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RE: dual purpose goat herds

PJHemann — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:18:18 GMT

Hi,

I agree with a lot of what Ms. Weaver has to say. We have been toying around with Boer, Nuebian, and Alpines. I have found that Boer / Nuebian crosses have been the best. It has been my expirience that the boer traits as far as looks are dominant but the milk is delish. Bu tthe milk that our alpines give is far better. So what we are planning is breeding our herd with a male boer to produce meat goats and that gives us milk from our boer / nuebian crosses. Best of both worlds. When our does that are giving milk start to dwindle off we will breed them with a nuebian buck to hopefully get a new selection of milking goats. That's our plan and it seems to be working for us.

My suggestion to you would be to play around with a couple different breeds to see what best suits your needs. It a win win situation no matter what you choose. Goats are wonderful to have around.

Good luck,

Pam

RE: dual purpose goat herds

Sue Weaver — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:48:48 GMT

Are you looking for dual purpose breeds?

If so, look at Nubians (a dairy breed meaty enough to produce fairly meaty kids) or Boers (a meat breed that gives decent qualnties of delicious, high butterfat milk).

If you think you want to milk a Boer doe, look very carefully before you buy one and make sure she has only two fuctional teats and that they're properly conformed--that is, they're shaped like dairy goat teats and aren't deformed or have extra orafices.

Boers were developed to have four functional teats but because of this, lots of anomolies occur. One of my does has five teats and (worse!) a doeling I raised has four teats but two are fish teats (they divide so that they resemble a fish's tail and each fish teat has two orifaces). I don't breed these does, they're pasture potatoes and pets, but if breeding or milking, you'd want to avoid odd teats--and they're very, very common in Boers.

I'm going to send readers back to MAC Goats Web site again as Claudia has created a chart explaining Boer teat conformation. You'll find it here: http://members.psyber.com/macgoats//IndexTHREEmacgoats.htm#TEATS%20COMPARISONS

That chart is also found (with MAC Goats' permission) in Storey's Guide to Raising Meat Goats, along with a storehouse of other meat goat information, including an appendix about milking goats. You can buy it at a substantially reduced price through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Guide-Raising-Meat-Goats/dp/1580176615/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210091942&sr=8-1

All of that said, I love my Boers and Nubians and recommend both breeds very highly. We don't eat their kids or sell them for meat but I can guarantee they give wonderfully tasty milk. :o)

Another good dual-purpose goat is the LaBoer, produced by crossing LaMancha dairy goats with Boer meat goats. It's not a registered breed but people who have them swear by LaBoers as both milk and meat producers. To see some, visit my friend Emily Dixon of Ozark Jewels' Web site and scroll down this page: http://www.freewebs.com/ozarkjewels/boerdoes.htm

If you have specific questions, fire away and I'll do my best to help!

Sue

dual purpose goat herds

6ncounting — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:31:40 GMT

I am looking for recommendtions and reviews. We are new to all of this so please keep that in mind. Thanks.