# few questions



## Reed (Mar 15, 2011)

I'm wanting to get into the dairy, meat and show goat industry (Boer & Nubian) and I have a few questions.

I read people on here talking about 1x1, 2x2 teats, what are you talking about, lol?
Do you have to disbud kids? and if not does it decrease/increase value of kid?
What are the good conformation qualities and the bad ones to look out for?
What is a commercial breeder?

I will probably have more questions, but this is what I can think of so far


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## ()relics (Dec 25, 2010)

Reed said:


> I'm wanting to get into the dairy, meat and show goat industry (Boer & Nubian) and I have a few questions.
> 
> I read people on here talking about 1x1, 2x2 teats, what are you talking about, lol?


1x1 means 1 teat per side of the udder. 2x2 means 2 teats per side of the udder.


Reed said:


> Do you have to disbud kids? and if not does it decrease/increase value of kid?


Boer show wethers should be disbudded, every other boer should have horns, BUT wethers are, technically, not supposed to be penalized for having horns and any other boer, again technically, should not be penalized for Not having horns.


Reed said:


> What are the good conformation qualities and the bad ones to look out for?


I am not going to touch this one...You will have to do some reading and looking at boers for the answer here.


Reed said:


> What is a commercial breeder?


This would be a breeder that specifically raises Meat animals. These Meat animals, although they may be boers, would stand little chance in a show ring, for one reason or another, and are only considered slaughter animals.


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## Reed (Mar 15, 2011)

So a goat can have 4 teats? interesting, I didn't know this.

Is it hard keeping records of who is being bred to who? and who to not breed with? It seems like it may get confusing if you have a large herd?


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Commercial is also with no papers; they arent registered.
You can talk until you're blue in the face about conformation, getting your hands on an animal & watching it move compared to lesser quality stock is what's going to really speak. And it comes with lots & lots of hands on experience.
Im just beginning to get a glimpse of what is required in the show ring but that doesnt always mean great reproduction of super progeny either.


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## ()relics (Dec 25, 2010)

nancy d said:


> Commercial is also with no papers; they arent registered.


Actually a large number of commercial kids ARE registerable but the breeder chooses not to register them simply because they will not be showing them...Obviously wethers are never registered. There are truely commercial herds that simply breed a male "goat" to a female"goat" but the majority of Boer Breeders have a fullblood buck covering their herds, making the kids registerable, as percentages....All my commercial kids, again no wethers or bucks, are registerable. When they are sold I include the paperwork should the new owner want to register the kid, but most are only interested in a market animal or a commercial doe and not in the extra money needed to register the kid. 
Yeah boer goats can have a hoard of teats under the hood. This being a hot point issue....Some breeders think multiple teats are OK, while others think any thing other than 1x1s are cull animals...I would fall into the later group. But it wouldn't really matter if you are simply talking about a commercial herd.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Reed wrote:
> I'm wanting to get into the dairy, meat and show goat industry (Boer & Nubian) and I have a few questions.
> 
> I read people on here talking about 1x1, 2x2 teats, what are you talking about, lol?
> ...





> Commercial is also with no papers; they arent registered.
> You can talk until you're blue in the face about conformation, getting your hands on an animal & watching it move compared to lesser quality stock is what's going to really speak. And it comes with lots & lots of hands on experience.
> Im just beginning to get a glimpse of what is required in the show ring but that doesnt always mean great reproduction of super progeny either.


I agree with ()relics and Nancy D..... so true....conformation is suppose to be..a certain way ...according to the association...but ..the judges have very different taste and so... we really don't know the answer to that one... :wink:


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## jodief100 (Jan 15, 2011)

Reed said:


> So a goat can have 4 teats? interesting, I didn't know this.
> 
> Is it hard keeping records of who is being bred to who? and who to not breed with? It seems like it may get confusing if you have a large herd?


The record keeping is all about having a good system and sticking with it. The more goats, the longer your spreadsheet gets.

As long as you are diligent about writing everything down in your system it isn't that hard.

And who is being bred to who is just the start!

I keep records of a goat's sire and dam, who they are bred to, when they were bred, when they have had vaccines, medical treatment, hooves trimmed, how many kids, which kids are thiers, birthweight, 30, 60 and 90 day weights, where they were born, how much I paid, what I sold the kids for, etc etc.

You also need to track how much you spend and what you spend it on.

And that is for a market (commercial) herd.....


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