Boer Goats

[LJH]

Don't forget to visit our Web site as well.

[billstmaxx voice] Holy frig! [/billstmaxx voice]

Awesome site, whoever built it was a real pro. Easy to navigate and great content, very cool. Bookmarked. Gorgeous goats, ditto Suzy & Sweet Pea. And you grow great rocks too; I know because it's one of my specialties here at the Haphazard Homestead.

 

[DennisArrow]

For sure the layering of your hay/manure is the way to go and then long about late Feb or early March put it on the garden and till it in. STUFF GROWS........Not so good for root crops but for anything that is above ground Goat compost cannot be beat

We raise registered breeding stock and show goats. Recently at an auction in Murfreesboro, Tn there were MANY does selling in the $3K to $5K range and the highest went at $17K. The small breeder has a hard time getting enough genes together to really be competitive at the Nationals or State Fairs but it is great for the FFA and 4H kids to work on. My grandaughter, age 5 now, won several ribbons last season and a bit of cash money with one of the sorriest looking wethers you ever saw. The judges were intrigued with her I think. We have a billy out of Pipeline that won at the Louisville National last summer as well as a 2 year old doe. So.......
Folks are right saying you spend and spend and then give up. For those that understand about breeding, genetics, patience, and a love of tending stock Boer's are hard to beat.
The advice about baking soda on wet spots, for me, is not especially accurate. You do want to make it and minerals available. We put lime down on wet spots and when we CLEAN out the stalls we put a good layer down. You are always......ALWAYS ......gonna have that smell......lolol......wait until you get a billy in rut.

Give them CLEAN water, and it really is a good idea to have a heater in it to raise it up to in the 40's or above. Goats drink like 1/2 gallon of water per day and if they have to use body heat to raise that temp that is energy that is lost instead of putting on weight.

Don't just give them any kind of hay or straw. Bermuda is good stuff but the fescues and orchard grasses are for cattle. NO MOLD...........
Yes, resistance to disease has been bred out of them; but for us, that is one area that we totally concentrate on. Our stock, through breeding, has better and better worm resistance and is a great selling point for us. Yes, you MUST take care of their hooves. PERIOD....do it.........Pneumonia is a huge killer if you dont innoculate for it. Pink eye spreads through the herd faster than lightning.....on and on.....Wait until one of the 3 kids at birth is stuck and you have to go in and get it out......Wait until you have 3 bottlebabies..............anyway.....is it worth it.????????????
For me, a goat is just a critter lookin for a place to die............For my wife all the time, and me at sale or show time......the time and effort is priceless when you raise those winners............God bless........Dennis

 

[cqaigy2]

No offense meant but in my experience, a profitable goat business is very, very rare. Most of the ones i've been acquainted with, at best, run a small deficit and are typically supported by money brought in from other endeavors. I do know of a dairy that is currently making a profit, small but still in business.

But they sure are interesting animals and you can get very attached to them.:thumbsup:

 

[DennisArrow]

lol....yes it takes a LOT of kids sold to pay for the feed bill.........or.....One or two 8 month old billies with great genetics and perhaps a show ribbon or two will pay for LOTS of feed and hay.........God bless........Dennis

 

[jwstewar]

The advice about baking soda on wet spots, for me, is not especially accurate. You do want to make it and minerals available. We put lime down on wet spots and when we CLEAN out the stalls we put a good layer down. You are always......ALWAYS ......gonna have that smell......lolol......wait until you get a billy in rut.

Guess I should clarify my statement a bit more. We use baking soda on the floor inside the barn since it has a wooden floor. Outside we use the lime. Gotta remember right now we are using our repurposed 8x16 garden shed that I build about 12 years ago. Guess I did a good job at building it, it is still in good shape and survived being moved back in 2003 when we built the 30x48 pole barn and then this past fall to get it in position for the goats. We used to call it a barn and now it truly is a barn.:laughing: I had originally installed vents at the back of the shed to let heat out. We picked up a couple of the smaller dual fan window fans last year on closeout. Once the weather starts warming up, I will put those up on the vents to remove the heat and oders/gases more. We will probably also "lock" them out of the barn for most of the summer unless it happens to be raining or something like that.

We have pieces of PVC with elbows at the bottom for one for their baking soda and one for their minerals. My wife and daughter then made a hay net that we keep their hay in. Wanting to make a wooden hay trough, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Since we only have the 2 goats currently, each one has their own feeding trough. And they know whos is whos.:laughing: For water, we have a 9 quart heated bucket for them. Once we get beyond freezing we will go back to a normal 8 quart bucket until warmer weather and then we will go to a 5 gallon (maybe 2 in seperate areas of the pen) that will be changed twice a day to keep it as fresh and cool as possible. The kids like the smaller buckets as they are easier to carry from the water hose for them. Last year during the heat we had shade covers up for them and also kept a fan running for them - even during the 4 day power outage. Ran extension cords to them and the dog for fans to keep them cool. Goats don't like water, but let me tell you, after a few days scorching, they learned to appreciate the misting fan and would go stand in front of it. Just had to make sure there was still plenty of dry ground for them because of their hoofs.

 

[crowbar032]

Lots of good advice posted by others, and good links too. I'll throw in a comment on fencing. The joke about goats and fencing is that you take a bucket of water and throw it at the fence. Anywhere the water goes through, a goat will as well. That is a slight exageration, but goats crawl. Make sure your fence is close to the ground and tight. So far I haven't had issues with them jumping, but I have heard of others with that issue. Depending on the size of your property, fence selection is important. The goat fence is OMG expensive (2x or 3x regular field fence). Which is why I like my goats de-horned. That way I can use the standard 47" field fence and not worry about them getting stuck in the checks when they put their head through. This is usually only an issue when they are younger, once the horns get longer and their head gets bigger they no longer fits in the checks. Dehorned goats will still fit and saves me from weed-eating the fence row. As far as shelter, I'm not sure. I've often heard that a barn is an excellent place to store manure. I bought one of those port-a-hut metal shelters 12x16 and faced the opening to the east. It's not a palace, but it's dry and the wind is blocked. The only time my goats use it is when it's raining. The past week it's been around 10 degrees at night. Every morning, all 9 are bedded down in the hay (that they waste since I use round bales) out in the open. They won't drink water with any ice in it though, you'll need a heater.

Are you dead set on full blood boer goats? Full blood with papers will be expensive per goat. I've got a couple of boer/nubian cross does that are really built well and I got them for a third of the price of a full boer. I'm planning on selling for meat not 4-H though, so I guess it depends on you and your goals.

 

[weldingisfun]

[billstmaxx voice] Holy frig! [/billstmaxx voice]

Awesome site, whoever built it was a real pro. Easy to navigate and great content, very cool. Bookmarked. Gorgeous goats, ditto Suzy & Sweet Pea. And you grow great rocks too; I know because it's one of my specialties here at the Haphazard Homestead.

Thanks for the kind words, LJH. We are as proud of our Web site as we are of our goats.

We have been to your part of the world. The rocks there make ours look like grains of sand. Utah is a beautiful place, desolate but beautiful.

 

[hotiron01]

I appreciate all the comments regarding my future project. As we progress, I will keep everyone updated. I plan on visiting with breeders to look at stock as well as their facilities to see what works and doesn't work for them.
David

 

[sam5570]

We started out a few years ago, with a few head of good registered Boer stock. Found and purchased a buck with excellent bloodlines. Things mushroomed from there, and at one point we had a tolal of 150! Most people think you raise goats by buying them and letting them go. Don't believe it!!! Boer goats have had most of the natural diusease resistance bred out of them. They require worming and hoof trimming once a month, and if you get into this, you'll become the mosts educated goat vet in the area if you do it right. You will find this the most time consuming, costly and most labor intensive enterprise you've ever tried. With the cost of feed and hay right now, everybody in this area has sgiven up on he goat business. Take an old fools advice and DON'T DO IT!!!!

eyecatcher you are so right we raised and sold boer gots for 20 years if you do things right they are a very high matinance animal we tryed to keep around 20 but got down to 10 and got out totally 4 years ago one thing that helped us alot as far as keeping them healthy was we had 15 acres for them to run on we divided it up and switch them every 6 months from one to the other that really helped with the worms and foot rot once we did that we had no foot rot and could worm them twice a year no problem hope this helps.