Need an opinion what do you think?

[Jared77]

Since the internets FULL of them I thought I'd go ahead and ask

Seriously though I'm thinking hard about adding a draft goat to our set up. We have no goats currently so this is all just thinking aloud. We do want to have a few NDs for our kids to do 4H with and milk. So because of that I had the thought to add a draft goat to the mix. It would be a wether and the main reason would be companionship to the other goats and draft purposes. First off is it ok to house a bigger breed of wether with a smaller breed of goat?

My plan was to have it haul a cart of firewood, manure, compost, feed, the kids in a wagon (with me along side with a lead line) or a sled in the winter. I've even seen garden cultivators that are designed with the draft goat in mind. I train retrievers and everything I've read on how to train a goat is almost identical to what I do with my dogs so its not a totally foreign concept to me.

So this got me thinking NDs are too small to really be effective drafts. So I started looking at other breeds. I see a lot of dairy wethers pulling and I assume thats because they are cheap and people are looking to unload them. I know lots of oxen are dairy breeds for the same reason I'm guessing. So you can see where this is going....what about a boer wether boer for draft?

So I guess is it worth it to use a boer wether as a draft vs a dairy wether other than cost? I'm just bouncing this idea off anybody who's willing to reply this is in the future but its something I thought of and thought "why not ask?"

Thanks folks I appreciate your thoughts on this

 

[ksalvagno]

I don't see why it would matter if you had a Boer goat or dairy goat. I think size would probably be the biggest thing. Dairy breed males do get big but Boer goats get even bigger. They are more muscular which would help in pulling but I don't know if temperament would make them harder to train or anything. Any person who owns Boer goats would be better able to answer your question.

 

[Catahoula]

Just a thought...if you worry about the size difference, why not get a standard size dairy doe like a nubian or alpine? Milking is easier too..taller and bigger.

 

[HankTheTank]

A lot of people use boer mixed with a dairy breed, usually nubian, as cart goats because then you get the muscle of the boer along with the characteristics of the other breed, which seems to make for a very good cart goat. Any breed would work really...I've been wanting to get a cart goat myself, but can't right now. Good luck!

And as for housing the different sizes together, I don't see why they couldn't as long as the big one wasn't aggressive towards them. If you get it at a young enough age and it grows up with the ND's it would be ok. Maybe make sure the big one doesn't have horns too, so he doesn't accidentally stab a little one.

 

[mydakota]

I don't see why it would matter if you had a Boer goat or dairy goat. I think size would probably be the biggest thing. Dairy breed males do get big but Boer goats get even bigger. They are more muscular which would help in pulling but I don't know if temperament would make them harder to train or anything. Any person who owns Boer goats would be better able to answer your question.

Well I don't know ANYTHING about draft goats, but I am pretty sure that there is nothing at all in the temperament or personality of a Boer that would make it unsuitable for ANY activity in which they interact with humans. I have Boers and Saanens, and while the Saanens are sweet, they can also be a lot more timid. My Boers are very outgoing and love to interact with people. They are also beefy and strong. If I was going to choose one of my goats for such a pursuit, it would definitely be one of the Boers.