# 4-H Meat Goat Project Handbook Anyone?



## DulmesFamilyBoers (Feb 26, 2011)

Our family was the first to show boer goats at our county fair the past 2 summers. This year the Dairy Goat project leader would like to start a Meat Goat project, and is looking for some help in putting together a project handbook. I have a ton of information, but pulling it together is the tough part. Does anyone have a Meat Goat project where their handbook online or something that can be scanned and emailed. I would love to see what other groups use so that I at least have a place to start. Thanks in advance for your help!! :thumb:


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## Bit of Everything (Jan 28, 2011)

I found this with a quick google search...

http://animalscience.tamu.edu/images/pd ... tguide.pdf

http://www.das.psu.edu/pdf/4hmarketgoat.pdf

http://ansci.colostate.edu/pdf_files/YL ... manual.pdf

Here's the rest of my search results.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=13&gs_i ... 66&bih=667


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## brbn (Nov 30, 2011)

http://allencofair.squarespace.com/storage/juniorfair2011.pdf

This is our Junior fair book. Go to Boer goats it is broken down into classes and has our rules. If you have trouble Most of the kids at our fair do not do open shows and they were sooooo confused on the 0-3 mo class and so on (I think it isn't that hard to figure out but what ever) and so so we kept it the same as the dairy class break down to make it easier for them to understand. If you have any questions you can PM me or email me [email protected] I am a Superintendent for our goat department. Our classes are broken down like this: for our breeding class.
There is more info on the link above if it works :chin:

DIVISION - 40519 - MEAT CLASS (BOERS)
CLASS
1. Doe Kids - April 1 - Aug. 2011
2. Doe Kids - March 1 - March 31, 2011
3. Doe Kids - Jan 1 - Feb. 28, 2011
4. Doe Kids - Sept. 1 - Dec. 31, 2010
5. Meat Doe - 1 yr. and under 2 yrs.
6. Meat Doe - 2 yrs. and under 3 yrs.
7. Meat Doe - 3 yrs. and under 4 yrs.
8. Meat Doe - 4 yrs and older
9. Meat Doe - Dam and Daughter


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## DulmesFamilyBoers (Feb 26, 2011)

Thanks for posting. That should help!!


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## DulmesFamilyBoers (Feb 26, 2011)

> If you have trouble Most of the kids at our fair do not do open shows and they were sooooo confused on the 0-3 mo class and so on (I think it isn't that hard to figure out but what ever) and so so we kept it the same as the dairy class break down to make it easier for them to understand.


That's interesting...I was wondering about that...if we should change from the typical dairy classes to something more like the open boer shows 0-3 mo...and so on. This will be the first year separating the meat/boer goats from the dairy.


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## goatnutty (Oct 9, 2007)

http://www.ag.purdue.edu/counties/dearb ... ndbook.pdf 
This is our county hanbook...i believe the goats are pages 24-28 or something.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

My kids did boer goats for the first time this past summer, and didn't have a problem with the breakdown of 0-3, 3-6, 6-9mo, etc. How do dairy normally do it? 
IMO from what I've observed in Boers, I prefer the every 3mo breakdown, because it just seems the younger goats get overlooked as it is in the classes, so it's a bit more 'fair' for them in smaller age groups.

My kids were the only ones doing goats last year in our county and possibly the only ones this year. She mentioned a family 'might' do goats but hadn't said for sure, or what they are showing <my kids want to show does but thinking about doing a wether too>.

So... there is no handbook that our county follows. We don't have a 'goat group' instead it's a 'livestock' group and all the kids come together to learn the same thing each meeting. It might be hay quality one meeting, feed another, or like this meeting they learned about country hams, since a majority of the kids are doing the country ham project. It was an interesting meeting.

BTW, we are just getting going on the meetings again as we missed the last few months 

Our 4-H leader did order us a wonderful goat resource Handbook that we can't wait to start on, looks like a lot of great info! My kids need to buckle down and learn as much as they can about goats, and our goal was right after the holidays to start studying 

It's published through the Ohio State University Extension for 4-H, 184 page spiral handbook, I 'think' it's around $40-50, but our county ordered ours for the kids so they wouldn't have to buy it, thought that was so nice of them to do! Especially since I was planning to ask about a handbook tonight at the meeting.

Might be worth others to look into!


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## goatnutty (Oct 9, 2007)

We also get project books and the kids are required to do 3-7 activities in them peryear. The different levels are divided up by grade and they are generally really nice


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## brbn (Nov 30, 2011)

The confusion came when most the kids are in 4-H groups that dont specialize in any perticular animal. So when it says 0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and a kids goat is 3 mo and not 4mo yet the advisor says to put them in the 0-3 class. We had soooo many kids entered in the wrong classes. We don't get a list of what the kids signed up for till a week before the fair and by that time its too late to change an entry. At fair if they are in the wrong class then they have to take a B premium. Since most these kids were familier with the Dairy classes we just used them. The result has been no goats in the wrong classes.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

goatnutty said:


> We also get project books and the kids are required to do 3-7 activities in them peryear. The different levels are divided up by grade and they are generally really nice


I wish my kids had these!


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## DulmesFamilyBoers (Feb 26, 2011)

We do have a goat project with a handbook, but up till this year it was primarily a dairy project, and we were thrown in with it. It wasn't a big deal because we were new to goats, and anything we could learn was great. Now we are going to have both a dairy goat and a meat goat project. 

Last year we showed along with the dairy goats, but in our own boer breed category. the classes were 
Sept -Jan 
Feb - March
April
May
June - Fair time in Sept


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## goatnutty (Oct 9, 2007)

Did they use the same book as the dairy goats? We have different ones for the boers..but really as long as they are having fun that is what matters


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## DulmesFamilyBoers (Feb 26, 2011)

Yes, we used the Dairy handbook and our meetings were all together. Our leader is great, and tried to find as much information on the meat breeds to help us out since we were new to it all. But, now she wants to have both projects and to make a handbook for the meat project too. :thumb:


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## polopony (Jun 24, 2011)

It is hard to break out. I am fighting with my county about separating the goats right now. Here is another 4-H resource that I really like. It isn't the project handbook, but provides a lot of activities that are great!

http://www.4-hmall.org/Category/4-hcurriculum-meat-goat.aspx


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