The utility of a wether
Meet Edgar, named after
Edgar Allen Poe.
Yes, we decided to keep him. In part, this was just the
course of least resistance. By the time I'd stopped crying at the drop
of a hat, Aurora had accepted the newcomer into her herd...although
she's still chasing him away from any source of food unless I give her
something more tasty to keep her occupied.
But, mostly, Edgar is
part of my plan to change several of my goatkeeping methods to prevent
another disaster like the one we recently lived through. While many
factors were likely at play, I think my biggest management error with
Artemesia was thinking I could leave a four-month-old kid with her
mother and think the former would be weaned naturally before her
high-production mother used up all of her fat and stored nutrients to
feed a growing kid.
Now, I mostly fell into that trap because I was too sick to pay
attention and didn't realize Aurora was still nursing.
But I also didn't really have many other choices at the time. With only
two
goats in the herd, they had to stay together for the sake of everyone's
sanity.
Adding a wether gives me
more options. Assuming we do find another doe to increase our herd to
three, a kid or kids could be separated to hang out with Edgar while
their mother recuperated from heavy-duty milk production. A boy kid
could be kept around longer using the same technique without worrying
he'd impregnate his mother or sisters. And I have a feeling that a herd
of more than two goats will also be less scared of predators and more
able to keep their cortisol levels low.
Yes, you read all that
right. We're adding a boy to our herd as a nanny goat. Of course that
won't be confusing. Right?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Breaking traditional gender boundaries can be confusing; doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. :^)
Well, since you seem determined to keep goats, so I applaud your decision to keep Edgar. As you mentioned, it does increase your options, and in the least intensive way. I have never had dairy goats, just my two wethers I use to keep the brush at bay. But they don't need expensive nutrients or hay (in my area at least), and their disposition... a bit... capricious... like eternal 5th graders.
If you must have goats, a companion wether is a good addition.