# boer goats - Registered or not?



## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

My boys have a goat herd that is about 50% registered and 50% unregistered boers. They are trying to get to the best of the best for their breeders and we started wondering if they should go with all registered. I know it is better to have the papers and not need them than need the papers and not have them. Basically they are raising goats to earn money for cars and college. So what would earn them the most money? 

My first thought was that the registered ones would because they cost much more, but are there lots of buyers for registered? When I had registered longhorns, no one wanted the papers. They didn't even take them when I sold the longhorns. I know that the market goats can be sold every Saturday at the local auction. How easy is it to sell registered boers especially since they wouldn't be a known breeder?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Really depends on your area.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Honestly most of my buyers don't care about papers. BUT I'm slowly getting more who does, maybe my name is getting out there?? I'm not sure. What I have found with mainly the bucks is even though they don't care about papers they like to see that yeah ok this buck, who is going to be half my kid crop is 100%. And even though they are not getting the papers I'm still getting over market price....not the big bucks but every bit help. But for the most part in my case the animal sells themself not their %
What I did and am still doing is kept my commercial does and have my 100% buck, any doeling i like out of them I do 50%, then their kids will be 75% and on and on. Another thing I've been doing with some of my commercial does is getting NOA papers on them threw USBGA, then the kids can be 75% with usbga or again 50% with abga. (Just something to think about).
Since you have half and half I would probably breed them and see how selling them goes, if the papered animals sell first and enough to invest the money then trade the commercial in, for me it took a few years to really start selling them with papers and even still some of them go to the sale :/


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## Crossroads Boers (Feb 19, 2011)

Jessica84 said:


> Since you have half and half I would probably breed them and see how selling them goes, if the papered animals sell first and enough to invest the money then trade the commercial in, for me it took a few years to really start selling them with papers and even still some of them go to the sale :/


I agree. 

In my experience, ABGA registered 100% Boer goats sell a *lot* easier than purebred, percentage and unregistered Boers. Over the past few years, we have invested in getting all Fullblood (100%) goats and have been selling their kids for more than ever this year. Some of that is because our name has gotten out there, but another part of it is having fullblood goats... and colored goats. Almost all of our customers ask for FB kids/adults.

Some of it will depend on your area, so like Jessica said you might want to experiment and see what sells better.


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

Another related question. We have two bucks one is 100%, the other is not registered. The plan was to keep the non registered ones separate from the registered, but I was wondering if we should breed the 100% buck with the non registered does to make 50% or should we just keep them as non registered. Honestly I won't buy a 50%. I only want a 100% if I am paying for papers.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I won't pay extra for only 50 either, and I price on what I would pay so I don't charge extra really BUT if a commercial and my buck produce something that I like and want in my herd then I want the 50% because her kids will have 75% kids and then the % will start catching people's eye.
I personally would only go for the 100% buck. I'm in the same boat as you are with does and my #1 rule is 100% bucks only. And really if you don't have many does there is no point in keeping two buck unless you have some does related to the buck or I guess if the commercial buck is.drop dead beautiful maybe keep him........but oh how I can tell you how I miss the days of only one buck lol


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## Waldo (May 12, 2014)

If you breed your full regs to your unregs, a few generations down you'd eventually have a herd of fulls, right? If you don't mind taking it slow and seeing what you get, but I have a feeling that easier done with a small herd.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Starting out with % will never achieve Fullblood status. Fullblood to Fullblood (both 100%) will always be Fullblood.
Anything less is Purebred from 94%.


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## Waldo (May 12, 2014)

nancy d said:


> Starting out with % will never achieve Fullblood status. Fullblood to Fullblood (both 100%) will always be Fullblood.
> Anything less is Purebred from 94%.


Good to know.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Nancy is right the highest you will get is 99.9% 
But a sale that I watched, all the animals were registered, I saw full blood does go for. $3000 and I saw some to for $400 I saw a 50% doeling go for $800 and I saw a 75% doeling go for $1,050. They did have a commercial doe who the claim was 100% just didn't know who the father was and she was 3 months bred and even she went for $650.... I can't find the catalog that I wrote all the prices down but it was super interesting


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Jessica84 said:


> I won't pay extra for only 50 either, and I price on what I would pay so I don't charge extra really BUT if a commercial and my buck produce something that I like and want in my herd then I want the 50% because her kids will have 75% kids and then the % will start catching people's eye.
> I personally would only go for the 100% buck. I'm in the same boat as you are with does and my #1 rule is 100% bucks only. And really if you don't have many does there is no point in keeping two buck unless you have some does related to the buck or I guess if the commercial buck is.drop dead beautiful maybe keep him........but oh how I can tell you how I miss the days of only one buck lol


Jessica - you have inspired me to draw a harder line for my upcoming buck decisions! I will only keep one of my 4 commercial bucks and I will not keep the commercial buck kid from my herd queen just because he is dairy teated. I will use the best of my 4 commercial bucks for the next year as I save for a fullblood! There is no reason to have so many bucks for my 10-20 does especially when I would like to move towards a few additional registered goats. I love all my bucks, but they cost a lot to feed!


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## Brink4 (Apr 29, 2013)

It's going to depend on your area and your ultimate goals. In my area unregistered beautiful wethers go from 450-up. Nice unregistered does can go up to 500.00. To me it does not matter we do it for 4h and for fun. I have seen plenty of registered stock that do not compare to the quality of some unregistered stock and vice versa. Just because you have the paper doesn't mean you have quality livestock. But on the other hand there are gorgeous registered stock out there. I would also examine If there is a need for registered vs unregistered in your area (are you selling locally vs are you selling nationally). I will say regardless of what you are going to do if you try to obtain healthy livestock with good conformation eventually your name will get out there and in return you will be successful. Best of luck!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Oh I'm a buck hoarder too salty lol I don't know why to be honest they drive me crazy but one day soon I'm going to have to be strong and sell my one buck  maybe we can start a buck selling support group


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

When I had Boers, no one wanted unregistered, they wanted pure or full. I bought all full, so all mine sold quickly with minimal advertising. Don't know what people want now, since I've been away from Boers for 10 years or so.


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## cowgirlboergoats (Apr 29, 2012)

It also depends if you want to show them or not. In ABGA shows, they have to have papers. Most country fairs don't really care. If you do have registered, they sell higher unless there is a very nice,to die for commercial goat that is better than the papered goat or the papered goat is the worst looking goat in the world


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## gwith (Aug 12, 2014)

The boys bought 3 registered does. One was 100% the others were 97-99%. We figure that way we can do anything with them, market, shows, or sell as registered.

Thanks for all the input.


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