"We fell in love with them because they just, they all had their own personality and they were just very loving," Lou said. "So, we just started from there and then we got to talking with other people that had them and we decided we were going to build up a herd. The more we got into it the more we decided we needed to have better genetics."
"It was just a gradual thing," said husband and operation backbone Edward. "We first off started going to watch shows some and then we met someone that was actually showing and he kindly showed us how to do it, Keith Berry, and we just kind of moved on from there."
While many that raise "show goats" do so for the purpose of selling show quality animals to 4H and FFA children to show at the livestock shows, the Russells personally take pride in showing their own animals.
"The ones usually that show for the 4H and juniors, they are showing wethers, the little males that have been banded and dehorned, and whenever that show season is over, they sell them for meat," Lou said. "I don't sell anything for meat. They are like my children. We love them dearly and we show to try to better our herd ,and you know kind of get a name out there so that when we do sell them, we get a little more for them because they have better genetics."
"We try to sale to people that are breeding, and not raising the meat goat," Edward said.
"Like one of our billies that we sold, he had 10 of his offspring in the Collin County Youth Show that was a couple of weeks ago," Lou said. "That helps get our name out there."
The Russells will take any show opportunity within five hours driving distance to earn points on their animals. Anything more than that they find the trip to be too hard on the goats and themselves. Unless of course they have a goat that they believe has the potential to win at the national level, then the drive is more than worth it.
"If you go to the nationals there may be 100 or more goats in that class," Edward said. "We have taken a little billie, he actually belonged to somebody else, but we had had him from a baby and we raised him, and we showed him. We took him to the national show about three years ago and he finished third."
"Which is good. Anything you take the nationals, if they finish fifth and up, that is good because they have been through a lot of goats before they get that far," Low added.
The Russells know it takes a desirable animal to have a chance at the shows, so of course cull factors like folded ears, bad mouths and too many teats are going to be cut from their breeding program. That doesn't mean all the goats on their property are show goats. With the love they have for their animals, some of them are purely pets, animals that most breeders would have given up on immediately and maybe even chosen to euthanize.
"One of them, when she was born she was mentally retarded," Edward said. "We raised her from a bottle and she can't hardly walk, but she is here and she will be here until she dies."
The Russells take special care of her, as she does not know how to back up, and sometimes finds herself in corners unable to get out, or standing in the chilly winter wind, Lou will guide her to a more suitable area out of the cold.
There is also a red doe on the property that seemed to be on her way to meet her maker but Lou and Edward had faith that she could pull through.
"She was pregnant and she got real sick and got down and couldn't get back up," Lou explained. "Everyone kept saying, 'put her down, put her down, put her down.' I said, 'as long as she has got the will to live,' and she did, she would fight to live, 'as long as she has that much determination there is no way that I would deprive her of life.'"
So, they worked with her for approximately four or five months when she was down and couldn't move. Edward decided to rig up a harness for her and would pick her up with the tractor every morning and set her down under a big pecan tree in the yard and let her enjoy her day.
"She got to where she could kind of pull herself around and graze a little bit, and she would look forward to him bringing that tractor every morning, and then every night he would come and get her and put her back in the barn," Lou smiled. "She knew when that tractor was coming and that it was coming for her. She would get up as best she could and she was ready."
This went on for some time until one day after their usual routine, something Lou explained as, "one of God's miracles," happened. Their neighbors were building a fence using nail guns and scared the doe to her feet.
"She got up the best she could, and the next thing we knew, she was stumbling out across the yard," Lou said. "From then on, we would continue to help her up and coaxing her to get up, and now you wouldn't know that anything was ever wrong with her."
For the Russells, raising goats isn't just a business, it's a passion -- devoted to quality and care. To find out more about the RLE Boer Goats visit their website at www.rleBoergoats.com.
