Farm Visits and Biosecurity Concerns
We regularly get requests from people who want to come visit our farm to "meet our animals", to "see our set-up" or to ask us questions about how we do things. However, we are not able to allow these visits for several reasons. First and foremost is the biosecurity risk to our dairy goat herd and our Maremma Sheepdog puppies. Diseases such as CAE, CL and Johnes Disease and Canine Parvovirus and Distemper pose a serious threat to our animals and can be inadvertently brought in on shoes and clothing. For this reason alone we do not allow farm visitors into our barn area, pastures, farm common areas or puppy rearing areas. Instead we have a customer pick-up area near our house and we bring the puppies or goats to their new owners to minimize the risk to our animals.
Secondly is the safety of our customers, our own liability and the well being of our animals. We have several Maremma Sheepdogs actively guarding our dairy goats and other animals. While our Maremmas are very affectionate with people they know they are wary of strangers coming near the animals they are guarding. We do not want to risk our customers getting hurt or cause our dogs undue stress. Our dogs are working dogs and while we are happy for customers to view them from afar when picking up their animals we choose to allow them to do their jobs in peace as much as possible.
And the final reason we do not allow visitors is due to time constraints and workload. We are a very big operation, producing over 100 baby goats and several litters of Maremma Sheepdog puppies a year, but with only a small staff caring for all the animals, running the business and interacting with customers. We simply do not have the time for casual visitors as it takes away valuable time we need to be doing other things, such as feeding animals, milking goats and training puppies. For this reason we limit visits to those who have already reserved a puppy or goat with a non-refundable reservation fee, or who are interested in purchasing specific animals that are currently available.
In lieu of farm visits we strive to make our website as helpful as possible to potential customers. Photos, pedigrees and other information for all of the animals we have for sale as well as every goat or Maremma we own or ever have owned can be seen on our website. You can see photos and videos of our Maremmas in action and guarding their herd and our puppies in training, photos of all available baby and adult goats, photos of current and past Maremma litters, as well as lots of photos and videos going back several years that depict how our Maremma puppies and goats are raised. More photos are available on our Instagram and Facebook business pages. We work hard to keep our website and social media accounts up to date and relevant, so that people can become familiar with our farm in a safe and convenient way. We also have lots of articles, blog posts, links and information to assist you in making your choices and we are happy to answer any questions you may have by email or text.
We are also happy to schedule a phone conversation but we do require the goat or puppy questionnaire to be filled out first. These questionnaires have been designed to help us serve our customers by getting all of their information in one place BEFORE we proceed further with more in depth discussions. They also help us separate serious buyers from tire kickers and looky loos. It has been our experience that the large majority of people who refuse to answer the questionnaire before talking on the phone are not serious and do not end up buying animals most of the time.
Secondly is the safety of our customers, our own liability and the well being of our animals. We have several Maremma Sheepdogs actively guarding our dairy goats and other animals. While our Maremmas are very affectionate with people they know they are wary of strangers coming near the animals they are guarding. We do not want to risk our customers getting hurt or cause our dogs undue stress. Our dogs are working dogs and while we are happy for customers to view them from afar when picking up their animals we choose to allow them to do their jobs in peace as much as possible.
And the final reason we do not allow visitors is due to time constraints and workload. We are a very big operation, producing over 100 baby goats and several litters of Maremma Sheepdog puppies a year, but with only a small staff caring for all the animals, running the business and interacting with customers. We simply do not have the time for casual visitors as it takes away valuable time we need to be doing other things, such as feeding animals, milking goats and training puppies. For this reason we limit visits to those who have already reserved a puppy or goat with a non-refundable reservation fee, or who are interested in purchasing specific animals that are currently available.
In lieu of farm visits we strive to make our website as helpful as possible to potential customers. Photos, pedigrees and other information for all of the animals we have for sale as well as every goat or Maremma we own or ever have owned can be seen on our website. You can see photos and videos of our Maremmas in action and guarding their herd and our puppies in training, photos of all available baby and adult goats, photos of current and past Maremma litters, as well as lots of photos and videos going back several years that depict how our Maremma puppies and goats are raised. More photos are available on our Instagram and Facebook business pages. We work hard to keep our website and social media accounts up to date and relevant, so that people can become familiar with our farm in a safe and convenient way. We also have lots of articles, blog posts, links and information to assist you in making your choices and we are happy to answer any questions you may have by email or text.
We are also happy to schedule a phone conversation but we do require the goat or puppy questionnaire to be filled out first. These questionnaires have been designed to help us serve our customers by getting all of their information in one place BEFORE we proceed further with more in depth discussions. They also help us separate serious buyers from tire kickers and looky loos. It has been our experience that the large majority of people who refuse to answer the questionnaire before talking on the phone are not serious and do not end up buying animals most of the time.