boer goats

4010 puller · Dec 24, 2010

Hey all:

Do any of you have any goats around the farm to sell as meat? I thought about buying a few for about 4 acres, how many can you have per acre and how much hay do they eat? Where is a good place to buy your does? How old are your kids before you send them off to the sale to be sold as butcher meat?

Is it just as easy to let 3-4 calves eat this ground down or is it worth giving goats a try?

Anonymous-0 · Dec 24, 2010

If you just put up hay on that 4 acres (or let someone else do it), you'd be able to sleep nights all the way through and go away on the weekends and vacations. No worming, hoof trimming, doctoring, yadda, yadda.....

I got a couple goats when we first got our place to "help eat things down". Chain link fence around the yard and they still got through (learned in a matter of a few minutes to lean against it and kinda fall over, it'd snap back in place and they'd just stand up on the other side. Neighbor thought it was so cute that they wanted to get on his side of the fence that I just gave them to him.

Dave

Tx Jim · Dec 24, 2010

Goats or sheep require worming quite regular if confined to a small area. I'd pick calves over either of the other 2.

Dave_Id · Dec 24, 2010

I raised Barbados Black Belly sheep. They had shots and wormed once a year, and the young rams went into the freezer. We butchered the sheep ourselves. A ram a year old would weigh in at about 50 pounds hanging weight. Older rams around 65 pounds. I would put one a month in the freezer. Good eating, not much mutton taste as the fat formed on the outer layer between the meat and hide, so most of it could get trimmed off.

They are very hearty, and will drop a lamb on a snowbank, but need shelter from rain.

timberjack · Dec 24, 2010

I had around 130 Boer goats at one time. Put up around 3500 bales a year and pastured 25 acres. Kids get raised up to about 50 pounds before slaughter. Goats require lots of wormer. I raised my own corn, bought soy and distillers and ground my own feed. They will eat about anything for hay. Best fence I found was to use 16 foot calf panels. They will push over page wire. Calf panels are expensive but last a long time. I sold mine about five years ago. Raising heifers will make you more.

Mike (WA) · Dec 24, 2010

There's a certain amount of "per head" work with any livestock- you can raise about 5 times as many goats per acre as cattle, and it won't be 5 times the work, but probably double. I'd go with cattle.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 24, 2010

Started raising Boers back in 1999 worst goats health wise I have ever seen,always need worming,hoof trimming and whatever plus the does are terrible mothers.Got Kikos and they are just the opposite rarely need worming,no hoof trimming,great mothers,rarely have any helth realted issues.

Dean Olson · Dec 24, 2010

I keep 6-10 goats per acre depending on how much it rains and what the pasture looks like. I put an add in Craigslist and sell the weanlings for $75 each at about 10 weeks old. I do trim hooves and worm about every 4 months. Mine will come to a feed bucket and are easy to catch. I check the eyelid for proper color and will worm sooner than 4 months if they look anemic. I put up a no climb horse fence when I bought the property and have since added electric fence top and bottom inside and out. This keeps the goats in and the coyotes out. I only have 4 acres of pasture so running calves isn't practical. My nannies will have twins about every 6 months. It's not a big money maker but the weeds are all but gone out of the pasture and selling the weanlings help pay the property taxes.

ohiojim · Dec 25, 2010

i'd suggest that if you never had goats to stick with cattle, i,ve got a few head of boers they are labor intensive but i disagree that they are bad mothers, never had one not nurture a kid,...but for small areas the worms will catch up to you

boer goats

4010 puller

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Anonymous-0

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Tx Jim

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Dave_Id

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timberjack

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Mike (WA)

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Traditional Farmer

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Dean Olson

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ohiojim

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