Leah Mueller has got your goat.
That is, if you attend the fair and meet her price.
The Humboldt High School sophomore has been around goats most of her life, but her FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience (S.A.E.) takes things to a new level.
“We just got done kidding out all of our goats,” she said, and for the project that’s around 20 goats in all, raised from start to finish.
“This year, we also invested in an actual buck,” Mueller added, as opposed to their usual tactic of artificial insemination.
The endgame is either selling them, or showing them at the Allen County Fair and Kansas Junior Livestock Show.
This year, Mueller may also attend the state fair in Hutchinson, if possible.
Right now, “we’re just prepping them for the fair,” she said, “watching them grow, so we have something good to show.”
After high school, Mueller has plans connected to farming as well.
“Agriculture will definitely be in my future,” she said.
“My grandpa was raising goats long before I was even in 4-H or FFA, so I already had a foundation,” she added.
Mueller is considering attending college to obtain a degree in animal science, but she’s still working out the details.
In the meantime, she plans to continue helping her family with all things ag, especially her brother, who is also in 4-H.
Mueller was likewise kind enough to share the secrets of goat-rearing with this Register reporter.
For starters, it’s vital that they have good nutrition, “that they’re very healthy before we breed them, that they have a healthy gestation period.”
