Page 40 - Summer 2021

Livestock Showstoppers
Oconee triplets show goats
Story and photos by Cyndee Perdue Moore
The DuMay triplets—Amber, Brooke and Taylor—share many things. All three have long straight hair and perfectly radiant smiles. They are all looking forward to starting their junior year at North Oconee High School this fall. They all have summer jobs: Brooke at Washington Farms, Taylor at Stripling’s General Store and Amber at both. But perhaps the most important thing they share is their love of goats.
The DuMays moved to Oconee County from Loganville in 2012. They were looking for a place to raise a few chickens in an area with a strong school system, an FFA program and a community that shared the same morals, ethics and values as their family.
They started with 35 chickens, whose eggs are sold to benefit an area food bank. Then, they added three cows. When the girls were in seventh grade, Brooke befriended a girl who was raising show cows.
“Raising show cows cost a lot of money,” their mother, Sandy, said with a laugh. But she and her husband, Tom, were open to Brooke raising goats.
They bought their first goat in Madison and then purchased another from Texas. Those goats had kids, which is the name for
a goat’s offspring, Brooke explained in a straightforward, confident manner.
Brooke began showing goats at shows around the state with her sisters serving as her “pit crew” the first year. It didn’t take long for Amber and Taylor to become more involved. All three sisters began competing the following year. Eventually, the human kids had so many goat kids that they no longer needed to buy adult goats.
Fast forward five years from that first show and the DuMays have become experts in the area of goat care, breeding, and showing. They usually start their day between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. to feed and water their current herd of 23. They clean out the goat stalls and put down fresh hay. They check for worms on a regular basis and vaccinate the goats against an ever growing list of maladies. Although Sandy helps out by picking up goat feed, the parents are adamant that the girls do pretty much everything for the goats.
Over the last five years, they sought advice from friends Chuck and Shanna Reynolds, Malcom Bridge Middle School agriculture teacher and FFA advisor Brandon Walker and North Oconee High School FFA teacher Tim Griffeth.
s Cyndee Perdue Moore is an Oconee County resident and the executive director of the University of North Georgia Oconee Campus PAgE 38 | OcONEE ThE MAgAzINE | SUMMER 2021