# Anyone have good dairy/meat breeds?



## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I already have kinders, which I might try butchering my young wether when he gets to be 9 mo. However, I'm wanting to get into a more standard size breed. Thinking of a boar cross, any suggestions? I'm not going into the "meat" market so to speak, but would like fresh meat in the freezer once in awhile.


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## Pats_Perfect_Boer_Goats (Oct 24, 2013)

I'll have Alpine - Boer crosses come spring! :smile:

You do get heterosis (hybrid vigor). Meaning: the following generations will perform (usually weight gain) better than his/her parents. Since boers have great ADG, and dairy goats have much less ADG (no offense dairy raisers :wink, I don't really know if they will grow faster than the Boer parents. :whatgoat: I am keeping a chart with ADGs from my Boers and will compare the crossbred's ADG to that when spring rolls around. :wink: We'll see... :clap:

Patrick


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Patrick is too far away for you. 
Come check out our Boers. Will be kidding in a week or two until March.
First kids will be 75 & 88%.


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## Pats_Perfect_Boer_Goats (Oct 24, 2013)

nancy d said:


> Patrick is too far away for you.
> Come check out our Boers. Will be kidding in a week or two until March.
> First kids will be 75 & 88%.


Woops! Missed that! LOL :roll: :smile: :hi5:


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Saanen boer cross nice..Saanen are the largest Diary breed  I sell a lot of my Saanen buckling to Boer goat breeders : )


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

nancy d said:


> Patrick is too far away for you.
> Come check out our Boers. Will be kidding in a week or two until March.
> First kids will be 75 & 88%.


True;-) I'm kinda thinking that if I get 2 oberhasli does, and them getting a boer buckling... At least the doelings would have enough dairy in them to produce more milk then just a regular boer. I might try the other way around... I have this "love" for oberhasli's... I would love to come and see your farm, and perhaps purchase a little buckling, once your kidding season is over.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

happybleats said:


> Saanen boer cross nice..Saanen are the largest Diary breed  I sell a lot of my Saanen buckling to Boer goat breeders : )


Oh, never thought about Saanen/boer, that would be good, Saanen high producers of milk, and boer higher butterfat in their milk... and meatier kids... Hmm maybe I'll get an ober and a Saanen doe one of each Thanks Happybleats


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## Wild Hearts Ranch (Dec 26, 2011)

You should do Nubian/meat crosses like me  Nubians tend to carry more weight than the Swiss breeds, especially older bloodlines. Plus no airplane ears lol. I'm hoping to cross in some Kiko but Boer would work nicely too, and they're easier to find.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

LaMancha/Boer crosses do really well too and are very popular with the ethnic community here. 

Tim may have more than one Saanen/Boer cross this spring. I have dibs on one though...


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I actually have my eye on a La Mancha yearling on Craigslist. La Mancha's are pretty heavy milkers aren't they? There is also a Saanen/boer buck for sale too, but if I got a cross breed buck, would I still get pretty meaty kids? I'll probably just wait and get a boer buckling from Nancy. Since I already have a Nubian, she's staying so I will have crosses with her. The good thing with this is no matter what, I can still do my goat landscaping business, maybe I'll keep a few more wethers for that


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

Is it the lucky star one? She looks nice. I have a saanen/boer doe that I have bred to a boer buck... We'll see how she does in the milk dept.?? And how her kids do...


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

milk and honey said:


> Is it the lucky star one? She looks nice. I have a saanen/boer doe that I have bred to a boer buck... We'll see how she does in the milk dept.?? And how her kids do...


It is the lucky star one. She looks nice. I am waiting on a reimbursement from the school district so hopefully she will still be there in a week or so.

Please keep me posted about your Saanen/boar cross, and how everything goes. Hopefully she will be a great milker for you


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## midlothianffa (May 5, 2013)

Boer nubian crosses are nice


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I like all my dairy crosses but love love love my lqmancha Boers.....I have 4  they grow so fast and fat and my full lamancha can support twins and I still get a little milk to go into the freezer for my future trips. I had a saneen doe but her bag was crap so had to bottle feed her kids.....on lamancha milk (lol) but they were born good sized kids and also grew well. My Nubians did just fine crossed with Boer on their kids but I still say lamancha is my favorite.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Hmmm, I am keeping a hopeful eye on that Lamancha. That way I will have Lamancha/boer, Nubian/boer, and oberhasli/boer next season. Before I get a boer buckling I might want to try my kinder wether first this spring. What age is best to butcher? He'll be 5 mo on January 7th. I think he might get a little bigger then his dad.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Oh, by the way thanks for all the replies and suggestions, greatly appreciated


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I'm not sure on age but at the sale they go crazy for ones about 60lbs....for a all Boer not fed anything special that's about 4 months old. At fairs here they have to be under a year and 60-100 lbs.....if that helps at all lol


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Okay, since he is kinder he might reach 50-60 lbs at a year, but not sure... I'll have to do some more research on the "kinder" breed because I do want the meat to be tasty and not tough or old.


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## midlothianffa (May 5, 2013)

We have a boer/alpine buckling too and he's built more like a meat goat but gets more milk from his mom because she's a dairy but he's growing great !


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## jannerbanner (Apr 1, 2014)

janeen128 said:


> True;-) I'm kinda thinking that if I get 2 oberhasli does, and them getting a boer buckling... At least the doelings would have enough dairy in them to produce more milk then just a regular boer. I might try the other way around... I have this "love" for oberhasli's... I would love to come and see your farm, and perhaps purchase a little buckling, once your kidding season is over.


I didn't see much about wanting milk from the meat/milk crosses, but thought I would put my two cents in. I have a friend that did the experiment with nubian buck and boer does. The resulting does milk well with really good milk, but only for 5 months. Not 6 months...5 months. She bred them several times and most always got good healthy kids, but the 5 months of milk seemed written in stone.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Saanen' s actually have the exact same standards as Alpines and Nubians. 
LaMancha and Oberhasli are second smallest, then Toggenburg. 

My alpine boer crosses have always been vigorous and fast growing. Some of my Boers are slow growing lines, and the buck crossed with the dairy girls made for some extraordinarily fast growth, they had the fast skeletal growth like the alpines, with the meat of the boers. They did very well at the sale when I took the boys


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

jannerbanner said:


> I didn't see much about wanting milk from the meat/milk crosses, but thought I would put my two cents in. I have a friend that did the experiment with nubian buck and boer does. The resulting does milk well with really good milk, but only for 5 months. Not 6 months...5 months. She bred them several times and most always got good healthy kids, but the 5 months of milk seemed written in stone.


My Boer/Alpine doe milked 10 months last time, but her half sisters with a different dam didn't milk nearly as long. I'm curious to see how long she goes this time. Her daughter by a LaMancha is due today (no sign of kidding yet) and I am curious to see what she does for me. Being only 1/4 Boer she doesn't really look like anything but generic mixed breed dairy.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

I cross Alpine and Kiko and just LOVE them for milk and meat! My Kiko herd sire was over 250lb at 2 years, I haven't weighed him this year, all my babies have got much bigger than there dam, and milk over a quart at FF two weeks in! I have a buckling for sale, but I don't know were you are located.


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## llazykllamas (Dec 20, 2012)

Janeen, Where are you located? As I sat bottle feeding the kids this am and critiquing them. I would possibly have something of interest to you. I have a buckling born 3/28. Registered Nubian. Dam is a Goddard Farm daughter, Sire is Six-point Farm breeding. Buckling is solidly built. Possibly less dairy character than our other kids from the last too weeks, but with your desire to add meat to the freezer he would be good at that. Beautiful straight backs, level rumps!He is red with frosted ears, muzzle, small amount of white on poss, tan trim.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

llazykllamas said:


> Janeen, Where are you located? As I sat bottle feeding the kids this am and critiquing them. I would possibly have something of interest to you. I have a buckling born 3/28. Registered Nubian. Dam is a Goddard Farm daughter, Sire is Six-point Farm breeding. Buckling is solidly built. Possibly less dairy character than our other kids from the last too weeks, but with your desire to add meat to the freezer he would be good at that. Beautiful straight backs, level rumps!He is red with frosted ears, muzzle, small amount of white on poss, tan trim.


I'm in WA State near Tacoma.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

I have a really pretty Saanen/Boer doeling that will be for sale at weaning. There is still time to disbud if a person wanted that done. Her mother tested negative for CAE, CL and Johne's a couple of months ago. Her mother give well over a gallon a day. Hard to say what this cross would give, but she sure is pretty. This is a newborn pic. She is much cuter now. I can easily get a better pic of her. I also include a pic of her mother.


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## llazykllamas (Dec 20, 2012)

janeen128 said:


> I'm in WA State near Tacoma.


That would be a bit far - We are in Wisconsin


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

Today I had a look on some articles discussing benefits from Boer/Saanen crosses and the like. I recall that the offspring will grow faster and bigger, while still giving good milk. I am not sure what they said about milk characteristics, tough. Just bear in mind that those advantages only last for the F1 generation and they will disappear randomly in any further generations.


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## KMitchell36 (Apr 10, 2014)

I would do boers they are nice and easy to take care of


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

Here is one article:


> Could Cross Breeding
> Increase Goat Kid Value?
> 
> Different breeders offer differing viewpoints
> ...


But there were more including more scientific ones:book:.


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

jannerbanner said:


> I didn't see much about wanting milk from the meat/milk crosses, but thought I would put my two cents in. I have a friend that did the experiment with nubian buck and boer does. The resulting does milk well with really good milk, but only for 5 months. Not 6 months...5 months. She bred them several times and most always got good healthy kids, but the 5 months of milk seemed written in stone.


That's interesting to note...did they just dry up on their own? I have a nubian that dries up after about 5 months but her previous owner trained her udder that way.


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

NyGoatMom said:


> That's interesting to note...did they just dry up on their own? I have a nubian that dries up after about 5 months but her previous owner trained her udder that way.


I wonder, if someone has got experience with milking boer goats, and whether the 5 month rule also applies there. hlala:


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

I had a Nubian Boer cross who milked the same as a dairy goat for a good 10 months every time.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Tenacross said:


> I have a really pretty Saanen/Boer doeling that will be for sale at weaning. There is still time to disbud if a person wanted that done. Her mother tested negative for CAE, CL and Johne's a couple of months ago. Her mother give well over a gallon a day. Hard to say what this cross would give, but she sure is pretty. This is a newborn pic. She is much cuter now. I can easily get a better pic of her. I also include a pic of her mother.


Oh my!! I really shouldn't even think about it. I have enough already....., she's a cutie pie though.....;-) I'm going to be good though and avoid temptation...;-/


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh, that's not even playing fair Tim. She's adorable and I know how sweet that cross is. Must resist, must fix barn first, must ignore cuteness...


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## Wild Hearts Ranch (Dec 26, 2011)

Lucky for me I already have a deposit down on a doeling of the same cross - temptation avoided! (Sort of.) Of course Tenacross is much closer to me...


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## ironmtnman1 (Apr 16, 2014)

I have Savannas and everything I have heard or read is true. They look like a Boer, but are all white, have no foot problems, less worming, good mothers and more disease resistant. Look Savannas up on the internet, Chillers bred them in South Africa.


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

Here are a couple more pics of the Saanen/Boer doeling.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

She is too cute!


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

Tim, she's not cute at all. I wouldn't know ANYONE who would want that doeling (except for me.....and possibly everyone else in the world......)


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

How much Tim?


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

goathiker said:


> I had a Nubian Boer cross who milked the same as a dairy goat for a good 10 months every time.


From another article I found:


> Milk production in Boer goats is generally considered adequate for rearing multiple kids.
> Little difference in growth rate at weaning was reported between single and multiple births. Lactation length is shorter for meat breeds compared to dairy breeds. And milk solids are generally higher in meat breeds. Milk production during the first 12 week of lactation ranged from 1.8 to 2.5 kg/day in Boer goats (Ratts et al., 1983). Milk fat (6.4 to 9.4 %), protein (3.9 to 4.5 %), and lactose (4.6 to 4.9 %) contents were also reported. It led to the conclusion that milk fat content in Boer goats were twice of that observed in dairy goats. However, in a more recent study, milk yield ranged from 1.91 to 2.32 kg/d, fat from 3.4 to 4.6 %, protein from 3.7 to 4.7 %, lactose from 5.2 to 5.4 %, and somatic cell count from 4.8 to 9.6 x 105 during the first 8 weeks of lactation (Tambajong et al., 2000) (Figure 4). It seems that the milk fat content is higher in Boer goats. But it should not be surprising given the fact that no real peak was observed in milk yield during the course of study. In general, milk yield peaks at 6 to 8 weeks postpartum in lactating dairy goats (Lu, 1989). With the exception of lactose content, milk fat and protein tended to decrease over the 8 weeks period. Concentration of these two components are expected to increase when milk yield is decreased at later stages of lactation.
> http://hilo.hawaii.edu/uhh/vcaa/documents/boergoatproductionprogressandperspective2002.pdf


From that I'd expect a higher solids yield in a Boer/Saanen cross.
Any experience on that?
I'd cross boer/Saanen does again with a boer to sell the weaned kids to the local market to people that want to feed it for slaughter. 
The hoody looks beige on the crosses.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Tenacross said:


> Here are a couple more pics of the Saanen/Boer doeling.


How much Tim?


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## midlothianffa (May 5, 2013)

This is our boer/alpine buckling


























The last ones from the day he was born

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## christinajh (Jan 24, 2013)

I bred my Lamancha doe to a boer buck, and I intended to have BOYS and sell them for butcher goats. Of course, I got two stunning does. One looks just like mom, but she has more substance and a prettier head. The other one looks like a blonde boer. They are growing fast, and they are probably 30 pounds at just over a month old already. I pull them at night, and I milk mom out in the morning. I get a half gallon out of her every morning. I cannot wait to see how her two kids produce. I'm planning to keep both of them, and see who is the better milker on their FF before I part with one. I fully intend to have my milk does be crossbreeds, so I can breed them to a boer buck for 75% kids. I don't think I will be keeping any of the 75% kids. I just wanted to have kids that grow better and sell for more for butchering, and still have my milk. I will keep my Lamancha and one purebred Nubian, so I can I breed replacement milkers later on. I sold my Nubian buck last month, and I just bought a very nice Ennobled Boer buck with a friend of mine. I hope to be able to market the offspring for 4H and market goat prospects first then sell off the remainder for butchering. I have two friends with registered Nubian bucks, so when I need to replace my dairy does I can always use one of their boys.


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

The volume of milk AND the fat/protein and general solid content of their milk will be of interest. 

I thought it may be a good idea to get a boer buck on the crossbred does. The kids then could be sold to the informal markets for raising (for the meat) :kidblack:.


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## christinajh (Jan 24, 2013)

The research I have done via word of mouth and reading on the internet says for the most part the 50% boer/dairy crosses keep up the milk production and they have more milk fat plus the kids grow faster compared to just straight dairy or straight boer. I think starting with strong milking does is key. It's also important to keep an eye on teat structure. So far my two doelings have good teats, and the 50% I bought does as well. She is bred to a boer buck, and she will be due in August/September. It will be interesting to see how she does. A close friend of mine has a 10 year old boer/nubian cross, and she is her favorite milker and producer. She usually has triplets or quads, and they grow really well. I actually had one of her wethers last year, and he was about 100+ pounds when I butchered him at 7 months.


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## canyontrailgoats (Jan 4, 2014)

I love nubian/boer crosses! They milk really well and produce big, fleshy kids when bred to a meat buck. I think they're the perfect dual purpose goat, it's what I have right now.
And I really like laboers, mostly because they're so cute looking


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## Wild Hearts Ranch (Dec 26, 2011)

I have a deposit down on a gorgeous Boer/Saanen doeling. Breeding her back to Boer is supposed to produce the ultimate meat goat because the Saanens outdo Nubians for volume production.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Wild Hearts Ranch said:


> I have a deposit down on a gorgeous Boer/Saanen doeling. Breeding her back to Boer is supposed to produce the ultimate meat goat because the Saanens outdo Nubians for volume production.


How many goats are you getting? Are you selling/culling any of the stock you already had? Seems like you are getting quite the herd... Since I will never be able to get into meat, so I'm sticking with dairy.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

I totally agree with GH. Lamancha boer crosses are very very nice and the best meat cross IMO.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

TDG-Farms said:


> I totally agree with GH. Lamancha boer crosses are very very nice and the best meat cross IMO.


Do most of them have ears? That is the only thing I can't get over with Lamanchas, elf ears I can handle...lol..


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

I have a FB Boer doe that the main reason I keep her is she is my personal milk doe. Last year she raised two buck kids and then I weaned them and had her stand raise a triplet kid. In between I milk her. She doesn't give that much milk, but that is fine by me. She has nice size teats with big orifices. I can milk her out in a couple of minutes once a day and have all the milk I personally can drink. The milk is like half and half and tastes excellent.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Nope, most of them have what is called Gopher ears.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

Boer/LaManchas do normally have elf ears because of the cross. Like this little Alpine/munchie gal. Nobody can say she isn't cute.


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## MrsSneelock (Jun 15, 2013)

Oh my gosh, she is super cute!


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## christinajh (Jan 24, 2013)

The two out of my lamancha were total opposites. The one had ears like mom, and the blonde one had boer ears. lol


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

goathiker said:


> Boer/LaManchas do normally have elf ears because of the cross. Like this little Alpine/munchie gal. Nobody can say she isn't cute.


Awe, too cute;-) Now I can handle those ears;-)


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

This is my LaMancha/Boer x Alpine cross (sire was LaMancha, dam was Boer/Alpine) with her kid from this year. She is 75% dairy, so not real meaty, but she is a first generation cross with LaMancha and look at the ears I got! I got a 50/50 mix between gopher ears and big ears on my kids by that LaMancha.


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## Shellynrrbg (Mar 15, 2013)

I Will have Boer/Nigerian 50/50 Kids coming in June . This combo is a slightly smaller goat But has less bone ,more meat and super milk production .All the does are excellent moms with good size and either full or high percentage registered Boer. Buck is a full Registered Nigerian Dwarf out of champion milk producing lines.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Okay, so I'm going with kinders after all this... They are supposed to be dual purpose after all. I'm in the early stages of figuring out how to go about getting into registered ones...


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## TheCulbster (Aug 8, 2013)

I've got a Kiko x Alpine/Nubian doe who's due at the end of March (it'll be her FF). I've read that Kikos can make excellent milkers, but have never been able to test this. I'm excited to see how she does. She's about the size of an average nubian, but since she's only 1 1/2 y/o, I'm sure she'll end up a bit bigger. She's got better confirmation than the other dairy does in her herd, which are mostly assorted mutts. 

It may be worth noting that she has four teats. Two are normally sized, but the other two are really tiny. I've heard this is more common in meat breeds, and sometimes considered a benefit because the does could more easily feed triplets or quads. I don't know if she will produce more because of her extra teats or even produce at all from them since they're so tiny. Anyone ever heard of this elsewhere?


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## Wild Hearts Ranch (Dec 26, 2011)

Common for Boers to have multiple teats, not so much in Kikos and it's a cull factor. Very rare for all four to function, they're more likely to get in the way especially for milking.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Some of my Boer gals have 4 teats, all work great.


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## RhinoWhite (Nov 17, 2013)

Wild Hearts Ranch said:


> Common for Boers to have multiple teats, not so much in Kikos and it's a cull factor. Very rare for all four to function, they're more likely to get in the way especially for milking.


Got bigger problem with little teat or hole on an otherwise perfect Saanen teat, when they give milk. Makes handmilking difficult.


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## Wild Hearts Ranch (Dec 26, 2011)

Yep, I've had those too. Milkers here have to have two medium size teats with good orifices.


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## goat-lover (Dec 27, 2014)

I have 2 pygmy in boer mixes they are short but long body so eaiser to keep then bigger breeds I butchered my wether he was a pygmy in boer mixes they have alot of meat on their short bodies


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