With the goat fence built, Aaron and I set our sights on bring goats to the farm. We asked around on local Facebook farm groups. We talked with some farm friend experts. Ultimately, we learned that – to fit our just-getting-started budget – we needed to go to a farm auction.
I grew up in a farm family and even worked for an auction company during college. Despite all I know on both sides of the fence – I’ve personally never been to a farm sale. What we knew: 1) we needed a truck and trailer to haul livestock and, 2) we needed to be ready to go with the flow.
Not knowing entirely what to expect, we rolled into the Leavenworth County biweekly farm sale in Linwood, Kansas, with my dad’s old truck and a neighbor friend’s trailer. As always – doing this new thing was hugely humbling. Not only were we unsure of our approach – but everything we needed for the task was borrowed. Man, we’re forever lucky and grateful for the amazing people around us.
That rang even more true for the existence of our new-to-us friend, Brian.
Brian went to school with my little brother Chris. When we started talking about goats – Chris introduced Aaron and Brian via Facebook. I even caught up with him at one point through a farm group. In the funniest of ways – the universe brought Brian to Aaron and I both at the same time in different ways. He was the person that we needed to meet for this.
Aaron, Isai and I walked through the holding pens and eyeballed all the animals. Cattle, alpaca, pigs, goats, donkeys, mules, horses, chickens, bunnies – the place was loaded. We actively had to reign our wild minds in.
“We’re here for goats today.”
Aaron snuck into the auction office to register for our bidder number – #181. While he did that, Isai and I found a seat in the sale barn and spread out our collection of toys and snacks – making a game plan to keep the kid entertained for an hour or two.
We waited for quite awhile. The bird sale ran slow. By the time the livestock really got rolling – we had been sitting for nearly two hours. Naturally, the horses and cattle led the sale, too. Our goal to be home for the Chiefs game quickly disappeared from existence.
A handful of guys our age sat a couple of seats behind us. We could hear them talking about the animals and, also, getting ready for the goat sale. After a few minutes, one tapped Aaron on the shoulder.
“Are you Aaron?”
“Yea, man. Are you Brian?”
It was! Once again – Brian was in the exactly place the universe intended for us to find him. He and his friends quickly jumped in to ask about why we needed goats and what we intended to do with them. How many? Do you have a fence? Males or females?
We got the world’s fastest rundown on goat lingo and how to pinpoint one worth buying. They told us what breeds we should look at and what sizes we should start with. They explained the quick ways to turn a profit. Or, what to do if you intend to breed them. The rapid education was seriously the best we’d gotten.
By the time the first tiny pair of Alpine billy goats walked into the ring – Brian was signaling Aaron. “You want these.”
Aaron and I had talked about budgets and caps before we’d even gotten there so we both knew what we were comfortable spending if we needed to. We had a goal of 6 goats and didn’t want to spend more than $500 to get them.
He went into action placing bids. In no time at all – Aaron was the highest bidder. The auctioneer lingered on what was the longest pause ever.
“Sold.”
“We’ll take them both,” we shouted and nodded.
“Two times the money.”
Our first two goats were beautiful black and white Alpine billies (a milking breed) – for $55 each. The energy of the auction and that first win caught us both.
A few animals later, another pair appeared. “These,” Brian said.
Once again, Aaron went after the bid. After a bit of back and forth, he claimed the coveted “Sold!” Two more – Boer nannies – $75 each.
Isai’s attention span quickly dwindled and we started to realize that our 2-hour plan (a couple of diapers, some snacks and a bottle) was going to turn into a 5-hour challenge. We needed more diapers, real food and some extra formula. Momma went to work distracting with anything possible – toys, straws, water, snacks, pickles.
A small white baby moved through the pen and we won another. Then, finally, Brian’s own goats entered the arena. They were beautiful multi-colored Boers that were a bit larger than what we’d been bidding on.
“They’re what you need but it’s up to you if you want to bid or not.”
I stood up to get Isai into a more comfortable spot while I swayed back and forth on the steps.
Aaron started bidding. Shockingly, he ended up at the top of the bid and got first pick of the goats we wanted. We took two from his pack – a mixed color one and a black one with white – rounding out a total of 7 that we’d collected for the day. We were one goat more than our original goat and only a few dollars over our target budget. We couldn’t have been more thrilled.
As we wrapped up our final purchase in the sale barn – I looked down to see Isai completely asleep in my arms. Our day had been long. He had been a trooper. It was time to go home.
Backing the old trailer up to the sale barn, we were loaded with pride for having added to our farm family in a way that challenged us to learn a ton. While neither of us is naive to farm life – acquiring animals at a farm auction is farm from our everyday. It was incredible.
Once again, I’m in such unreal awe of the village that surrounds us. My dad’s quick work to get us the truck and Duane lending us the trailer was amazing. Then, throw in all of the insight and help that Brian gave us through the day – I could never have asked for better people to be sent our way. We’ll forever be grateful.
Now, we’re just riding this auction high until the next sale in a couple of weeks.