How Goat Rancher helped save our ranch


(Editor’s Note: Through her unique story-tell- ing, former Goat Rancher columnist Cathie Ke- blinger has been able to document the impact and history of this magazine better than anyone. Here’s her column from May 2011 — Goat Rancher’s 15th anniversary issue.)


Let me share the story of how John and I be- came like an old aunt and uncle to the Goat Rancher family. Although we don’t play a vital role in the magazine’s creation, we love to be around it and proudly claim kinship with the Goat Rancher. Our connection isn’t official, but it is heartfelt, and it all began thanks to Terry Hankins. Without Terry’s help, we would never have met you or ventured far beyond our ranch, since our longest goat trip was only about 70 miles to the Fredericksburg livestock auction. This story might offer insight into Terry’s suc- cess with the publication. By the time we saw the first issue of the Goat Rancher, we’d already been raising Boer goats for nearly three years. Our first year was spent with percentage Boers and over the next two years, we added about 30 fullbloods.


Goat Rancher editor Terry Hankins made many visits over the years to Cathie and John Ke- blinger’s 7A+ Ranch in Mountain Home, Texas. This photo was taken during a 2011 visit.


One afternoon in early 1996, we spotted a stack of magazines at the goat auction in Junction, Texas. We took a copy home, enjoyed it and even disagreed with a writer’s opinion about Boer goats. I don’t remember the writer’s name, but he claimed these im- ported goats couldn’t survive in pasture and needed intensive care and feeding.


Our fullblood Boers, ho- Great Day and her billy kid, Jackpot.


wever, were thriving on their sec- ond kid crop, raised in the pasture with only protein blocks for 100 days in the winter, following the same plan we used for our Ango- ras and meat goat mothers. Inspired, I wrote an article describing our experience raising


Boers in the pasture and sent it to Terry, along with a photo of our full- bloods living outdoors, including Great Day and her billy kid, Jackpot. You can see from the picture here that they were in excellent condition. Feeling bold, I also placed an order for a three-line classified


ad in the Goat Rancher. Terry, still gathering information and learn- ing about goat raising across the country, called to discuss our goats. He was planning to visit Texas again soon, since the earliest Boer activity was centered there, and stopped by to see our operation first-hand.


Our marketing strategy was modest and only brought in small


results, so Terry suggested ways to help us tap into the strong demand for Boer goats in states far from Texas. Instead of a small classified ad, how about a full-page color ad? While visiting, Terry took one of the most memorable photos of our goats. In our log cabin’s loft, he placed two little billy goats, draped a patchwork quilt over the railing, and snapped a picture of the goats peeking over the edge. That image went into a full-page color ad on the magazine’s back cover with an offer: anyone inter-


8 Goat Rancher | May 2026


ested could request a free video of our goats. All of these ideas were Terry’s inspiration and vision. To keep this from turning into a very long story, I’ll mention that in my first attempt with our neighbor’s video camera, I unknow- ingly made a silent movie — I didn’t know it would record sound too! Eventually, I bought my own video camera and enjoyed filming so much that I narrated to the camera nonstop. Terry also introduced me to digital cameras and e-mail, which were new to me — after all, we don’t have grandchildren to keep us up-to-date with technology. We sent out hundreds of videos, sold many hundreds of goats and delivered them all over the United States — from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We hauled goats in a solid metal trailer during winter and a 32-foot red trailer in summer. Along the way, we made many friends and earned a good in- come. Customers picked goats from the videos, but we never asked for payment upfront. They could refuse the goats if they weren’t sat- isfied upon delivery, but to our relief, no one ever rejected a single goat they’d chosen from the video. We hosted two sales in Kentucky and one in Tyler, Texas, sell- ing over a hundred goats each time — not in partnership with other producers, but from our own herd, plus a few we’d bought and used. We considered each sale a success and were gratified by the results. The entire marketing structure relied on ads in the Goat


Rancher. Without those colorful, attractive displays, we couldn’t have sold anything.


Our achievements were possible because of Terry Hankins’s skillful marketing techniques. He had no model to follow — no one else was doing what he suggested — but his natural talent and crea- tivity led him to invent a method that worked brilliantly.


(Cathie and her late husband, John, raised Hereford cattle and Boer goats on the ranch her grandfather homesteaded in 1896.)


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