SHOW

Making the final preparations for Tregaron Goat Show this week. It is held on Sat/Sun & includes a milking competition. We are not expecting to do very well as the competition is quite high from exhibitors who have been showing for many years & have goats of a very high standard......but we all have to start somewhere!
We are showing two milkers, a goatling & a kid. We arrive at the show on Saturday & have to milk the goats empty at about  6pm & then bed them down for the night. We then start very early the next day with an udder inspection & then milking which is recorded & samples taken to be analysed. The other goats are then shown for the various classes & prizes awarded. About 6pm the goats are milked & recorded again & the winners are announced. This is quite a simplified version of events but it give an idea of what happens. During the rest of the day we admire everyone elses goats & wonder why ours dont have udders that big!!

It is good to keep these shows going in order to promote the breeds if nothing else; too many shows have folded & there does not seem to be the interest in goats any longer which is a real shame. I am fully aware that alot of keepers are put off by the ever-increasing price of feed along with all of the regulations controlling disease, but all hobbies are expensive & come with a list of rules & still have support. Goat keeping aswell as being a pleasure can provide quite a degree of self sufficiency & you do not need lots of land to keep a pair of goats. I think it will be a great loss if goat keeping declines any further. Trying to encourage young people is really important.