fertilizers with no balance.

We created our plan to bring balance, nutrients and organic material back to the dirt to transform into rich soil. We know this will be a consistent process over time, but always up for a challenge. In addition to reintroducing potassium and nitrogen back into the ground, we wanted organic fertilizer materials as well. Goats seemed to be the perfect solution.

Researching organic fertilizers, goat manure ranked towards the top for most nutrient rich. We have 4-acres of irrigated pasture with plenty for them to graze on. That's when the decision was made to become goat owners and let them help jump start our re-fertilization process.

Why You Never Adopt Goats from Craigslist

We got off to a rough start with Cody and Benji, although I should have anticipated the disaster waiting for us. We picked them up from a small farm about four hours north of us. They were much larger goats than we expected. In my mind, I was picturing something smaller or closer to a dwarf goat size. That should have been the first flag about rethinking our decision. But, common sense be dammed and we were there to get some goats.

While trying to load them into the livestock pen, Benji got spooked, sprinted out of their goat-pen, dragging the poor teenager trying to stop him, and jumped a 5-foot tall fence with ease. His owners replied, "that's the first time he's done that". Yeah, I'm sure it is. They spent 15-minutes chasing him down and trying to get a lead rope on him. That should have been the second flag. But we had such a perfect fertilizing plan, so on we pushed right past that common sense.

Arriving back home near sunset, I backed the truck up near our goat pen. I say "near" because that details becomes wildly important for us in about two minutes. We pulled Cody out of the trailer first without issue. He walked down the ramp and into the pen.

Now, Benji has been described to us as "skittish but attached to Cody" and will never go more than 10 feet from him. We are about to find out this is completely false.

As we turn to get a lead rope around Benji, he bolts out of the livestock pen, knocking my wife out of the way on his escape to freedom. Skittish completely undersells his demeanor that evening. Our mistake was not closing the livestock pen once we removed Cody and get a rope on Benji first. He saw his chance and took it.

Our pasture has several fully fenced areas with a combination of 4' field fence (wire grid), barb wire and 4' cow fence (3-wires horizontal spaced about 1.5 feet apart). He cleared them all easily. I soon realized we had just adopted the Olympic hurdler of goats. With a brief look towards Cody, he vanished into the night.

We hoped he was scared of new people and would stay within our 15-acres of fenced area. Spoiler alert, he did not. After spending a full day looking on our property, I decided to expand my search. My neighbor Ron was convinced he was halfway across Oregon heading back home. I printed up several "Lost Goat" flyers to distribute to my neighbors.

I consider earning my MBA a big milestone in my professional career. During my studies, if you told me I'd be handing out "lost goat" flyers, I'd figure my academic studies and efforts were wasted. However, I can certainly say life is always an adventure and rarely turns out how you think.

To our good fortune Benji stayed nearby. He was seen by several neighbors (with lots being 15+ acres each our neighbors are a good distance away) trying to socialize with their horses or goats. Whenever a person would approach however, Benji would run.

One evening, a neighbor called that Benji was near their barn. It was getting dark so they suggested try bringing Cody down to see if they would join up. I didn't have time to hook up the livestock trailer, so my wife and I shoved this stubborn, 200-lb goat into the back seat of my truck. That was site to see, but hallelujah it worked! Benji instantly recognized Cody.

Long story short, after 4 DAYS of trying to corral him, we finally got a lead on Benji! That was several weeks ago now as I'm writing this. After that fiasco, we took it slow. Keeping them in the high livestock panels and their goat pen. Walks on the property were supervised and leashed the first few days. We let them relax and get settled.

Today, Benji is still skittish but getting better. He loves apples and let's our hands get close enough to rub his nose. Any closer and he'll keep his distance. The goats now have free reign of our upper 2-acre fenced pasture. They spend most of their day laying under the Juniper trees or figuring out how to get alfalfa from under the tarped bail.

After a rough start, I'm glad we have two new additions on the farm. They are wonderful and hopefully helping with our fertilizer issue. Welcome to Cody and Benji!