# Boer owners, wanting info. on buying one



## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

I have dairy goats but we want to start a small meat goat herd. So I am wondering about commercial versus percentage? I have a 100% doeling on hold and a commercial adult doe I am looking at. So if I wanted to sell kids for meat, would I get commercial and if I wanted to sell kids for 4-h or show, I would want percentage? I don't know if I am explaining this right but maybe you get the idea. Basically, commercial or percentage and why would I go for one over the other?


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## ogfabby (Jan 3, 2013)

Boers, as a whole, are pretty good. The commercial goats can be a little more resistant to parasites and disease. Its the whole "hybrid vigor" thing. You could also cross your dairy goats with a FB buck and get some great dual purpose kids. Lots of people in my area do that. Yes, if you wanted show or 4-h weathers you would go with either high percentage or FB. If you wanted to go the commercial route, I would go with the FB buck and a herd of cross/percentage does. 

You can get much more per kid for breeding stock registered FB vs. commercial. It just all depends on which direction you want to go. 

Also, make sure to look into what market you will be walking into. 4-H weathers will need to be disbudded while it is not the thing to do with show animals.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Okay, so there are 2 different kinds of Boers - Fullbloods and Percentages.
Then you classify them as registered or commercial <non registered>.

We've not shown market wethers, but everyone I've spoken with has said their best wether producing does were percentage does. 
I've read and I've heard about more and more people going for the boer/kiko cross. but know some that like the boer/nubian or boer/toggenberg cross.
Most people I talked to last summer have said their best wether producing does were percentage does.

From what I know, long bodied, thick chested goats with a lot of muscle is what you want.

Now... if you end up with nice doe kids that would be used as 4-H projects...
One thing you need to find out is if they have to be registered or not.

I am in KY, my kids have shown Percentage & fullblood Boer does and they HAVE to be regsitered in order to use them as 4-H breeding doe projects.
So, we always use a fullblood, registered Boer buck, that away we can at least register does 50%. 
We just had a really nice doe born out of our kiko/cross doe <she's not registered>, but because the buck was registered, we'll get to register that doe 50% with ABGA.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

ogfabby said:


> Boers, as a whole, are pretty good. The commercial goats can be a little more resistant to parasites and disease. Its the whole "hybrid vigor" thing. You could also cross your dairy goats with a FB buck and get some great dual purpose kids. Lots of people in my area do that. Yes, if you wanted show or 4-h weathers you would go with either high percentage or FB. If you wanted to go the commercial route, I would go with the FB buck and a herd of cross/percentage does.
> 
> You can get much more per kid for breeding stock registered FB vs. commercial. It just all depends on which direction you want to go.
> 
> Also, make sure to look into what market you will be walking into. 4-H weathers will need to be disbudded while it is not the thing to do with show animals.


True, but I would find out what the rules/regulations are in your state on showing wethers. Here in KY you do not have to disbud them, you just have to tip the horns so they are not sharp.
I honestly can't remember if I saw more than a couple of disbudded wethers last summer and we went to quite a few shows.

I'd find out what the rules are for wethers and for possibly showing percentage/fullblood does whether they need to be registered or not. 
I know when we started we were just going to have our kids do market wethers, and bought an unregistered buck.
Then realized if they wanted to do percentage does, then we'd have to have registered buck, so we ended up selling that young buck to buy an adult registered buck.
Worked well because our kids have shown does. 
This will be their first year doing market wethers.

BTW, it's true about getting more $$ for registered animals, but it depends on your location. Most everyone who has ever bought a goat from us could have cared less about registration papers.


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## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

I have 2 Nubian purebred bucks which is what I planned on crossing them with. So if I went with the 100% they could be reg. 50% for 4-h? Then the commercial does kids would be for market. Yeah, trying to figure a way to convince hubby to get both


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## chelsboers (Mar 25, 2010)

If you bred them to your Nubian buck the kids couldn't be registered. To get 50% kids you have to breed them to a registered Boer buck or if bred to your 100% doe then the kids would be fullblood.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

To show in market classes for 4H/FFA they do not have to be registered. They do need to be fairly high percentage to show well, Atleast 88% Boer, in my opinion to stand a chance of competing, but they don't actually have to carry paperwork or registration to be in a 4H/FFA market show. 
Now if the fair or show has an open Breeding stock show for 4H/FFA members for does to be shown then those would have to be registered either percentage, purebred or fullblood. You can look on ABGA to see what classifies the goats into each category. A fullblood only ever comes from fullbloods a purebred was a percentage that worked its way up to purbred or close to 100%. 

At our fair the only show for 4H/FFA is a market show and the goats can be any breed, wethers or does, less than a year old and between 60lbs to 120lbs and Not registered. If you show a 50% Boer/ 50% nubian you would not do that well. 50% nubian would just be too much dairy to do well. You really want at least 88% Boer in your goats for them to have enough muscle on them to do well. Obviously showing a Dwarf breed or a 100% dairy breed would be kind of pointless, but I have seen people show Nubians and Alpines that looked to have very little Boer in them. 

Also like Chelsboers said, if you want your offspring to be regstered, you have to use a Boer buck that is registered. If you cross a 100% Boer buck with a 50% boer doe, your does from that breeding can be registered 75%, but all males would be commercial. I don't work with Purbreed bucks, but I believe if you are using a purbred buck that is only 96.8% then your dam would have to be more than 50% in order for the offspring to be registered at all. Since the offspring would be slightly less than 50%. 

Bucks have to be 96.8% to be registered Purebred. A buck between 50% and 96.7% can get registered, but it is kind of pointless. They can only produce registerable offspring after they are 96.8% and are can be registered as purebreds. 

A commercial goat can be a fullblood, but just doesn't carry any paperwork. It is really the sellers word and how the animal looks that would define how much Boer is in the goat. THere are a lot of expensive non-regstered Boer goats that are being used as wethers makers. We purchased a doe several years ago out of Indiana that was not registered from a wether maker farm that was quite pricey. The big dfference between wether maker animals and show correct breeding stock would be things like teat structure, skin pigmentation, a real fancy head....ect. The wether make need only have amazing structure, length and muscle mass. While a show correct Boer goat for breeding(open) shows, needs to have all the correct breed characteristics. Such as an elegant romen nose and good horn set.


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## caprine crazy (Jun 12, 2012)

20kidsonhill, can I ask what farm you bought your doe from in Indiana?

And, I agree with everything that's been said.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

caprine crazy said:


> 20kidsonhill, can I ask what farm you bought your doe from in Indiana?
> 
> And, I agree with everything that's been said.


Sorry, I am no help with that. My husband took a trip with a couple other people and I have no idea who it was. I know they did club animals and if I am not mistaken didn't register any of their stock. More than likely they also sold sheep, since my husband was with someone who deals with suffolk/hampshires. It could have been pigs, because sometimes this farm also travels to buy club hogs. That wasn't much help I realize.


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## Stacie1205 (Mar 26, 2011)

Well, the doeling I had on reserve died. The adult bred doe I was looking at I went ahead and bought hoping to get a doeling or at least a baby boer this year. She wasn't expected to kid for a few weeks although the owner really didn't know when she was do and was just basically guessing. Well, I picked her up on Monday and she kidded last night with what I think was a stillborn because it never looked like it was ever alive. So, I guess that even though I may like boers, they don't seem to like me much. So disheartened and sad about the whole thing I think maybe I will just scrap the whole idea. It's days like this that make me feel sorry for myself and I hate these kind of days. :tears::tears:


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Stacie1205 said:


> Well, the doeling I had on reserve died. The adult bred doe I was looking at I went ahead and bought hoping to get a doeling or at least a baby boer this year. She wasn't expected to kid for a few weeks although the owner really didn't know when she was do and was just basically guessing. Well, I picked her up on Monday and she kidded last night with what I think was a stillborn because it never looked like it was ever alive. So, I guess that even though I may like boers, they don't seem to like me much. So disheartened and sad about the whole thing I think maybe I will just scrap the whole idea. It's days like this that make me feel sorry for myself and I hate these kind of days. :tears::tears:


So sorry about those two. How could you have known she was ready to kid if the seller didnt even know?
Im also wondering about their feed/minerals management. Personally I wouldnt have sold that doe that late in pregnancy unless she was going across the street.
All of us have wanted to throw in the towel now & then.


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