what bucks would you get?

[sawfish99]

DW and I are new to owning goats, but have lots of years of experience with livestock in general. Right now, our dairy herd consists of 2 Oberhaslis, 1 75% Ober 25% Toggenburg, 1 Lamancha. Breeding season hase been a pain in the butt with trips back and forth to the bucks. the 3 Oberhaslis were all bred at the same farm. The Lamancha has been the biggest problem and is currently off being boarded to be bred. We have decided keeping a buck at our farm will greatly simplify breeding and probably save money in the long run. Since there is no rush on this, I will probably look for an Oberhasli buck next summer.

We are considering not keeping the Lamancha after next summer and getting another Oberhasli instead. That way, a single Oberhasli buck can be used for all the dairy does.

But there is more.

Now we want to add a few meat goats. I am thinking probably 2, maybe 3 Boer does. We are not looking for commercial level production here, just family farm. Using the meat for ourselves and possibly selling a couple of kids. Based on that, would you use the Oberhasli buck to breed the Boer does or get a Boer buck? If we only have 1 buck, we would probably keep a whether as a companion for him.

I am watching for local availability of meat does, because I could easily add them to the existing pen with the dairy does. I would rather have 1 larger herd than lots of separately fenced areas.

 

[kacey142]

Hi i have 2 boer goats and 2 pymies,1 weather, and 3 spainshed does.....The buck and the weather are still going to fight though but it wont be as bad . Boer goat bucks would be really nice though


good luck finding what u want

 

[Roll farms]

It's hard for someone else to decide which buck you should use.

My own personal rule of thumb is short ear x short ear OR long ear x long ear. That's more to do w/ personal preference....

I won't breed an Ob to a boer (airplane ears), and IMHO, boer x Nubian make the 'best' crossbred meat kids. Not only do they look more boer-like (therefore more marketable as meat kids for 4-H and those buyers who 'want' boer looks) they tend to be nice and meaty.

Also, Obs tend to be finer-boned than Boers, and some of my Obs have had terrible times having their kids....no way would I want to breed them to a buck w/ the potential of having even bigger (larger framed) kids.

This year we bred our best Ob doe to our Togg buck, in hopes she'd have twins or at least smaller kids, his other kids were easily born to the does we've used him on.
Her 1st two times being bred to an Ob buck, she had 10# and 11# singles.
This year....she had a 12# single that got stuck.

So, if you're intent to make boer x Ob, (going ober-boered, you could say...ha ha), I would use Ob buck on Boer does.

I've found that keeping boer does in w/ dairy does....makes for some really fat boer does. They don't 'need' the input that milking does do....but you have to feed the dairy does to keep them in condition....so the boers eat too....and get fat. Just how it's been here. Maybe our boer does are just predisposed to obesity....

One word of caution, if your dairy does are dehorned, a dominant boer doe w/ horns can chase everyone away at feeding time.
And I've had horned boer bucks not only destroy my barn, but kill dehorned does. That's not typical, but if someone's selling boers, ask about their attitudes.

 

[Queen Mum]

You can keep two bucks together if you get them with good personalities. SO why not get a boer buck and an Ober buck? And get them the same age at the same time as young bottle babies.

 

[Genipher]

Ober-boered! That's great!!

 

[sawfish99]

Thanks Roll. Your insight is exactly the kind of thing we were looking for. Yes, keeping 2 different bucks is a possibility. We have found so far with our livestock interests that sticking with pure bred animals seems to be easier to market. However, a single buck simplifies a few other things, like fencing and the amount of buck odor around the house. Probably not getting any bucks until next summer, unless the right deal comes along before then...