# Commercial does



## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I got a new commercial Boer doe. I really like her. When I compare her and my commercial doe that was shown to my other two commercials, it's like night and day. I think the other two commercials have a heavier Kiko influence, one certainly does.
I tried to get pictures of them, but that only goes so well without someone holding them. The black headed one is my newest one, the dark red (in the shade) is the doe that was shown. The other two are kiko/Boer crosses as best as I know.
The black headed one had some ski feet, so she's getting used to having them short. I swear, nobody trims here, almost every one I've gotten has had long feet here lately.

Just for grins, what do y'all think about these does? The one I like the least is the light colored headed one, she's so tall and lanky. Both of those in the 2nd and 3rd pics are yearlings, the other red headed doe is 3, and the black is 3-4 by her teeth.

Bottom pic is my fullblood buck. Sorry, couldn't get far enough away from him to get his legs in the pic. He'll be a year at the end of May. Biggest problem with getting pics is they are pesty!
Please excuse the nasty tail on the red head, she LOVES dog food and I've had a hard time keeping her out of their guardian dogs bowl.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Not bad for commercial does. They do look thin, and possibly wormy. I'd have a fecal done and check them for lice/mites per that last doe - her legs look like she's been itching. It happens. I really like the last one the best, she looks more like a boer, which I like  I think with some time, and maintenance they will turn out to be nice does for you. Very handsome buck, I'm sure your excited to breed the does, will be fun to see what kind of color you get from them!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

OMG waddles!!! Ok so I’m a odd ball but I want a boer with waddles one day lol
But ok that aside I like the last one best too. I’m not good at picky them apart so couldn’t tell you why. And your buck is so very handsome! 
People don’t trim feet around here either. I admit I do not go out there and trim as soon as there’s a little growth. Mine get a tad long but usually will break them off since we have super hard ground and rocks but I do not let them get to the ski length. I always feel so bad for ones like that.


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## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

I also like the last one best. The light one has a really short back on her and isn’t overly chunky but with your buck she should throw some wonderfully meaty bubbas.  Believe me, I’ve had the chunkiest does on the planet (well, kinda) throw some “meh” doelings, whilst my rubbish does have sometimes given me some rather good kids. Because who ever tried to understand goat logic?!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

HoosierShadow said:


> Not bad for commercial does. They do look thin, and possibly wormy. I'd have a fecal done and check them for lice/mites per that last doe - her legs look like she's been itching. It happens. I really like the last one the best, she looks more like a boer, which I like  I think with some time, and maintenance they will turn out to be nice does for you. Very handsome buck, I'm sure your excited to breed the does, will be fun to see what kind of color you get from them!


Everybody has been dewormed and eyes are nice and pink, the black headed doe is a bit leaner than I'd like but I did just get her on Saturday. The light headed doe is wild, but she has been dewormed recently and has nice bright red eyelids, it's hard to add weight on that one in particular. She's one of the pushier eaters too, so another reason I don't like her as much as she's a hard-keeper. But she's also grown quite a bit since we've had her and really went through a gangly stage too.

Red-head with the ear tags legs aren't itched or rubbed, that's from the guardian dog. She really loves dog food, and the dog doesn't want to share. I caught the dog dragging her by her back leg, while the goat was trying to drag the dog back to the bowl of dog food. It was like a little kid throwing a tantrum and trying to drag mom back to the candy aisle. The dog didn't hurt her or draw blood, but it did rub the hair off - I'm going to assume that's not the first time the dog has scolded and dragged her off her dog food. I just changed when I feed the dog so this little punk can't get any dog food. Most of the other goats will leave the dog alone while she eats, but not that one. That said, she has been dewormed 2 weeks ago and everybody gets lice dust because we have ticks here and the dust gets lice and ticks both. I don't normally put out the rubs for ticks, but we've had more ticks this year than normal, probably because it's been so weird with the weather.

Yeah I'm not impressed with the light colored one. She's bred to my Nubian buck for that reason, he's long backed, and while it won't add heavier bone, it should put some size on some kids. She's really wild so I'll keep a doe kid out of her and move her along, if she has one, if not she'll get moved anyway. I basically have to rope her to catch her in the smaller pen area.

I don't have a problem with slightly overgrown hooves, because we don't have a lot of rocks they don't wear off here, and I get that, but I don't send anything off that's feet are in crappy condition. There's overgrown and then there's overgrown until they've curled completely under.


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## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

My girls always need their toes trimmed! But otherwise we’ve mostly whittled out our hard to keep does so most of them are alright in that regard. Plus our kids are growing faster than ever so I’m a very proud mummy! XD


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I'm glad they have been dewormed, etc. Hopefully the issue with the dog improves. 

We have to trim feet regularly here, but we've had an extremely wet year - February was the wettest Feb on record, and March and April have been very wet as well. Our goats have to get through a lot of mud to get over the bridge lately to graze in the back of our property, and back there it's a swamp, but they love wadding in the sitting water to get the freshest grass spots. It's never been like this ever before, not for so long. Usually a week here or there in the spring and fall, but not for months at a time. It's very frustrating. So I really have to keep an eye on feet. 

I agree with TooManyBoers - some of those does that don't seem to impress us turn out to be the best producers! We had a doe years ago, my husband picked her out as a kid, I didn't like her. When we came back to pick her up along with the other one we'd picked out, that first one was scrawny, little and just... I wanted to pick a different one lol.
She didn't show well at all that year, bottom of her class in the shows. So we bred her to kid in the spring. She ended up giving us awesome kids, and matured into a nice doe. She put everything in her milk so she was always on the thin side while nursing/weaning. I regret selling that one. We have 2 of her daughters, grand daughters and a bunch of kids this year that all go back to her. Our best placing homebred fullblood buck kid last year (competed with a major breeder's buck, took the judge several minutes to choose between them!) --> her grandkid!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

We've had just the opposite, usually we'll have a fairly wet spring/early summer and then dry back out in July and a wet fall. We have gotten 1 rain storm of any consequence since November. It's hurt us for grass, and everyone has seen the fires in OK on TV. It has made for some better commercial does coming up for sale due to the price of hay/no forage right now where we are, but it's also costing me more to feed. 

I can't really blame the dog, she's trying to eat, the goats have been fed, and yet this little punk has to go eat her dog food. She doesn't hurt her, just removes her from her bowl. Aside from that, I chase her out of the dog food because it's not good for her anyway. I guess she just likes the taste of it? Idk. Feeding the dog after I let the goats out seems to work though. 

I'm definitely not saying I don't have to trim, I do. But I really try to keep up on it and don't send anything off to a new buyer or to sale without decent looking feet. I have one leaving today and I"ll check his hooves before I load him, and if he needs it, I'll trim them down. I don't mean just slightly overgrown ones either, the last two I've picked up haven't been trimmed in at least 6 months, one likely was never trimmed.

I probably won't keep that one doe after she kids and will bottle raise her kid(s), just so they end up friendly and not buck wild like her. I just don't enjoy having 20 minutes of rodeo just to check eyelids or vaccinations, etc. I won't even talk about when she got her head stuck in the fence and the fact it took 2 of us to get her out, one to hold her body still and one to wedge her head back - she sounded like we were murdering her. If she was pleasant otherwise, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get her gone, but it is what it is.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Oh wow, I am so sorry, that is awful about not getting any rain! I wish there was a way to share what we've gotten. Isn't it crazy how one place gets too much, and the other not enough. Spring and Fall are our wetter seasons here in KY - Apr & Oct. In fact the wet, and the wet, lush grass have caused some issues with our herd.
Feet are definitely a big issue right now. Being so wet out, and walking through the mud to get to their grazing areas has really been an issue. I try to trim everyone's feet once every 6 weeks, and once a month on kids, but feel that isn't enough with the wet ground right now. 

I do the same as you, I like to make sure feet are in good shape and trimmed, vaccines done, if they need dewormed I deworm them at pickup, otherwise I either send some dewormer with buyer or advise them to deworm the goat within 24-48 hours of bringing it home in case of stress causing worms to blossom.

I'm sorry the doe is so wild, I don't blame you for wanting to sell her, I would want to as well. We had one years ago that was wild like that, thankfully her kids were friendly. We sold her as she was small and seller didn't give us papers on her.
We keep a very friendly herd, I definitely don't like wild goats that takes forever to catch then act like they are going to die when you do catch them. We keep a small herd of registered Boer goats, and tame every baby. Out of 16 babies, we only have one that became terrified of us after getting her cd/t (we think she is mentally slow which makes her have trust issues). She's finally coming around again, but is due for 2nd cd/t.... lol.
We have a hefty feed bill, so I can understand how expensive it gets. We only have a couple of acres, and with my kids showing goats in 4-H in the county fairs, we have to feed up the babies so they grow well. They each show a wether, but prefer breeding classes. They usually show about 12+ goats each summer! Crazy I know. This year only 2 of my 3 kids will be showing (oldest is away at school). But they still want to show a lot of goats. My feed bill is through the roof, need to start deworming kids, and making hard decisions on who to sell.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

The light colored one looks and sounds just like a doe I had and she was a boer X Spanish. She was not my favorite goat, personality or looks but she raised dang nice healthy kids and was a total go-get-er. When I had them out grazing one day a coyote came in and snagged her kid, it was packing it off when I ran to the house to get the gun. Came back out and it was gone and she still had both of her kids. She won me over on that one! So she may not be your favorite but she might surprise you


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I *think* she's crossed with Kiko. I'm sure Kikos are fine in their own right, but I haven't seen much in the way of Kiko/Boer crosses that I've liked. My little almost 2 week old kids father is Kiko/Boer and he was just "meh" to me, but Mom is a Nubian and that's what I got her for. The kids are cute, but all kids are cute. It is nice that I can leave them on Mom and they are more than happy to come up to me because she's all sorts of gentle. In the long run, it's easier on me because I don't have to bottle feed for friendly kids, and better for them.

We could definitely use the rain, one of my friends is in Ohio and they're flooded, meanwhile, we're on a burn ban due to the lack of rain. Aside from having to feed more, it makes their hooves like rocks. Fingers crossed because they're calling for a big storm on Saturday. That's kind of bittersweet, because we need the rain, but on the flip side, our barn leaks so I have to make sure I tarp anything that can't get wet.

Hoosier, that is a LOT of goats to show. That's almost my entire herd including the dairy goats. I'm thinking like 1 a piece for right now, we don't have that much space, nor do I have the inclination to feed that many lol. The girls are more into the dairy goats but my oldest boy wants to show Boers.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Personally when I look at kikos and Spanish I can’t really tell them apart lol but I’m a boer person! I like big and stocky so both just look delicate to me and small boned BUT they both have the same great qualities, wonderful mothering, good feet, good on parasites but so far the ones I’ve had crossed of both very high strung. I mean when people say they could turn them out and not check on them for a month I believe it! Lol so either way it’s probably not a bad cross, I personally like more laid back, which I get with my boers and dairy cross


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

All very good advice.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Jessica84 said:


> Personally when I look at kikos and Spanish I can't really tell them apart lol but I'm a boer person! I like big and stocky so both just look delicate to me and small boned BUT they both have the same great qualities, wonderful mothering, good feet, good on parasites but so far the ones I've had crossed of both very high strung. I mean when people say they could turn them out and not check on them for a month I believe it! Lol so either way it's probably not a bad cross, I personally like more laid back, which I get with my boers and dairy cross


High strung, yeah that's a nice way of putting it, lol. She would probably make a great goat to just turn out as long as there was adequate browse - which I don't have right now, just horse hay for them. She always looks at me sketchy when I go to put them up for the night with their evening meal and then panics and bolts through the gate, while the rest are smoozing me up to stick their heads in the bucket. Should have named her Spaz. 
I can't really tell much of a difference between Kikos and Spanish either, at least commercially bred Kikos. I'm told they're far more parasite resistant and better feet and etc etc, but the kids don't bring anywhere near the same price either.

The 4 commercial girls are probably going to be turned out in my neighbors backyard, it's overgrown and he offered, plus it's fenced, and he's not a fan of weed eating.

With that in mind, Spaz doe does have good feet, as does the other lighter red one, I have to trim them the least often (thank God, lol). I do like the other lighter red head better than her, but she's a bit less flighty too - as in once she's caught she's ok, and not screaming like she's being murdered at least. The dark red head maintains good feet, and well see about the black headed one now that she's been trimmed down. Our buck has good feet, I haven't had to trim him at all yet, or deworm him, and he's probably the most personable non-bottle baby I've seen. That said, I have a couple of Nubian does that have sucky feet and I end up trimming them a lot more often.


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## Miller'sLostGoat (Apr 26, 2018)

ISmellLikeGoats said:


> I got a new commercial Boer doe. I really like her. When I compare her and my commercial doe that was shown to my other two commercials, it's like night and day. I think the other two commercials have a heavier Kiko influence, one certainly does.
> I tried to get pictures of them, but that only goes so well without someone holding them. The black headed one is my newest one, the dark red (in the shade) is the doe that was shown. The other two are kiko/Boer crosses as best as I know.
> The black headed one had some ski feet, so she's getting used to having them short. I swear, nobody trims here, almost every one I've gotten has had long feet here lately.
> 
> ...


I love your Buck, he looks excellent. I have some "ok"does, but with the right buck they can produce excellent babies. I think you will have a great kidding season.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

We lost our buck Sunday morning. Still baffled as to what happened to him. He was fine at feeding the night before, spunky, eating, I was playing with him at feeding time and then just dead Sunday morning. Didn't look bloated, no indicators at all that something was wrong with him. It was a big loss for us. Hopefully both the does that were in with him took and we'll have his offspring this fall. I'm not sure if we'll replace him for the fall or breed everything to our Nubian buck, time will tell. 

Aside from that #547 is out of quarantine and in with the herd. Not sure if she's pregnant or just that fat (fingers crossed for pregnant) but this is the biggest doe I have ever seen.
Naming help is welcome, I haven't figured out what to call her, but she's monster huge. It took 3 of us to load her when we bought her. Two grown men struggled lifting her.
Her babies are going to be 4H/FFA projects for sure, all the big shows are in the end of winter early spring so hope they pop out fairly soon and we'll have some great show critters.

She definitely needs a hoof trimming, but I almost need a squeeze chute to handle her - we plan on it this weekend with everyone home to help me mug her.



















Here's the monster next to "Spaz" commercial doe.










And her again next to my other commercial Boer doe, who in the last picture is standing on a pallet with plywood on it for height.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Oh and then there's Amber...Nubian mom, Boer/Kiko dad. She's a bottle baby (the whole Millie saga with her momma). I don't know WHAT I'm going to keep her for, but we're keeping her. Hopefully she'll be a good milker like her mother.
My daughters hair sheep pet in the background, the Alpine/Boer twins and their ancient mother. The old Alpine doe is such a sweety, but she's probably 10 years old from her teeth. She's an excellent mother though.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

Oh no, I’m so sorry about your buck! 

That’s a very nice looking doe, and by the looks of her udder she’s most likely pregnant. As for name suggestions, she reminds me of a Fainting goat we had named Penelope. 
That little Nubian X Boer/Kiko doeling is my favorite, what a cutie!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I'm hoping that's a "building an udder" not a " I recently weaned babies" udder. I do think it's the former since it isn't going down any though. 

I'm still really weirded out about our buck. I almost think he might have choked on something, he did have what looked like hemmorhaging around the blood vessels in his eyes. Though what he could have choked on is beyond me.

Amber is a cutie, a real pest, but adorable. I have to go clean out my birthing/baby stalls and I have no doubt I'll have a small goat on my shovel, every shovel-full, the entire time.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

I'm sorry your lost your buck.

Have you thought of a name for the large doe?


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

We finally named the monster doe Calypso. She's not as wild as she was when we picked her up, actually caught her the other day, trimmed down the feet (with horse nippers, poor pruners couldn't hack it) and vaccinated her. She was easy to trim, but so tall I put her feet between mine like I do the horses to work on them. I also learned I can't straddle her to hold her, my feet won't touch the ground, so she's at least 30 inches at the withers (I have a 30 inch inseam).
No difference in her udder. Crappy attachments for sure, but most of my Boer type does have ugly udders. The one that had a nice 1x1 (Spaz doe above) didn't take and then popped an abscess up so she's off to the slaughterhouse tomorrow. 
That puts me down to 5 commercial does, 2 that are hopefully bred to our buck that passed, one to our Nubian, one that raised sheep this year, and ??? on Calypso.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

Calypso, love that name, my LaMancha doe is named that I call her Mama 'couse she is mom to everybody except the buck!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Good name.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Just some pics from today.
Boer/Alpine twin doelings, 6 weeks old:
















Amber (Boer/kiko and 1/2 Nubian) bottle baby, she'll be 8 weeks on the 7th:

















Calypso, still not sure if she's going to have babies or what...:









Spoiled, should be bred to our FB Boer buck that passed (due either August or September) so friendly she's hard to photo:
















Eclipse, also bred to FB Boer buck:










Maggie - should be due in June to Nubian buck:









And, Ruby, sweet ole gal with her hair sheep ram lambs she raised:


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

That said, we are picking up a new FB Boer buckling here in the next week or two. He's traditional colored, but has some excellent blood lines behind him. 

I have 2 Nubian does due this month too, in the next week or so. 

Not sure which direction we'll go with Amber, whether I'll breed her to my dairy buck or Boer. She looks more "dairy" to me than meat, and her mother was a good milker.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

I sold one of my Alpine Boer cross babies and a commercial doe yesterday. I'm running out of stall space since it looks like Calypso is going to kid any day now and I already have 2 new Nubian babies, Amber, and the other Alpine/Boer baby, plus some grow outs in a back pen. Still have another Nubian doe due.
Pretty sure the commercial doe (Maggie) I sold wasn't pregnant, but if she was, oh well, they get a bonus. We are down on grass and I really didn't need Maggie.

Picked up our new fullblood buck. He's not quite 6 months old. Real nice looking guy. We named him Tesla - dad's name is Sparky something or other - I don't have it handy I mailed his papers off this morning.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice looking boy!


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

He is, the breeder his mother and father came from (mother was bought bred) are big around here. Actually, his mother's previous owner bought Crusader's twin.
I'm really hoping Crusader got the two girls he was with pregnant, they will cross super nice on Tesla. Crusader had some nice lines behind him, have a friend that just picked up a cousin of his for a new herdsire.
Tesla is no slouch on the lines department. There's a lot of nice back there. My son may show him in an upcoming show, depends on if we get his papers back fast enough to make it.

Looks like lots of folks are cutting back in my area. We got jack all for spring rain and it's pretty dry, so trying to only "feed what you need". Even debating pulling my horses up on full feed for a couple of weeks to let the grass have a break since we're supposed to get rain this week.

I'll get pics tonight of the new little show prospect wether we picked up and the feed out group. Couldn't pass up a $40 grow out, and the dairy boy was $25.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

he's nice!!!


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

They all look great


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

More (and better) Tesla pictures. He's learning to lead really fast with treats for motivation. He does not like my dogs being around and sniffing him.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

Calypso's new baby is a solid little sucker. Single doeling, but I swear she's over 10 lbs when I picked her up. Momma isn't thrilled with me picking up baby, she gives me the stink eye. This one is a keeper for sure.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Good looking boy!


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