Managing burnout (or never waste a good crisis)

It happens so fast. One minute you're contemplating buying goats, the next minute you are in the middle of kidding season juggling deliveries, cleaning pens, feeding, and marketing your animals. If you're serious about it, or type A (like me), before long you are doing things like milk testing, signing up for linear appraisal, showing, and/or making cheese and soaps. Hopefully you've connected with the goat community in some way and are being mentored. Hopefully your kids or other family members are as excited about the project as you are and are helping out in the barn.

However, If you've been in the community for any period of time you've probably heard statistics about burnout. 

Most of the references that I've heard claim that it happens somewhere between 3-5 years after startup. A lot of different factors can precipitate burnout. Sometimes it's that first summer after kidding season when you are struggling to sell your animals. Sometimes it's a death in the herd. Sometimes it's the reality that vacations are hard to come by when you have to monitor does during kidding season or milk your animals daily. If money is tight (which is often the case), then it becomes even harder to sustain the project. Or maybe your kids have grown and all the work is falling on your shoulders now.

I've been there. Multiple times. It's a thing.

​Here's what other breeders have said . . . 

(Many thanks to the members of the Nigerian Dwarf Serious Breeders Group for their insights)

Many thanks to Alex Appleman at Oak Apple farm for once again nailing farm life:

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