# Crossing Milk breeds with Meat breeds. Who is doing it?



## Retiredokjusttired (Jun 26, 2016)

I have made the decision to pursue cross breeding. Who else is doing this on purpose and what was your reasoning, wants and goals for doing so? 

What have the results been? Has it been difficult to sell the bucklings? Have the crosses that have been born does done well as milkers. What about butterfat in the breed you have used? 

I have Toggs, Oberhasli cross and ND girls. Savannah and Boer and a ND Buck for the boys. 

Thanks in advance!


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

I breed LaBoers, the reason... I finally found the PERFECT buck, I love my Lamancha doe, I have tried all sorts of dairy bucks, but they didnt work for me, then I got a FB Boer buck, he is a DREAM, yes he is a buck and does buck things like walking straight through a chain link fence, but his personality just agrees with me perfectly! and he gives nice kids with his personality.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Well I do but mainly because I want some dairy girls for extra milk for when my boers have litters. I have a now retired lamancha, never sold one of her kids privately but kept some. A Nubian and I have been able to sell all her girls but they take after her and are so sweet. I even had a buyer that only wanted 100% boers and went home with one of her doelings. The boys all went to butcher. I also bred two alpines last year. Now don't get me wrong those kids grew like crazy but were so UGLY.
I have my half lamancha girls and a purchased a 1/2 Nubian. The thing I like about the halves are you don't HAVE to milk them but you can snag a little extra milk. Those kids out of them are pretty nice too! I've been able to sell those kids pretty well.
I don't think you will have all that much luck selling bucks for breeding. Meat breeders pretty much want a meat buck and dairy want a dairy buck. Don't get me wrong having some 1/2 and 1/2 isn't a bad thing. I can't tell you anything about butter fat or how the milk tastes or anything like that since any extra milk goes to kids, but I think as long as you are ok selling kids for butcher or commercial breeding, in case you can't sell the kids to small home owners you will be fine


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## Retiredokjusttired (Jun 26, 2016)

Thank you both for sharing your experiences.


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## LuvMyNigies (Sep 14, 2013)

I've crossed two different dairy breeds with Kikos. First, I crossed a Nubian doe and a 100 % NZ kiko buck. She had a buckling and he turned out AMAZING!!! I sold him fairly quickly to someone we met at TSC. At about a year, we went to visit the farm he was sold to, and he looked great! Super thick, well-conditioned buck. (Plus, he bred their Nubian doe when he was 6 mo. old, and his kids looked awesome!)
Last year my two Saanen does were bred by a Kiko buck, and they recently kidded. So far, they are very sturdy, super healthy kids!! 
I've had a hard time finding a Saanen buck, and that is the reason I was going to breed them to a Kiko buck (however, one of our bucklings managed to breed them a little earlier than I had planned :roll::roll:. But it turned out okay ).
Unfortunately, I haven't had a doeling yet, but I would really like to see how they do with the hardier kiko genes mixed with the dairy production. Good luck!


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I don't currently, but I did a few years back. I had a herd of dairy goats and bought some fullbred Boer does and a buck from out of state. I bred all the does to the Boer buck. Most of the kids did amazing, the crossbred bucklings sold for a good price and grew very well, pretty close in size to the fullbred Boers. The crossbred doelings were bred back to another Boer, their kids were amazing. Nice meaty kids. Those sold as commercial breeding stock, I could have sold 10 times as many as I had. Since I only own 1 acre, I had to decide which to stay with, so I went back to full dairy.

The halfbreed does did great on the milk stand, also. They raised their kids and still produced enough milk so that I had to milk them daily. They had a full 10 month lactation that remained pretty consistant.


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## Retiredokjusttired (Jun 26, 2016)

This is encouraging. I have wondered how many people would be interested in actually buying cross breds. When I was looking at buying goats last year I read several articles that talked about crossing meat with dairy. Correct me if I am wrong, seems the term "Spanish goat" was used to identify the crossbred, noting they were more parasite resistant and used for clearing brush and all around more hardy and health. I have seen with our corrientte cross cows the hybrid vigor that comes with crossing breeds so hope that is a real thing with goats as well. I am just overly curious about if an actual market exits for the cross bred. We have a sale barn for small animal very close to us. My last choice of course. Would rather see them find homes although I know we can't control it all.


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## margaret (Aug 30, 2013)

I crossed Boer with Alpine a few years, mainly accidental breedings but a couple were planned. I wasn't a huge fan of the outcome. I did get a couple does that favored the Alpine side a little more and ended up milking well. The bucklings had a lot of Boer coloring but had a more dairy build. Overall it wasn't a profitable or beneficial cross.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

No a Spanish goat is a actual breed of goat. Yes, those are hardy as heck but also waspy.
With crossing any type of breeds there is going to be pros and cons. It's too early to come up with actual goat stuff lol but let's take dogs for the pros. So you have a German shepherd, those are known for hip issues, and you breed it to another dog and those puppies SHOULDNT have as many issues with their hips. Now let's take goats here, you have a Nubian and a boer and that off spring will have better, not as fast growing feet as a actual full Nubian but also it's still going to be way worse then straight boers. Same with the milk, less then full Nubian but more then a boer.
But no there are plenty of people who cross them, it's a pretty big deal with big time commercial breeders (for meat). They want a good milk supply to raise trips but also a fast fairly stocky kid. The faster the kid grows the more money in the pocket.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Years ago, I bred a FB boer buck to Nubian Does and percentages. 
I loved the look, they had the best of both worlds, fast growth for meat and good volume udders.


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