# Meat vs. Dairy?



## ChickenPotPie (Sep 30, 2011)

Will you tell me the differences you see in raising/keeping meat goats vs. dairy goats?  I'm thinking it might be nice to keep a meat goat but I'm just thinking about it.  It'd like to hear comparisons and pros and cons.


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## freemotion (Sep 30, 2011)

Really, the bottom line is....what do you want in the end, meat or milk?  If it is one or the other, the answer is clear.  If you want both, you can breed dairy does to bigger meaty bucks, or raise bigger bodied dairy goats like Nubians, or tolerate a smaller amount of meat and just eat the dairy offspring.  This is what we did when I was a kid....the dairy offspring (after keeping/selling doelings) would be wethered and raised on pasture until about November and then into the freezer they went, basically no cost involved.

Not sure exactly what you are asking, so if this didn't answer it, can you clarify the question?


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## ksalvagno (Sep 30, 2011)

Goats are goats. You would raise them basically the same way. The only difference is if you would milk or not. You can milk meat goats but lactation is not as long.


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## ChickenPotPie (Sep 30, 2011)

Thank you for your response, freemotion.  I hadn't thought much about using the dairy goats as both a meat and milk source.  My brother's family does that.  Smart, practical.

Since my son decided to sell his dairy goat herd, I'm thinking we'll need something to keep the grass in the orchard down.  Whatever we choose should give back in some other way, too, in order to justify vet care it will need (and hay during the dry season).  I'm not looking for meat or milk.  I'm just considering options and wanted to get opinions from others.

I guess I was thinking specifically about Boar goats vs. dairy goats (we have Toggs).  Sure, they're both goats but they might be different in many ways.  For example, we have chickens.  You might think chickens are chickens but our multipurpose chickens are definitely farmyard birds - very dependent on us, leave destruction in their wake (you should see my flower bed), and seem dumb as posts in comparison to our other flock (Sumatras) who I liken more to natives - with keen survival skills (they're excellent foragers and don't eat smack in the middle of open space waiting for a hawk to pick them up) and they barely leave a footprint in their environment.  We barely have to look after the Sumatras and they're gorgeous lawn ornaments that lay pretty, pinkish eggs.  Their eggs are smaller but I've come to prefer this "ornamental" fowl to multi-purpose or even layer breeds.

So, I'm looking to find out what people like or dislike about keeping Boars and dairy goats.  What are the specific benefits or concerns?  Health concerns may be different.  General temperaments might be different.  Dairy goats a LOT of time being cared for/fed/worked w/for milk (twice a day like clockwork), while meat goats *might* just need to be put out to pasture until it's time for harvesting the meat.   Do dairy goaters feel tied down w/their milking responsibilities?  Do Boar keepers feel tied down for other reasons?

I'm looking for all sorts of comparisons and insights from both meat goat and milk goat keepers.    I'm sure someone will bring something up I hadn't thought of.


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## DKRabbitry (Oct 1, 2011)

In my opinion and young/newbie/inexperience eye....

No matter what type of goat you get, how YOU choose to manage them is really the determining factor.  You can have the most wonderful dairy goats in the world, but if you are not interested in milking/showing and you just keep them out on pasture and let them dam raise their kids and just vaccinate/worm when needed, then you are not any more or less tied down then if you had a meat herd that you were managing in the same way.  So, if dairy goats sell well in your area and you don't care to milk, just breed them and sell the kids.  There would be your kickback for feeding & taking care of them.  Same goes for meat goats.  

ALSO, if you really want to look into it and put as little maintenance as possible into it, check into different bloodlines.  I have one doe that is just GORGEOUS.  She is a lamancha, but she isn't very friendly.  So...  I catch her ever couple of months to give her a once over, then let her go about her business.  She is hardy and happy just being there, so I don't worry about it.  She will be bred this fall, and I will be doing whatever I decide to do with her kids, but unless she has a change of heart and all the sudden decides she likes people, I don't think I will bother milking her.  I get plenty of milk from my other girls, but she is still worth keeping because of her hardiness, bloodlines and conformation (just breed her to a friendly buck).  I have some other goats, still Lamanchas but from different bloodlines, that just need more attention.  They are not as easy of keeper, more likely to get ill/parasites, and just weaker genetically.  Breed also can play a factor here in terms of saaaaay Kikos are going to be just a little bit easier keep with very little maintenance, but if you like the friendly factor you may want to look elsewhere.

I do use my lamanchas for both meat and milk as well.  I DO plan on doing some crosses to boers eventually, but right now, I am just using the purebreds for both and it is working out good enough for what my family needs.  Okay, I feel like I am just blathering on and I really need to do chores... hope I at least got some more wheels turning LOL


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## Hickoryneck (Oct 1, 2011)

I have a small dairy goat herd and have been thinking it would be nice to add a Boer doe to cross to my dairy buck her kids would be bigger then the dairy kids so we could use them for meat. She would be my only meat doe and would hopefully provide us with 2 kids a year.


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## kstaven (Oct 2, 2011)

ChickenPotPie said:
			
		

> Thank you for your response, freemotion.  I hadn't thought much about using the dairy goats as both a meat and milk source.  My brother's family does that.  Smart, practical.
> 
> Since my son decided to sell his dairy goat herd, I'm thinking we'll need something to keep the grass in the orchard down.  Whatever we choose should give back in some other way, too, in order to justify vet care it will need (and hay during the dry season).  I'm not looking for meat or milk.  I'm just considering options and wanted to get opinions from others.
> 
> ...


If your primary purpose is lawn mowing the sheep may be a better answer. haired breeds are less maintenance and the young can be sold for meat. In many areas they will fetch $2.00 per pound live weight. Sheep typically don't do the damage to fruit trees that goats can.


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## RareBreedFancier (Oct 3, 2011)

I'll second sheep for mowing. Sheep will prefer to eat your grass, goats will prefer to eat your trees. Probably not what your looking for in an orchard. 

My goats have clipped the paddock shade trees high enough I can walk under them. No way they are getting near my orchard. I'm actually deciding between geese (noisy but pretty) or Muscovy ducks (less pretty but silent) for my orchard and will probably go with the ducks because the orchard is next to the house.


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## Roll farms (Oct 3, 2011)

Almost every tree in the front of our pasture has been killed / skirted by the goats over the last 15 - 20 years.  So, as the others said....if you care about those trees in your orchard, get sheep.

I prefer goat personalities to sheep but if you're just going to turn them loose to mow, that doesn't matter.

As far as goat personalities, unless they're handled a lot, boers are pretty stand-offish (compared to dairy goats) and Kikos are downright indifferent.  A feed bucket changes that, of course.  If you decide to go for goats and don't want much maintenance, I'd get kikos.  They really do make better mothers, and there's less hoof-trimming, deworming, etc.

I *hate* chasing down goats, I won't buy any more that are 'wild'...(she says....again....until she sees another one and falls in love...and says it...again.... )


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## kstaven (Oct 4, 2011)

But the wild ones have so much more character, aren't as boring, etc...


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## RareBreedFancier (Oct 4, 2011)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> I *hate* chasing down goats, I won't buy any more that are 'wild'...(she says....again....until she sees another one and falls in love...and says it...again.... )


Yup, I'm being sucked in by pretty little wildlings on the net at the moment. I keep telling myself I don't _need_ pretty feral kids... gosh I hope my does kid soon so I can get my baby fix.


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## ChickenPotPie (Oct 4, 2011)

Hmmmm.  Thank you all for your words and insight.    I was thinking I might keep a doe or two for myself for milking but I kinda like the idea of no milking chores and no stressing over damage to the trees.  I'm going to have to start looking into how to keep sheep.  Our neighbor is a sheep and  Boer goat rancher.  I'm hoping we can get a few lambs from them.  

Any other advice, insights, opinions?  Tips?

Thank you.


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## kstaven (Oct 5, 2011)

Look for a hair sheep. It will cut the work down even more.


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## zzGypsy (Oct 12, 2011)

Roll farms said:
			
		

> *Almost every tree in the front of our pasture has been killed / skirted by the goats over the last 15 - 20 years.  So, as the others said....if you care about those trees in your orchard, get sheep.*I prefer goat personalities to sheep but if you're just going to turn them loose to mow, that doesn't matter.
> 
> As far as goat personalities, unless they're handled a lot, boers are pretty stand-offish (compared to dairy goats) and Kikos are downright indifferent.  A feed bucket changes that, of course.  If you decide to go for goats and don't want much maintenance, I'd get kikos.  They really do make better mothers, and there's less hoof-trimming, deworming, etc.
> 
> I *hate* chasing down goats, I won't buy any more that are 'wild'...(she says....again....until she sees another one and falls in love...and says it...again.... )


sheep will eat your trees too... ours are no different than our goats in that way.

we have mostly lamancha goats, they're very friendly if handled a bit when young.  they tend to stay that way, where the sheep in general tend to become standoffish as they mature.  the lamanchas have been excellent mothers.

what to get depends on your end use and your facilities.
dairy goats or dairy sheep for milk (dairy sheep need to be machine milked for best production).  they can be used for meat, but will mature more slowly and have smaller less muscled carcases.
meat goats or meat sheep for meat.  yes you can milk them, but they're not great producers.
goats for clearing hard brush / weeds / small trees and some grass.
sheep for clearing grass / soft weeds / some brush.

we keep mixed breed sheep we've selected for medium grade wool, excellent meat carcasses, and better than average milk production.
we keep Lamanchas for goat milk production and will be adding a Boer buck for producing meat kids.  boer cross kids raised on dairy does grow much faster than boers on boer does, and have better meat production than dairy goats.


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## ChickenPotPie (Oct 12, 2011)

Thank you, zzGypsy.    It helps to know all that.

This is what we decided to do after doing a little online research and talking to a neighbor who is a rancher.  We're just going to keep a few goats.  The buck is supposed to be a desireable buck (dam was Togg reserve champion in '09) so we'll keep him a little longer.  We'll keep one doe so milking won't be such a chore.  I do enjoy makign cheese.  When it comes time to pass on the buck we'll retain one doe kid and have one of the numerous Boar bucks, in the area, refresh them.

And, this time, we'll advertise kids sooner.  Once I found the right place to advertise, it seems they sold easily so I'm not so stressed about selling extra kids this Spring.  Also, we've decided that we are up to raising a dairy wether for meat if we get one next kidding season.  I'll be in charge of the goats instead of my son.  I think this will work out well enough and we won't have to take any money out of pocket to get grazing animals.

So, thank you again, all, for the good information.  I think out of price of getting sheep and the fact that they WILL eat trees cinched it for us.


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## rollingmeadow (Oct 13, 2011)

ChickenPotPie said:
			
		

> Thank you for your response, freemotion.  I hadn't thought much about using the dairy goats as both a meat and milk source.  My brother's family does that.  Smart, practical.
> 
> Since my son decided to sell his dairy goat herd, I'm thinking we'll need something to keep the grass in the orchard down.  Whatever we choose should give back in some other way, too, in order to justify vet care it will need (and hay during the dry season).  I'm not looking for meat or milk.  I'm just considering options and wanted to get opinions from others.
> 
> ...


What about Kiko?  A meat goat that is said to be hardier and more parasite resistant than Boer.  They are used for clearing land and are usually left to their own for long periods of time without much trouble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiko_goat


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## Mamaboid (Oct 15, 2011)

When thinking meat goats, don't rule out Fainters.  They are usually mild mannered, smaller and more compact than boer and it is said they have the tenderest meat due to the myatonic gene.  They are also less prone to parasites and need less hands-on care.


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## zzGypsy (Oct 16, 2011)

Mamaboid said:
			
		

> When thinking meat goats, don't rule out Fainters.  They are usually mild mannered, smaller and more compact than boer and it is said they have the tenderest meat due to the myatonic gene.  They are also less prone to parasites and need less hands-on care.


went to the Missouri State extension Sheep and Goat Field Day yesterday... one of the panelists mentioned that fainters have a very high muscle mass for their size, and good feed conversion.


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