Entrepreneurship SAE Visit - Chippy the Goat

This week I had the pleasure of visiting a student's entrepreneurship Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) project. Grace met Ms. Case and me at her farm for a tour and discussion about her plans for her newly acquired SAE project goat, Chippy. 

Chippy the goat

Chippy is a boer goat, a market animal. Grace's goal is to feed and exercise Chippy so that he gains muscle and can be shown at local and regional fairs and livestock shows. Chippy had only been in his new home for a week when we were visiting so he was not too friendly just yet.

While we were there, Grace explained to use her daily chores and responsibilities. She feeds Chippy twice a day, before and after school. She also cleans and beds his pen weekly. Closer to show season, Grace will walk and halter train Chippy almost daily. 

Chippy has a very specific feeding routine that includes 3 different feeds. Grace has Chippy's ration down to a science and measures each feed in ounces before placing it in Chippy's bowl. Right now Chippy gets a mixture of goat Showrite, textured feed with Copper, and Climate Control. Grace explained to us how goats need a higher amount of Copper in their diet and the Climate Control feed helps Chippy regulate his body temperature better, especially during the spring season when temperatures are high one day and low the next. Fluctuating temperatures can cause livestock to not gain weight as efficiently, which is not ideal for raising market animals. 

Getting Chippy's ration ready for the afternoon feeding

While we were there, Grace also showed us some of the equipment she uses to track Chippy's progress and get him ready for shows. Yesterday, Chippy even had his first weigh-in. Grace has an electric scale that she uses to track Chippy's weight. She said that we will weigh Chippy weekly and calculate his average daily gain from now until her first shows. Right now Chippy weighs a little less than 60 pounds. It is Grace's goal that he weighs around 90 pounds closer to show day. 

Keeping records is an important part of raising a livestock animal. Grace records Chippy's weights on a whiteboard just outside of his pen, but she will also make journal entries in the AET. 

Chippy on the scale, Grace records his weight on the whiteboard

In preparation for the upcoming show season, Grace also shared with us some of her unique tips and tricks for success in the show ring. 

Grace shared with us that she does a lot of "mirror work". Until Grace shared this with us, I had never heard of this technique, but is GENIUS! Grace uses the mirror to practice setting up Chippy so that she can see what the judge will see. The mirror gives Grace one more perspective or angle to use when exhibiting her goat. Not only does she see what the judge will see, but it allows her to see how the most correct set-up looks from her perspective on the halter. 

Some other practices Grace uses to get ready for shows includes walking her goats up and down a large hill in her backyard. She indicated that this helps the goats develop rear leg muscles. Another tactic grace has for developing her goats is training them to stand on an inclined goat trimming stand. She showed us how hard it was to move Chippy's legs in this position, which means he is putting a lot of weight on his rear legs and developing those muscles. To include her goat stand, Grace uses various heights of PVC pipes. Lastly, Grace told us about the importance of growing leg hair to make a more desirable appearance in the show ring. She showed us a variety of grooming products she uses to train, grow, and style Chippy's hair in the months leading up to shows as well as on the day of. 

Getting Chippy ready for upcoming livestock shows

Overall, this was a great SAE visit. In the future, Grace hopes to use Chippy as breeding stock and sell his offspring to support her exhibition costs. Grace was very knowledgeable about the management of her livestock animals and I learned a lot from her!