Author Topic: Pygmy and Boar goats (Read 3489 times)

david c · « **on:** October 28, 2014, 01:36:31 am »

I've got about 50 acres of land, currently stocked with a mini flock of sheep, bees and some horses. I've been investigating a number of agro / horto / livestock business opportunities as I'm determined to work for myself, improve the land / facilities and live there.

One of the enterprises I'm interested in is raising goats for meat. I've noticed quite a lot of Boers or crosses around for sale. My impression is that some of them are fairly cheap, obviously not really breeding stock, others that have been for sale for sometime and I would have thought it 'd make more sense for the owners to send them for slaughter. I've seen complete herds for sale fairly regularly too...which has me wondering how successful the reality of meat goats really is?

Anyone doing this / done it and care to share?

Also pygmy goats - I just don't get it - their prices seem to be very high on the whole. What is the point of them and why are they so expensive? Are they a bit like the Alpaca market - breeding for new owners / pets etc.

cheers

David

mojocafa · « **Reply #1 on:** October 28, 2014, 04:35:09 am »

I love

my pygmy goats. They are pets.

cuckoo · « **Reply #2 on:** October 28, 2014, 01:10:51 pm »

I don't know anything about pygmy goats I am afraid. but have been keeping boer goats for 6 years. If you are looking for them for meat the advice I have always been given is use boer crosses - cashmere, angoras, golden guernseys make nice crosses as well as toggenburgs. I I would keep away from saanen crosses. Crioss breeds grow equally as well as pures and the capital outlay is cheaper in the does

We keep our herd as pure pedigree animals run as a hobby and sell a small number of limited carcasses via word or mouth. There is a great demand for goat meat, especially from ethinic market. People can and do run successful herds, often allied with something else. You need to do your homework about your market - for example ethnic people will like different aged goats at different times of the year to reflect their religious / cultural celebrations. You would probably want to stagger kidding to ensure a year round supply. You will also need to look to add value to the meat - sausages / salamis etc etc.

If buying bulk number of animals be aware of diseases like CAE / CLA / Johnes to ensure you don't by in problems even if the goats are cheap. Buy the best confirmation buck you can and cross with some good quality 50% would be my advise or some pure goats of other breeds bearing in mind my experience above.

The BBGS is a handy place for information - if you look down the members list is shows peoples websites which will give an idea of where to get information on what other people are doing.

Funding from the EU may be available to develop rural businesses in some areas of the EU - the council rural business advisor is a good place to start

Also the agricultural costings book has some figures for a business plan - check them out for your set up though

Hope this helps - pm me if you want more information

nutterly_uts · « **Reply #3 on:** October 28, 2014, 04:41:53 pm »

Amazon have a few good books on meat goats, I can find the ones I have if you'd like titles?
This is something I've considered for the future

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #4 on:** October 28, 2014, 11:41:57 pm »

Quote from: cuckoo on October 28, 2014, 01:10:51 pm

I would keep away from saanen crosses.

Why is this? I ask because I have one.

cuckoo · « **Reply #5 on:** October 29, 2014, 10:44:03 am »

I had 2 saanen cross boer does. They were escape artists - even with good fencing and plenty of feed they would jump out. Their kids were not as good for meat production as other dairy cross breeds in my opinion and experience. They were called Tassel and Teasel and as they did keep jumping out of their field we sent them to the abbatoir and had many nice meals from them instead!

Dogwalker · « **Reply #6 on:** October 29, 2014, 12:27:26 pm »

Quote from: cuckoo on October 29, 2014, 10:44:03 am

I had 2 saanen cross boer does. They were escape artists - even with good fencing and plenty of feed they would jump out. Their kids were not as good for meat production as other dairy cross breeds in my opinion and experience. They were called Tassel and Teasel and as they did keep jumping out of their field we sent them to the abbatoir and had many nice meals from them instead!

That may be a family line thing rather than saanans, the only goats here to get in the wrong place are a small golden guernsey and a togg type heinz 57.
Visiting an angora breeder last week she had one kid hobbled because it kept jumping/.climbing out of the pen and said that was a family trait, her mum and half sisters in previous years had done the same.

sokel · « **Reply #7 on:** October 29, 2014, 08:18:30 pm »

We have 2 saanans, Neither even try to escape Both have had 50% Boer Kids in the Past and all of the Kids have Been good sized Kids, The males finished at good weights and the females went on to make good breeding Does.

We have Pure Boer, BTs Saanans and Golden Gurnseys. all but the GGs go to our Boer Billy the GGs will be kept Pure. I would have thought the GGs crossed with a Boer would make smaller Carcasses $:-\$ . This year we have sold more meat than we have ever done and we actually have orders for next year

cuckoo · « **Reply #8 on:** October 29, 2014, 08:43:40 pm »

Tassel and Teasel both kidded well with no problems - the kids were good sizes and did grow and finish with no probs - my experience with saanen is that as a first cross with a boer then I think GG, angoras and BTs give better kids for meat goats especially when grading up. We have bred some cracking grade 3 and 2 kids from our BT x Boer 50% does. They are better than a lot of so called 100% Boer goats I have seen. This is just based on my own experience and observations.

jg · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2014, 12:09:02 pm »

I live near loch lomond and have been thinking recently about the beautiful wild herds of goats I pass often -famous for having been recently culled by the RSPB as being a threat to the ground nesting population (not going to comment on that in case I burst a bloodvessel). Plan A .Ask before the next cull to adopt a few young females . Plan B take a female dairy goat up to the shore for a18-30 type holiday and get her back pregnant to start a master race of tam(er) medium milky more thrifty foothealthy weatherproof gorgeousgoats-guess I would be breaking loads of byelaws but these goats are an amazing resource for the smallholder i think and it will be so sad if they disappear. Kidnap (gedditt?) maybe a last resort. Thoughts anyone?