# Boer Goat Help!



## YourSoJelly (Aug 20, 2013)

Hello everyone! I am trying to figure out a few questions about the meat world and Boer goat abilities, so here are my questions:

1. Can you milk Boers(I assume no since they are meat, but I thought to ask)?
2. What gender will give you the best meat/price, is there even a difference?
3. How old should they be before you sell them?
4. Where would I most likely get the most money for a goat: butcher or auction?
5. How do you cope with selling off a goat you raised?

Thanks everyone!


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

You sure can milk a Boer, but teats are small & sometimes orifices are not placed well enough to hit the bucket every time.
Either male or female can go for meat.
It depends on who wants them; some prefer young kid & some older for the table.
You would get the most $ selling right off the farm, but be prepared for those who want to haggle prices. This is culturally ingrained.
The auction barn can be a good place to sell, no dealing with customers, everyone goes at once. Our local barn takes 10% cut off the top.
We pretty much know from day one who is going for meat.


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

Yes you can milk Boers, most people don't because they are raising their kids and most people with meat goats don't want/need to milk their does or just have a dairy doe around to milk.

Wethers seem to sell better for the "meat" aspect but doe kids will bring a pretty good price if they are good sized and would make good replacements.

Age really does depend, around here 60 lb kids are the most sought after by the order buyers.

It really depends on where you can get the most, some processing plants that are USDA inspected will actually buy the animals from you for market price, they butcher it and sell the meat in their store. This is more common with hogs and cattle though because there is a little bit better market for them. Some of your buyers that are looking for goats to eat will only want a certain size and want them as cheap as they can get them, some will pay for them but most of the people I have delt with didn't want to pay for them. The only other problem selling them off the farm is a lot of your meat buyers will want you to kill and process the animal for them, if you know someone who can do this that is good but be prepared for people to ask you to do this for them. When I was selling kids, they would buy them from me then take them across the road to my neighbor who was very skilled in processing animals and had all the equipment to do it (mainly the meat saw), they then paid him for his services. If you are selling doe kids, I think they would sell better off the farm than at the auction. Most people looking for replacements will buy off the farm so they know what they are getting and can see the parents rather than buy at auction. Wethers are probably easier to sell at auction because they will all be gone at once, you don't have to deal with people and there are order buyers who buy the animals for processing plants/feed yards where they will be fed out and then processed. Each auction charges a different amount for commission, most charge commission, yardage and insurance. If they are not Scrapie tagged they will also charge for the tag.

I pretty much knew the goats were going to be meat animals, that's what they are and I at least knew they had good care and were treated right while I had them and were allowed to live a nice happy life.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I agree with what has been said


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