Goats are ‘kind of fussy about what they eat’

HOLCK, from pg. 10

I work with. The herd I have now is a mix of both and I know the percentages are going to vary. Some of the does look Savanna, white with the dark pigment. And I have others that show TexMaster. Those are multi-colored, red, white, black, different colors. You can see both types in my doe herd.”

The idea that goats will eat anything is overblown. ”They are kind of fussy about what they eat,” Holck said. They just happen to have a wider-ranging diet than most ruminants, and have a preference for roughage.

“Left to their devices, their diet would probably be closer to a white-tail deer than to a cow,” he said. “I turn them out on pasture and they eat the grass, but if I turn them into the trees, they don’t go for the grass. They go for the leaves, the low-hanging branches. The more woody stuff, forbs, more brushy stuff is their preferred diet.”

In the winter he feeds them a good mix of grass and alfalfa. They really like the protein-rich alfalfa, he said.

The coming Easter season is one of the best times for the goat market, Holck said. It is usually a little lower in the summer, but picks up again in the fall coming into Thanksgiving and the December holidays.

Gestation for the Savannah goats is five months, so it is possible to kid three times in two years. “I don’t push them that hard,” says Holck.

Whatever the market, Brian Holck likes his goats. His sons have moved on, but he’s not leaving goats behind any time soon.

You can contact Brian at bholck@ woodstocktel.net. v

By LAURA COLE

The Land Staff Writer

The Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (MARL) program completed 2022 with a new Executive Director, Brad Schloesser. With an extensive background in agriculture and education, Schloesser most recently served as South Central College’s Dean of Agriculture and had been with the college since 1992.

Schloesser has also been involved in the sheep and wool business for a number of years. In fact, it was a lamb named Willie who made a lasting impact early on in Schloesser’s ag journey.

Schloesser grew up the second child of six on his parents’ farm near Le Center, Minn. where they raised dairy cows and pigs. When he was 9 years old, his uncle Gene brought over a lamb that wasn’t nursing. Gene handed his nephew some milk replacement in a refashioned 7-Up bottle, and Schloesser took the lamb into his care. “That one sheep, Willie, in 1970, helped me discover a path I was very passionate about and enjoyed,” Schloesser said.

As a freshman in high school, Schloesser’s ag teacher encouraged students to start an enterprise of their own, and Schloesser decided to go with sheep. He purchased 13 ewes that year and by the time he graduated high school, he had about 100.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in