meat goats

[Hillsvale]

Can anyone recommend the best goats for meat... I have been told nubian... and I have been told nubian/boer crosses

Thoughts?

 

[no nonsense]

Uhhh, pure Boer, selected for correct meat type and feed conversion efficiency.

 

[Hillsvale]

thanks.... Oh and love your tag line.... how true!

 

[Roll farms]

Kikos aren't bad either.
Lots of loin on them, and generally they reach market weight w/ less feed, dewormer, and effort on the producer's part than boers do.
(You can check out Langston, Ok State, Tennessee U's websites for lots of performance test data that proves it.)
Some folks don't like crossbreds, but the Boer x Kiko does I've raised did real well for me.

 

[no nonsense]

I've never seen one of those Kikos. You know, my purebred snob self. I just wonder why they never caught on as meat goats in this country, and then were just left in the dust by the Boers when they appeared.

 

[Roll farms]

why they never caught on as meat goats in this country

I'm sorry....but what country are you in?? Kiko numbers are growing by leaps and bounds in the US.

Boers have been in the US a bit longer than Kikos...so it would have been hard for the boers to leave them in the dust....considering the Kikos weren't even here yet.

Kikos are a true meat goat, not a show animal.
Their "ribbons" are based on performance.

There will always be folks who want hardy meat animals buying Kikos, and folks who want pretty show winners buying boers. Just depends on what your goals are.

The numbers speak for themselves:

http://theikga.org/research.html

Specifically this one:
http://theikga.org/Brazil-GoatFitness.pdf

And, NN....Kikos have a registry, with pedigrees and everything...maybe you should look into them.

 

[freemotion]

I love the last chart in that second link. If I could find Kikos, I would definitely be raising meat goats here. The numbers show a hardy goat that needs the least amount of pharmaceutical intervention.

Any animal of any species that increases greatly in popularity in this country usually goes downhill fast in hardiness.

 

[Hillsvale]

thanks for your thought.. the heritage farm up the road frm me commented on boer meat ust this morning.... Kiko?.. I have only been researching for a short while but haven't come across that name... perhaps Canadians haven't caught on or perhaps I wasn't looking in the right spot!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

There's a goat farm about 20 minutes from me that has about 150 kikos. They're a production farm, not a show farm.

 

[cmjust0]

Uhhh, ...

And so it begins, yet again...

I've never seen one of those Kikos. You know, my purebred snob self.

Kiko is a breed, btw, with several national breed associations, an international breed association, registries, pedigrees, and all that other fine stuff... To me, the fact that you've never seen one demonstrates either A) closed-mindedness and a blinding bias toward Boers, or B) inexperience in your own field.

But that's just my opinion.