Possible herd sire... honest opinion

[Wingdo]

If it were a dog, stallion or bull, I'd at least have a clue, however... it's a goat and I need a REAL opinion before I sink too much cash into him!

I can get more photos, but this is what I was sent. He is a 2 year old registered fullblood SA Boer with KALR Studley Dudley and CNR Pistolero w/i two generations.

[Wingdo]

... and how do you make the photo, rather than the link show up on the post itself?

[CountryHaven]

From the pictures I'd say overall he's very nice. He looks like he has a really nice rear, although the side shot is not really perfect for judging since he's not standing square and is in tall grass. Hard to tell about his feet. He has a nice head. Looks like he has a nice neck. I'd like to see a little bit more width in the chest, but it's okay. His shoulders from the front look like they could use a little more muscle, but again, okay. Can't tell how his teats are, or bite, or pigment, but just using the pics I'd say he's a good deal.

I'd really like to see a decent standing side shot in short grass. You can't see if he's level, or what his brisket area looks like, or a few things like that in those shots.

[Jim S.]

Just my opinions...

Average for SA fullbloods. Moderate maturity dates. He'll fill out some more in the third year. Looks decently muscled, maybe carcass Grade 2 or even a low Grade 1. Head is kind of large for my taste, I like heads as small as possible for kidding ease, but it is acceptable. Looks pretty springy in the rib, that's a good thing. A bit narrow across the chest. Muscling in upper foreleg and rear is good, but not great. (The upper foreleg thickness near where it joins the chest/shoulder is an indicator of carcass dressing percentage and carcass muscle grade. The thicker, the better.)

One key matter for you to think of is, how does he size up against your does? You don't want to get a buck that is way bigger than your does, or you could have kidding problems. Moderately bigger is better. And it goes without saying that if he's smaller, you're going backwards.

Are any of his progeny on farm? They can give you great clues to what to expect. Kids on-farm would tell you a lot. Have the owners had to pull a lot of kids, or do they all come easy?

I would not be looking at this boy as Super-Hoss, or anything, so be restrained when you open your wallet, but he'd make a good herd workhorse -- especially if used on dairy stock. His progeny would likely be good foundation does for the next step up in muscling, if you wanted to go that way.

[chris30523]

What Jim say's about the head is true. The buck that sired my kids the first year had a big head.It was the first kidding for all of the does also. They had huge kids not one weighed less than 10 lbs and I had to help several does.The growth and weight gain on those kids was not great.
The buck I used this year has a little head and the kids were smaller but their growth and weight gain have been above average. I only had to help one doe.

last years buck

This years buck. He is hard on water buckets though.He is one year old in this picture.

This is one of his bucklings at one week old