# newbie - opinions on breeding boar to registered dairy?



## nuzmom (Oct 28, 2010)

I have 2 Registered American Alphine Does (milking mom and 7  1/2 month daughter). Thanks to my wonderful friend, who I purchased the does from, I have access to a Boar Buck for no cost. She's using him next week or so and then I can borrow him. (she said the girls came into heat last year within a day or two of the buck showing up - she's planning on this only taking a week).

She's going this route because she used a registered Alphine buck last year thinking that the kids would sell quickly and easily. They didn't. They were registered, healthy, VERY well cared for (like pets), and $150 each.

So, if we use a Boar buck, will the kids be marketable at all? By marketable, I mean either for meat or for someone to purchase. If my children fall in love with a doeling, could she be kept and later bred and milked?

If we don't use this buck, what are my options? We live in Southwest, PA and have no trailer to transport a buck. I don't know of another Alpine owner in my area and AI intimidates me (also concerned about it not working).

Thanks for any help - I've read a LOT on these boards and you all are so helpful, but this is my first time posting.


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## cmjust0 (Oct 28, 2010)

Not sure I'd breed a 7-1/2 mo old 1st timer to a heavy-boned meat breed buck, but then again, I wouldn't breed a 7-1/2 month old _period_.  

The adult doe would probably be OK, though..  That's not a guarantee, obviously, but...yanno.  As for the resulting Boer/Alpine offspring, they'd probably be as ugly as a mud fence but that doesn't mean the wethers wouldn't be suitable for the table.

As for doelings, well...they might make good replacement does for someone running a commercial doe/kid, no papers, hooves-on-the-ground type operation.  The Alpine influence would probably improve the udders and lactation curve of the Boer, plus they're hybrids and hybrids tend to be healthier than purebreds..  If you crossed the hybrid doe back to a fullblood, or even a commercial, high-% Boer buck, the kids would probably be genetically meaty and they'd be able to take advantage of an improved lactation from mama.  So that would be good..

I wouldn't necessarily expect them to fetch very much, though...they'll likely bring the killing price, just like the wethers.


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## rebelINny (Oct 28, 2010)

I have a couple of Boer/Alpine crosses and they are ok milkers, not as much as a full-blooded but not terrible either. They are stockier and seem to be much more hardy than any of my purebreds. In answer to your question yes you can still milk a cross between the breeds. You can sell kids for meat but it will obviously not be as meaty since it will also have a dairy side. Too bad you aren't a little closer to me, I would let you rent my purebred registered French Alpine buck for cheap. Also you could look into breeding them to a registered Nigerian dwarf buck and start a mini-ALpine herd as I am doing and get a smaller size goat that can still give you lots of milk and eats less. Oh, and generally you would take the does to the buck not vice versa. Good luck


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## Ariel301 (Oct 28, 2010)

I wouldn't have a problem breeding the doeling as long as she is big enough and mature. But then again, unlike a lot of breeders, I just plain can't afford to feed a doeling for two years before she starts MAYBE earning her keep...it's a huge loss to me if I feed her that long, then she freshens and has horrible kids or doesn't milk like I want. So I try to breed mine their first year, if they are born early in the year they are big enough by the end of the year usually. 

But I wouldn't breed her to a huge Boer buck. I usually try to breed my first fresheners to a smaller buck than them, like a Nigerian (I breed LaManchas), for a small kid size and an easy birth. After that, I will breed them to a full size buck. 

Boer/Alpine crosses MIGHT be marketable. As meat or pets. You're not going to have a good market for them as a milk goat, (unless people don't know better, like around here) and if you want to keep one yourself for milking, you'd be better off keeping a pure dairy animal, as a Boer cross will likely have a poorer udder structure that won't hold up as long, won't milk as heavily or as long a lactation, and the goat will eat just as much if not more than a plain dairy goat, so you get less milk for the same or more feed. Boer/dairy crosses are good if you want a pack or cart goat because they are big and strong. This is a good cross if you are raising meat on a small scale--once I can expand my herd for meat goats I will get a Boer buck to cross with dairy does, so that the mom has tons of milk to feed the kid so it can grow fast and big, and the kid will get the meaty-ness of the Boer rather than be just a skinny little dairy kid when it is time to put it in the freezer.


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## ()relics (Oct 28, 2010)

cmjust0 said:
			
		

> As for doelings, well...they might make good replacement does for someone running a commercial doe/kid, no papers, hooves-on-the-ground type operation.  ..............I wouldn't necessarily expect them to fetch very much, though...they'll likely bring the killing price, just like the wethers.


Not so much...A breeding from a fullblood registered Boer Buck will yield a registerable percentage kid...Doelings anyway are registerable at 50%...bucklings are simply wethers.....My commercial herd was built on this very cross, boer bucks over alpine does.  The resulting doe kids are registered and sold for substantially more than "kill price"... $150 for bottle kids....The F1's will have airplane ears and will look more dairyish than boerish, but they raise big wether kids with not alot of additional feed input...The doelings are registered and sold or used as replacements...Hey its just my opinion but I have 10 or so of these crosses I look at everyday, and as ugly as the F1's are they are some of my most productive commercial does...





these are all kids from F1's and F2's...1 fullblood...every doeling in the picture will be registered and you can see the bucklings don't look too shabby either....FYI...of this group only 3 bucklings/wethers and 4 doelings remain, the rest were sold shortly after they were born...I have a standing order for wethers, just like these boys...


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## cmjust0 (Oct 28, 2010)

Well, there ya go!


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## nuzmom (Oct 28, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. You've given me more to think about. I'm not looking to make much money off the kids, I just want to make sure I can sell them. Sure, I'd prefer to sell them as "pets", but meat would be "ok", too. Just not ready to grow my herd - well, maybe by one cute one 
rebelINny - wish you were closer, too!!!


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## mistee (Oct 28, 2010)

where in pa are you located? i am in de and have 3 nigerian bucks


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## aggieterpkatie (Oct 29, 2010)

mistee said:
			
		

> where in pa are you located? i am in de and have 3 nigerian bucks


Hey! Where in DE are you?  I'm in MD, on the Eastern Shore!


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## nuzmom (Oct 29, 2010)

mistee - I'm in southwest PA.


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## TheMixedBag (Oct 29, 2010)

My saanen's breeder crossed boers to saanens all the time with no issues on selling them. The offspring were meaty, and when the does were bred again (usually to a boer), their kids grew much faster than their does on full/pure blood does (*she* said she had a 60lb kid at about 4 months....I really wouldn't know...).

I also have a guy interested in breeding his entire herd of does to my Alpine buck, for the exact same reason.


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## srwdachshund (Nov 7, 2010)

I don't know about how marketable they would be, because i kept mine, but i do know that the one i have isn't as ugly as a mud fence. 

My little doeling had a cou claire mother and the buck was a red boer. she ended up being a broken cou claire and is stockier, and definitely has more muscle to her, but i bet she'll be hardier than my other dairy kids. 

It's not that good a pic, but if you can see it, she's my avatar image.


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