Size of bore buckling?

[mdavenport0121]

My more buckling is 25 days old and weighs 22 lbs. Is that a pretty nice size buckling? He's a lot bigger than my other three kids.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Hello:
Sorry no one answered this for you.

You would expect a Boer Buckling to weigh around 8 to 10 lbs at birth and have at least .35 daily gain on a first time mom raising a set of twins. and .45 on a doe that has kidded 2 or more times. So if you take .45 x 25 days = 11.25 lbs plus birth weight (8lbs) would equal 19.25 lbs.

You said your kid weighs 22 lbs at 25 days of age, so if he weighed 8 lbs at birth then he has gained 14 lbs so far in 25 days. 14 divided by 25 equals .56 lbs per day gain. That is pretty good gain.
You would expect a doe raising a single to have better gain on that single than a doe raising twins or triplets.

I expect my does to beable to raise a set of twins at .45 minimum daily gain by the time they are 3 years old or they are culled. I really am looking for at least .50 to .55 daily gain on a set of twins. .6 on a single.

I never purchased a herd sire that does not have at least a .6 daily gain and from a set of twins. Growth rate is affected by several things but it is very genetic.

The last buckling I purchased was a twin and dam raised and 60lbs at 11 weeks of age. That is exactly what I am looking for in growth rate.

My kids are on creepfeed starting at 2 to 3 weeks of age, so that isn't pasture only gains.

 

[babsbag]

Hello:
Sorry no one answered this for you.

You would expect a Boer Buckling to weigh around 8 to 10 lbs at birth and have at least .35 daily gain on a first time mom raising a set of twins. and .45 on a doe that is has kidded 2 or more times. So if you take .45 x 25 days = 11.25 lbs plus birth weight (8lbs) would equal 19.25 lbs.

You said you kid weighs 22 lbs at 25 days of age, so if he weighed 8 lbs at birth then he has gained 14 lbs so far in 25 days. 14 divided by 25 equals .56 lbs per day gain. That is pretty good gain.
You would expect a doe raising a single to have better gain on that single than a doe raising twins or triplets.

I expect my does to beable to raise a set of twins at .45 minimum daily gain by the time they are 3 years old or they are culled. I really am looking for at least .50 to .55 daily gain on a set of twins. .6 on a single.

I never purchase a herd sire that does not have at least a .6 daily gain and from a set of twins. Growth rate is affected by several things but it is very genetic.

The last buckling I purchased was a twin and dam raised and 60lbs at 11 weeks of age. That is exactly what I am looking for in growth rate.

My kids are on creepfeed starting at 2 to 3 weeks of age, so that isn't pasture only gains.

What is in your creep feed? I am just starting to raise the boers and your growth rates seem to be way about what my friends in CA are getting. I would like to take some lessons from you

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Yeah some major creep feeding there. lol

 

[20kidsonhill]

I have used several feeds over the ears, But they were all a pelleted goat feed between 16% and 17% protein and between 3.5 and 4.5% fat and medicated with Rumensin. We always have a creepfeed area set up by the time the first kids born are 2 weeks old and we put creep feed out 2 or 3 times a day. I make sure when I put it out, after all the kids have eaten for 20 or 30 minutes that there is a little left over. We use the same feed for our entire farm, but ideally you would want to be using a 16 or 17% protein feed on your keeds and a 14 to 15% protein feed on your dams. TDN(energy) is more important for your dams that are nursing, while protein is more important for your growing kids.

I can not stress enough how genetics can and will affect your daily gain.

For our show wethers we are using Purina Implus or Purina intimidator, or Show Rite show feeds. These are expensive and $20 or more right now a 50lb bag,
We are limited in our area to brands of feed, but I really like Kent that is wold more mid West.
for our herd we have our own feed mixed, but we were using a 16% protein medicated goat feed form our co-op for years.

When comparing pelleted feed, In my opinion the greener the pellet the better the feed.

rumensin is also a better medication in most opinions compared to deccox.

ammonia chloride is a must.

We do NOT like sweet feeds, even the goat sweet feeds.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Also, you are looking at them consuming 3 to 3.5% of their body weight in creepfeed a day divided up into 2 oar 3 feedings. So a 50 lb kid would be eating 1.5lbs of creepfeed a day. A pound is about 3 measuring cups. So 4.5 cups a day. This amount needs to go up as they grow.

We also preventively treat for coccidiosis starting at 3 weeks of age and treat every 3 to 4 weeks for 5 to 6 days with either Corid or sulfa-dimethoxine. Normally when they are younger we use the sulfa and when a little older we use corid.

Worming for tapeworms can also be important in your young kids that are a month or older, Tapeworms may not affect the older animals but will kill your growth rate. We use synanthic as a wormer on our kids for tapworms and very really bad loads we use Equimax horse wormer for tapworms on our yearling and adult does.

 

[Renegade]

Yeah some major creep feeding there. lol

People (not pointing fingers) like to be critical of those of us that creep feed but what most seem to not realize is no matter how much feed you put in front of a baby goat they will only consume so much and no matter how much they eat they will only grow to their genetic potential. You can't force slow growing genetics to grow faster by feeding more.
We show our goats so yes they are creep fed. We like fast growing genetics. The last few years our kids average daily gain (ADG) has been between .60 - .82
Our feed is ADM 18% Meat Goat w/alfalfa. This has Rumensin. It is a mini pellet that the kids seem to prefer over a regular size pellet.

Donna

 

[mdavenport0121]

How often do you weigh your kids? I may have to get a more precise scale.

 

[Renegade]

How often do you weigh your kids? I may have to get a more precise scale.

How often we weigh ours depends on where mom & baby are located. Obviously the kids born in the barn with the scale get weighed more often then kids located elsewhere. At a minimum kids are weighed at birth and weaning.
Goats in our show string we try to weigh about every other month since they are handled a lot anyway it's usually pretty easy to throw them on the scale. The only time we occasionally run into a problem is if we have a buck that's full of himself and have does with babies in the barn with the scale. I'm not into being dragged around just to get a weight.

Donna

 

[babsbag]

I guess I am going to have to go looking for food. All I can remember seeing around here is Purina and Nutrena. There may be others, but I don't recall seeing them. I live in a rural area with a largish city close and more than a few feed stores within 30 miles so surely one of them must have a high protein medicated feed.

Is the ammonia cholride a must for kids? And if so, why?