Nuboerians for Market?

Farmboy · #1 10/13/05, 09:43 PM

Anyone have any tips on how to raise Nubian/Boer crosses for market? More specifically, tips on weaning, feeding, exercise, finishing, ect.

Ark · #2 10/14/05, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farmboy

Anyone have any tips on how to raise Nubian/Boer crosses for market? More specifically, tips on weaning, feeding, exercise, finishing, ect.

I am planning to do this very thing.
I am interested in any responses you may get as well.
We have already bred about 1/2 of our Nubians to a Boer buck and the rest to a Nubian.
We want meat kids for our own freezer as well as to sell the extra.
We want to keep all our registered Nubian does though for their wonderful milk!
I am milking 8 right now and will add 7 more in the spring. YIKES!!

Weaning: I will not wean before 3 months old, but I will start to separate at night at 4 weeks old, so I can have the morning milk.
Feeding: I have only had Nubian babies in the past so I am not sure if I should be feeding differently...
I guess I wasnt much help, was I? lol
Rachel

HunterTed · #3 10/15/05, 01:28 AM

We breed quite a few Nubian does to Boer bucks. All the kids are either market wethers or replacement does. We usually wean between 3 and 4 months of age. We castrate the bucklings as soon as their testicles drop. We do not bother dehorning them since they are gonna be eaten anyways. During weaning we try to wean as many at a time as we can. They are seperated from their mammas and put in a small pasture. I like to creep feed them, and I leave a roll of hay out for them all the time. Green gass and browse are helpful too if you can provide it for them. I feed a little corn to them as well. My buyers usually want a wether that is around 60 - 75 lbs. We rarely have trouble selling them. Most of the time the buyers come right to the farm to get them.

Farmboy · #4 10/15/05, 08:40 PM

The wethered kids will be used as childrens 4-H market goats (for auction). The local fair will be the first week of August, which means quite a long time between birth (late Jan.) and slaughter. Also, fair rules require you dehorn them.

Ark · #5 10/16/05, 10:42 AM

Our 4-H rules state that the wethers must still have their milk teeth, which I was told they have for about a year. (I dont really know how long they have them - that is just what I have been told.)
So, you might have to schedule your breeding times a little differently.
Rachel

HunterTed · #6 10/16/05, 12:41 PM

Ark you are right about the milk teeth. Our county show is in February so all the show wethers need to be born about the same time the previous year.

BTW< Randall and Lora brought me Scoop yesterday. Like I told you in a previous e-mail, she fit right in with Dora. She is still getting used to all the other goats but her and Dora hit it off pretty good. Can you send me her B-Day and A pic or two of the buck she is bred to. THX

Ark · #7 10/16/05, 03:49 PM

So glad you got Scoop and she fits in good. I STILL wish I could have kept her. She is such a sweetie and nice and chunky too.
She was born February 19, 2005, and always liked to sleep in the tractor scoop. She would push the others out if they were in her way. LOL
I'll get you some pics of the buck ASAP.

Farmboy, I cant remember where you are located, but maybe your does will breed year round. Do you know? That would make it a lot easier for planning to have the kids the right age for the fair. Our show wether are only going to be 8 months old when the show here rolls around, but the does just wouldn't come into heat any sooner!