# Opinions on cross breeding boers



## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

Im a new breeder and haven't picked a buck out yet but i have Boer does that are 100% Boer. I heard cross breeding really makes the kids grow faster in size. I was thinking of breeding my 100% Boer does with a kiko buck. But my mane breed will be Boer......any suggestions/opinions?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

If you have a small herd and want to be mainly Boer. I would stick with a Boer buck for now. Then maybe next year add the Kiko. Keep it simple while you are learning. Makes things easier that way.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I'd keep the boer buck and breed to a kiko doe.

I use to have nubian/ boer crosses, they were beautiful and grew really fast.


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## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

Do they look more like their dad or mom usually? And i to have a nubian/boer cross, he came out red with white ears


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## Tenacross (May 26, 2011)

I would breed your 100% Boer does to a Boer buck. Otherwise you are going backwards in the meat business. One reason why Boer crosses grow really fast is because usually the does are all or part dairy and are heavy milkers. The milk is the biggest factor. The hybrid vigor second. That would be my opinion, of course.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Yes the crosses do grow well however when put over Nubian you'll have a leggier somewhat leaner appearing animal than full Boer.
This yr I got great color from the buck shown at the left here, only they were all 75% bucklings; a trad, an all tan & a black n tan out of the same doe.
One Boer doeling with nice brown cape the rest were ordinary as far as any fancy markings go.


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

You may look into the Savanna breed. They are very fast growing, excellent mothers and very hardy. They aren't as popular as the Boers though, they kind of look like a white Boer goat. 

If I had the 100% does, I would breed them to a 100% buck, it is better to cross the Boer buck onto the different breed of does.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Nubian crosses, have white bodies, red head,full capes,some don't, may have paint marks here and there, with cute freckled long ears. Mine looked nice, the legs were in proportion to the rest of the body.they weren't all legs.
I had 50%, 75% ect. Nubian Does and bred them to my FB boer buck, they grew faster than the FB boers, had the weight to them as well, in which, made it good for the meat market. That is how it went with my mixture.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Recently crossing Boer with Saanen has become popular in our area..Saanen are the larges dairy breed...all my Saanen bucks went to Boer goat owners last season who were looking ot add more milk to the herd..
it really depends on what you want the end product to be...


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## ogfabby (Jan 3, 2013)

Here are some pics of my boer/Nubian crosses. The red doe and the spotted doe are 50%. The The black kid is 75% out of the red and white doe and a red fullblood boer buck. 
He looks like a Nubian. Lol


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## ogfabby (Jan 3, 2013)

These are my boer/saanen kids out of the same red buck.


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## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

Wow they look like a Boer with thick legs/body and everything.....is the saanen breed good for meet as well?


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## ogfabby (Jan 3, 2013)

They were only about an hour old in those pics.  they are some of my fastest growers.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Adorable


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

Saanens are really more for dairy. They are really big and grow very fast and younger Saanens can be pretty chunky, but when they freshen they typically put everything they eat into making milk. A Saanen doe will grow some really nice meat kids though due to them having plenty of milk for the babies, plus the super fast growth rate. I have two full Saanen bucks kids right now, one born in December, the other born in February. They are both about 30 inches tall and weigh about 110 lbs. They are literally all legs right now. lol

*Savanna's* are a meat breed though, and are very chunky, thick and grow very fast. I have one Savanna doe, she is 8 years old and weighs over 200 lbs.


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I was gonna say, "there's no way that doe is a Saanen! She has floppy ears."
Yes, Savanna on the other hand, makes sense.


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

LOL. yes Savanna Saanen who can tell the difference!


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## red78232 (Mar 22, 2013)

sunrisefarms17 said:


> Im a new breeder and haven't picked a buck out yet but i have Boer does that are 100% Boer. I heard cross breeding really makes the kids grow faster in size. I was thinking of breeding my 100% Boer does with a kiko buck. But my mane breed will be Boer......any suggestions/opinions?


We have a boer/Kiko wether, super sweet, his dad is the Kiko and mom a red boer. This is Frankie


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I think it all depends on what you are really after with your kids. Are you mainly wanting to keep the doelings? Sell and get the most money from the kids? I was kinda in your place when I first started out, I just bought 'goats', and the plan was to just buy a 'buck' to simply get kids. Then I came across a good deal on 2 100% does and I started looking into reg. boers more. If you get a 100% boer buck, you will, of course get 100% boer kids out of your 100% does, and everything else you can paper at 50%, the more you breed them back to a 100% the higher the %. That right there was why I went and paid the extra money for my 100% buck. At the time I didnt care anything about papers, but now, so happy with my self that I did go that way. 
If you still would rather get something else, I would also look into the savannas, I do not have any, but everything I have read has said good things about them. They are a fairly newer breed so we as people have not made them that much less hardy yet. As for any dairy breed, I cant give my 2cents on that since I have some nubians, lamancha and had a saanen. they all did and do a dang good job. My one lamancha does the best and the kids seem more stalky (all bred to a boer buck) but she also gives a ton of milk so that might just be her.


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## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

red78232 said:


> We have a boer/Kiko wether, super sweet, his dad is the Kiko and mom a red boer. This is Frankie


Is this red one walking toward the camera the wether???


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## red78232 (Mar 22, 2013)

sunrisefarms17 said:


> Is this red one walking toward the camera the wether???


Yes the red one is Frankie he's 5 months old


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## p144sr (Jul 10, 2013)

Jessica84 said:


> I think it all depends on what you are really after with your kids. Are you mainly wanting to keep the doelings? Sell and get the most money from the kids? I was kinda in your place when I first started out, I just bought 'goats', and the plan was to just buy a 'buck' to simply get kids. Then I came across a good deal on 2 100% does and I started looking into reg. boers more. If you get a 100% boer buck, you will, of course get 100% boer kids out of your 100% does, and everything else you can paper at 50%, the more you breed them back to a 100% the higher the %. That right there was why I went and paid the extra money for my 100% buck. At the time I didnt care anything about papers, but now, so happy with my self that I did go that way.
> If you still would rather get something else, I would also look into the savannas, I do not have any, but everything I have read has said good things about them. They are a fairly newer breed so we as people have not made them that much less hardy yet. As for any dairy breed, I cant give my 2cents on that since I have some nubians, lamancha and had a saanen. they all did and do a dang good job. My one lamancha does the best and the kids seem more stalky (all bred to a boer buck) but she also gives a ton of milk so that might just be her.


So to clarify for a newbie...

If you just want good meat production and aren't trying to sell goats for pets or investments, etc., then it's better to do a boer cross?

I'm new to all this and have been reading a lot of different info, but seems like I've read that you can/should butcher at the time the kid gets weaned? And because of that it's a good idea to do something like a boer/kiko cross because the kiko's wean off at a higher weight than a full blooded boer???

I haven't bought any goats yet because I'm tired of jumping into something too soon only to find out I shouldn't have bought whatever it is that I bought.... Of course I usually learn a ton just by jumping into whatever it is, but would rather have more knowledge before I do this time. As I'm now in my mid-thirties with a wife and four children, I don't have as much patience as I used to when it comes to wasting my time and money on things. :lol: So hopefully I can figure things out a bit before I buy.

I do like the idea of having papered goats in the event that I do want to sell any kids. But even within papered goats there's such a wide margin of possibilities (price points).


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## Pixie13 (Mar 2, 2013)

Here are a few pics of our boer/kiko cross kids. Their mother is 100% kiko and father was 100% boer. My husband enjoys raising boer/kiko crosses. They seem really hardy.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

sunrisefarms17 said:


> Im a new breeder and haven't picked a buck out yet but i have Boer does that are 100% Boer. I heard cross breeding really makes the kids grow faster in size. I was thinking of breeding my 100% Boer does with a kiko buck. But my mane breed will be Boer......any suggestions/opinions?


Cross-breeding adds hybrid vigor which increases resistance to disease, illness, and makes for a stronger, faster growing kid. Personally, I don't like Boers so I would do it just the opposite - Kiko does crossed with a Boer buck because of mitochondrial dna which keeps more of the traits of the doe.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

p144sr said:


> If you just want good meat production and aren't trying to sell goats for pets or investments, etc., then it's better to do a boer cross?


Yes. You cannot beat a Boer for muscling and thickness. At least in my experience.


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## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

GoatCrazy said:


> Cross-breeding adds hybrid vigor which increases resistance to disease, illness, and makes for a stronger, faster growing kid. Personally, I don't like Boers so I would do it just the opposite - Kiko does crossed with a Boer buck because of mitochondrial dna which keeps more of the traits of the doe.


So does that mean the babies will really have more dna from the doe?


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## sunrisefarms17 (Jun 24, 2013)

And the buck that i got is a cross himself, he is boer and kiko. To me he looks like a boer with muscle and color but is just a slight bit smaller in stature like a kiko (from what i here kikos r smaller) and so i will be breeding him to my boer does......will my babies be 95%boer and 5% kiko then?


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

Like several people suggested at the beginning, I would for sure go with a 100% boer buck, If you are interested in trying crosses, I would sell most or all your kids from the breeding with the boer buck and buy a couple nice percentage/crossed does and breed them to your boer buck and compare the differences. We have some Boer/Nubian crossed does we breed to fullblood bucks. we like them, but when it comes down to it the 100% boer kids are more competitive in the show ring for 4H projects, and they seem to grow just as fast In my opinion. The maternal instincts of the dam's is another Story. The Boer/Nubian dam's are always wonderful mom's, never any problems with them rejecting kids or not having enough milk. The fullblood/or 100% Boer does can be hit and miss depending on the bloodlines.


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## p144sr (Jul 10, 2013)

How do 100% Kiko does do with kids? Are they better mothers than Boer does? Is it a specific breed or just being pure?


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## ptgoats45 (Nov 28, 2011)

From what I have heard the Kiko's are really good mothers. Savanna's are also really good mothers. I have had Boers that were excellent mothers and I have had some that were not good mothers their first time, but by the second time they were excellent mothers.

All of my Alpines are _excellent_ mothers. They will even try to lick the kids before they are even part way out.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

Kikos technically have some dairy in their background, so they are better mom's regardless. Boer goats, especially fullbloods that have a lot of flush breeding in their history are the biggest problems. My really really good pedigreed doe with a ton of flush in her history is a horrible mom, but we get wonderful kids out of her. Hoping her daughters are better mom's, if not we are going to just use all the kids(does and wethers) as meat projects for the fair and stop selling any does out of her for breeding stock.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Any breed of goat can be bad momma's, some have to be taught when they are First timers, while others may of had a really bad delivery. Just depends.

A lot of different views here, so use you best judgment and maybe find out what is more popular in you area, for demand.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

p144sr said:


> How do 100% Kiko does do with kids? Are they better mothers than Boer does? Is it a specific breed or just being pure?


They are fabulous! In my experience, yes, Kiko's are far better mothers than Boers. Of course, that is just my experience. My percentage Kiko's are also better mothers than the Boer's I had - again, that is just my experience.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

sunrisefarms17 said:


> So does that mean the babies will really have more dna from the doe?


Exactly.


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