Author Topic: Using a boer billy (Read 2481 times)

shygirl · « **on:** August 21, 2013, 11:04:56 pm »

what are the pros and cons of using a boer on dairy goats. my goats are very slim on the meat side of things and i think the wether billy kids are going to be rather small to slaughter.
they are quite small nanny goats, bigger than pygmies but smaller than gg. would a boer be too big/heavy?
also what fencing is required for boers? do they jump?
thanks

just realised my nannys have horns and the boer doesnt? does that rule the possibility out now?

wytsend · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2013, 06:44:17 am »

The short answer to this....in my opinion...is yes. Boers do have horns.......some get disbudded.
Bear in mind the potential problems at kidding..........boer goats have very short necks & big shoulders, which can cause birth canal probs. Vets DO NOT like dealing with these sort ofissues which could have been avoided. Better to use a half bred on finer goats and breed up if necessary.
I personally think the best general purpose cross is Dairy x Nubian x Boer. Nubian & Boer have a common background of some genetics...........
Butchers are not too keen on small boers because there is too little cuttable meat. They are looking for more commercial carcases...........the goat meat industry is evolving just like the sheep market did some 40+ years ago.

Anke · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2013, 12:16:46 pm »

It really depends if your meat is for home consumption or you plan to sell. We now cut up our goat carcasses ourselves and therefore decide on the size of joints etc ourselves too. It doesn't matter a jot if they are on the smaller size, as most GG wether kids are. But I have found the BT (8 months) kid last year was 50kgs liveweight, 26kgs deadweight, and we got about 13 kgs of meat (all boned except the hind legs), plus a good amount of fat we rendered for soap.

So if you want only meat for yourselves you should be able to continue too use a dairy male (maybe you can find one that is a bit bigger but not too much) to increase the size of your stock slowly. But if your business plan includes goat meat sales, then I think large dairy goats crossed with a Boer may be better. AN x Boer would be ideal I agree.

sokel · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2013, 02:24:34 pm »

We covered our dairys with our Boer Billy and keeping 3 of the wether kids for our own meat.
Saying that ours are BTs
The kids are quite stocky and very little between them and pure Boers of the same age.
We had no problems with the births either

wytsend · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2013, 05:19:24 pm »

It is important to use a female goat who is well grown and has a good pelvic structure.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2013, 11:01:21 pm »

I bought in a kid who is Sanaan x Boer from a dairy farm where they use their own Boer billy. She doesn't jump much but she does have powerful shoulders which she uses to barge her way past me. I plan on breeding her this autumn with a pure Sanaan male. One problem I do have is she developed a fishtail teat, which is hereditary so all her kids will have to be slaughter whether they are male or female. I was told that this is not uncommon in Boers.