Boers vs. Kikos

[CarolynRenee]

We've been wanting to start a small herd of Boers for meat for our family, so maybe a half-dozen or so to butcher each year. Problem is I've been having a hard time finding a local person to sell me a doe. It usually goes like this:

Me: I'm looking to buy a Boer goa...
Them: I got plenty, how many do you want?
Me: Well, I'm actually looking for a female goat so I can star....
Them: Oh, we only sell the males, sorry.

Bascially, at least around my general area, nobody wants to give up their females. Not sure if they are afraid of competition or just want to keep growing their herds.

Anyways, the last lady I talked to who wasn't willing to give up her females because she wanted to increase their herd, said that she'd recommend Kikos instead of Boers. Said that her Boer kids just don't have the spunk like other goats do, said she has to "force" almost every kid to nurse and keep checking on them all the time. Also said that Boer are very suseptable to parasites (although I figured that was all goats).

Anyhow....am I getting the run around? I know very little about Boers, but know even less about the Kikos. Guess I got more research to do.

Anyone have experience with both breeds?

[IndyGardenGal]

Bumping this up, as I'm interested as well. I'd like to cross some of my girls to a meat buck for meatier kids to butcher.

[KSALguy]

that lady that told you that must have bad stock, if she has to force them to eat thats a bad sign,

now there are inhearant differinces between the two breeds, first of all the Boer was created in the arid desert type grass and scrub land of south africa and had more intensive human input, and pure Boers do best in a similar type environment, Kiko were developed in the wet mountains of NewZealand, from feral stock, basically the best of the wild feral goats were bred to a variety of differint bucks but still left to live in a wild mannor, low input wild wet conditions,

both are excelent for what they were made for, the differinces will be made evedent when trying to use one breed over the other in the opposit mannor than they were originated, you can keep Kiko in dry grassland type settings but with out additional assistance from us they wont perform the same as a boer, and you can keep Boer in wet wild condtions but they wont do the same as a kiko,

[saanengirl]

Boers tend to have very little natural resistance to parasites due to the breed being developed in an arid climate where parasites aren't a huge problem. Kikos were bred for parasite resistance, as well as hardiness in other areas. They will not grow as big or musclar as the Boers, but are lower maintenance if you are in an area that gets a fair amount of rainfall and warm temperatures. I have heard that some people are selectively breeding for parasite resistance in Boers, but that is not breedwide yet, so the average Boer is likely to be more susceptible to parasites than the average Kiko.

[Alice In TX/MO]

My vet says that Boers are just looking for a reason to die. He's phasing them out.

Kikos are hard to find.

[CarolynRenee]

IndyGardenGal,

I have a stocky & large Saanen doe that I was thinking of having her bred to a Boer for that exact reason....I want her bred for the milk, but don't so much "need" the kids so it would be nice if they were "kind" of meaty for butchering. But I also want as much meat as I can get from a goat so am interested in a small meat herd.

[where I want to]

There are a bunch of people breeding crosses between Kiko and Boers- boki (?) and Texmaster (?) or something like that. They want to increase the disease?parasite resistance of the the Boer yet retain the meat making capabilities.

[KSALguy]

useing a GOOD Boer buck over Kiko or any breed of doe for that matter is going to add meat to the kids, if you have good hardy disease resistant does, or does that milk alot, and breed a big nice Boer buck over them you have the best of both worlds, Boer is like the Angus of the goat world

[Goat Servant]

Um, we're in the Pac NW where it's almost always damp if not wet. We must have good stock because have had no problems with rain rot, hoof rot, parasite overload, cocci or deciding to keel over for no reason.
Management probably plays a role in it with plenty of quality alfalfa & minerals.
Quite frankly its a little annoying to constantly hear that Boers in this country are unthrifty or that Boer breeders as a whole dont care about disease.
Thank you. I will step down now.

[Le Petit Norman]

Originally Posted by CarolynRenee

Anyways, the last lady I talked to who wasn't willing to give up her females because she wanted to increase their herd, said that she'd recommend Kikos instead of Boers. Said that her Boer kids just don't have the spunk like other goats do, said she has to "force" almost every kid to nurse and keep checking on them all the time. Also said that Boer are very suseptable to parasites (although I figured that was all goats).

Is it me or something is wrong in this statement. I believe that breeder only select the best animal to keep in their herd and eat and / or sell the rest of it. Why would someone with such poor animal wants to keep them and more than that retain the females to increase her herd .

This does not make any sense to me.

[Otter]

I don't know where you are in the Ozarks, but if you are close by me, I've got a friend with some Kiko/LaMancha doelings she is selling. It should be easy enough to find you a Boer buck for them when the time comes.

[CarolynRenee]

Originally Posted by Le Petit Norman

Is it me or something is wrong in this statement. I believe that breeder only select the best animal to keep in their herd and eat and / or sell the rest of it. Why would someone with such poor animal wants to keep them and more than that retain the females to increase her herd .

This does not make any sense to me.

Not quite sure why she put "down" her herd of Boers. Got me.

Otter, near Mountain Home.

[chewie]

i got a so-so boer kiko cross last fall and bred to my saanen girls. that worked great! he wasn't all that big tho., so I sold him, but now kinda wondering if i made a mistake, as his only buckling of the year is pretty big. he was a single, from my old doe, and is 55# at 2.5 months. I just got him a nub/boer buddy so I can wean him, and that little thing is half his size, same age.

I would like to find a nice big chunky boer buck in my area, but the only things I find are rather small and just kinda, well, 'sale barnish', if you kwim? if anyone knows of a place to get one, pm me!

should boer bucks be taller or at least as tall as a saanen doe?

[Jcran]

We bought two nice Saanen doelings last year and crossed them with our boers. GREAT kids out of the cross...I've heard if you cross a boer/Saanen back to a boer, you get something called a "meatmaker"...big frame, good meat. We'll be doing that this year for January kids.

[Wingdo]

Originally Posted by Goat Servant

... Quite frankly its a little annoying to constantly hear that Boers in this country are unthrifty or that Boer breeders as a whole dont care about disease.
Thank you. I will step down now.

We've been raising Boers for about eight years and in all that time lost one Boer - full blood Matt Dillon buck... a beautiful animal but he gave in to pneumonia after breeding but one doe. The rest have thrived w/ very little maintenance. They all get their CDT, alfalfa pellets, all the sapling trees/graze they can eat, and also get their feet trimmed/inspected going in to winter and late spring. We did have a hard year a few years back and lost two kids to freeze, which is when we adjusted our breeding schedule and lot configuration... they now have their very own house to take their kids to after giving birth for 3-4 days.

I like the Boers and would recommend them to anyone wanting brush control in the summer and then good healthy meat for the freezer every fall.

[mekasmom]

Originally Posted by CarolynRenee

Said that her Boer kids just don't have the spunk like other goats do, said she has to "force" almost every kid to nurse

That's not true in any I have seen.

I have never had a kiko, but the ones I have seen are smaller than boer. Maybe that isn't common? but the ones at my friend's house are definitely smaller than boer.

[CountryGoalie]

Originally Posted by where I want to

There are a bunch of people breeding crosses between Kiko and Boers- boki (?) and Texmaster (?) or something like that. They want to increase the disease?parasite resistance of the the Boer yet retain the meat making capabilities.

I believe Texmaster is a cross between Boer and Myotonics? I cross Kiko to Boer for backyard meat production, but my stuff is all "grade/commercial" - no registrations. I really like the cross, though. And the kids out of my grade Nubian doe by our grade Kiko buck were always tall - leaner than the Boer crosses at first but as they matured, BOY did they fill out that tall Nubian frame gorgeously! Food for thought. Maybe get a milk doe or two and cross to a meat breed buck? (And I loved our Kiko buck, he was the hardiest thing we had. Sold him this year, though, after three kidding seasons, because now everything is related to him, hehe.)

[Alice In TX/MO]

http://texmastermeatgoats.com/

[CornerstoneAcre]

We have Boer does and so far haven't had any kidding or nursing problems. Our health problems have been almost nil. Parasites - we have had some mite issues and doing our own fecals, have had minimal worming to do. I will say, watch the teats of any Boer does you purchase. Don't honestly know if it is a trait only of Boers, but is common in Boers - teat abnormalities. Some can be no problem, but some can make nursing difficult for the kids. We also have a Kiko/Boer/Nubian buck. We are expecting our first kids from him (from our Boer does). We'll let you know how they turn out LOL. Our earlier kids are FB Boers we kept the does as we were still working on building our herd at the time. We have a few percentage does as well, they are a kiko, boer cross (25/75). We have one Saanen/lamancha doe (she's a huge "meaty" thing in her own right) that is due in two weeks - we will be milking her. She is bred to our current kiko/boer/nubian buck so are actually hoping for a few bucklings to go into the freezer. If she has does we may offer them up for sale if they are of decent confirmation as they make a nice little multi purpose doe for somebody. (Sorry, wish you were closer...we'd sell you a doe if we have any soon Good luck in your search!!)

[saanengirl]

Originally Posted by chewie

should boer bucks be taller or at least as tall as a saanen doe?

No, my Saanen does are taller than any Boer buck I have ever seen. The Boer buck may very well be heavier, but they have shorter, thicker legs than the Saanens. Top quality show Boers are shaped a lot like hogs. Long body, short legs, lots of muscling.