# Breeding boers smaller?



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

My herd goals are to breed for show wethers. We do not register our goats but most were able to be registered. They all range from 75%-100% boer. I like the big old style boers and keep hoping that style will slowly come back around in the show world. So most of my does are more of the old style and I breed them to bucks I see as good show bucks with a little old buck in them. We will see how the kids do this year at the shows. But the more I look at some of the upcoming bucks it looks like they are breeding them shorter and shorter to try to pack the muscle on them easier. One big breeder that isn't super far from me is selling to a lot of kids in the area but his bucks and does are half the size of mine and are the size of a pygmy x boer cross. But his goats win all over the place they may be small but are so extreme and show so much muscle. Does anyone else see this type of boer growing more popular in your area also? How do you feel about this change? I just like big boers and don't really like this change. I can screen shot pictures but without permission I don't really want to post them because I am not sure if the breeders would like it. Sorry if that was to much rambling. Just wanting to know if others think this is going to be the big change with boers and I should be going more in that direction or if it will only last a few years and they will start going back to breeding larger. I never showed goats only pigs and cattle and things always changed every few years and almost went in a cycle.


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I don't see that as a good thing. Just asking for more health and birthing problems.


----------



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

I agree I would be worried about birthing issues. There is this buck that looked great until I saw him next to a man and he was shorter then his knees. Then read further and see his kids have done well already at shows so I know the buck has to be over a year old and is that short.


----------



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Yes!!! This is something I kinda rave about and my mom and I talk about all the time. I'm with you I want some leg to these goats. Back when boers were first coming out we had a few Nubian does just pets and a lady up the road had to move and was trying to sell her boer buck. My mom told her that we couldn't buy him but if she came down to the wire we would give him a good home. Ended up getting him and OMG he was huge!! He just towered over our Nubians. I never really paid attention my first few years since most of my goats were crosses. Then I really started getting into boer and I saw them as shorter then that buck was but not overly. I couldn't understand why people thought my buck I have now is huge but then I went to a sale (leaving names out) and the picture of their buck he looked big and I was shocked when they brought him out in person and he was this short thing. But he is a high dollar buck a wins shows left and right. I was a little baffled by it but figured whatever maybe that's just him. Went to another persons farm last year to look at a buck and he was big into showing too and same thing all his goats were short to me. Beautiful goats just so very short.
But I do have a theory here lol I don't over feed my goats, maybe more of under feeding maybe. I don't want bones sticking out or anything but I don't want globs of fat either. I want them in shape to move around all day and eat what is grown without having a heart attack or a heat stroke. A friend of mine she keeps her goats penned and feeds the crap out of them. They are fat. Now we do some trading and have for years. Quite a few times I had a sister and she had a sister both from my breeding and hers. Hers always ends up once matured shorter but more bulky and fat while mine are taller and more lean I guess you could say. So I'm thinking that I'm thinking feed/ exercise is playing a part as well. Not saying genetics is playing a roll as well, even though I guess my buck is considered big and tall he's still nothing compared to that first buck we had. But no matter what it is I'm with you I like the old style way more then the new style


----------



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

I just hope things change I don't like the little boers


----------



## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

All good advice.


----------



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

My buddy bought a bred doe from an online sale from one of these breeders. When the doe got shipped to his house she was smaller then his 8 month old does and already 130 days bred and if I remember right 2 years old. He was really worried and called the breeder and he said she was normal height for his does. I would be too nervous to breed a doe that small.


----------



## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

I know nothing about Boers (except that they're beautiful!) but these kinds of fads have ruined a few very nice dog breeds.


----------



## Bree_6293 (Aug 4, 2014)

So I think boers look big because I have minis but boers are much smaller than any Nubian around here too. I have some boers and one boer X Nubian that we put our mini Buck over. Yes the kids are smaller and most are freezer kids. We only cross with a mini Buck as we don't currently have the space or money to have a boer Buck. It could be how the smaller boers are coming around? The boer colouring seems to be strong but we do notice the ears become shorter on the first cross. We have kept a first cross boer X mini to breed with now to add some size to the next lot and eventually we will add a full boer to our herd. For us it's not practical to have a boer Buck yet for 4 - 5 does.


----------



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

Catharina it's done the same with show hogs. Towards the end of my showing career they wanted such extreme muscled pigs that they could barely walk. Which also brought up the stress gene in pigs. Luckily they caught on and stopped breeding for the extreme pigs and you had to test boars for the gene to try to stop breeding with it. I just hope we stop breeding these small bores before they are all miniatures.


----------



## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I agree like everything else they think something is better. I mean to a point what's the big deal having shorter goats, not like there's very much meat on legs anyways but it just keeps going and going and they don't look at the 'in the long run' big picture. I have a few short girls and short for my liking. The one I kept holding back from breeding and finally I just looked at hips not size and told her I can't afford to not breed her and can't stomach someone getting their hands on her and she dying a slow death so I bred her. She did it all on her own like a champ. So I'm trying to remind myself it's not really height it's the hips. 
But after you made this topic I was on fb and one of my goat friends posted about her doe and PT and a bunch of people jumped in telling about how it's basically been a on going problem for them as well. But when you think about it you have a short animal, or person like myself  we can pack the pounds on real easy. So I'm wondering if with this new fad if that's a reason why so many boer owners are seeing a problem with pregnancy toxemia. My self if they want to fix something about the breed I wish they would focus more on the horns. I feel so bad for most of the boer bucks, one of mine included and how they grow and rub on their neck or when they sun tan and lay out they are laying on the tip of their horn. I'm hopefully going to AI some does (depending on how my kids sell) and I think I'm going to start doing AI and keeping a buck and just disbudding them. That's how annoyed I am with boer horns :/


----------



## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

I agree with the toxemia problems. It is so common now and I thinks it's because of the smaller boers with weight issues and the fact people seem to keep their does in show condition year round even when bred. My sister is one that does rhat. She has so many more health problems with her does then I do. But hers "look good" year round where as mine are slim because they are just on pasture. I do have 1 doe that's a little to skinny but she doesn't do well on just pasture. I think she will be sold after kidding next year.


----------

