Buckling questions

[markcrain]

I have a new herd of all doelings and one buckling that I'm keeping. My buckling is a boer cross but I don't know what with. He was a bottle baby and looks boer with a curly coat. The good news is he's very friendly and I'm told his daddy was 300lbs. The bad news is he is small (bottle baby) and his scrotum is slightly split. My questions are: should I keep him for my buck even though he has curly coat and split scrotum? Why is a split scrotum bad? The person I purchased him from says he'll still through big babies because his dad was big. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Mark

[mygoat]

Being a bottle baby can put them a little behind but not by much IMO. They should still be well grown. My best guess if he's small, he may have cocci/worms or was undernourished.

Did you do a fecal to see if he had cocci load or a worm load? Both can stunt them and cause odd coat qualities - curly coat, uneven or rough shedding. Most people practice cocci prevention with their goat kids every 3 weeks until 'well grown' - which here is 50lbs weight.

Also, a rough 'curly' coat can be from mineral deficiencies.

Or, he could be an angora cross, but that would be pretty darn destinctive coat quality.

As for split scrotum, depends on severity. It's mainly just unsightly, but I don't know if it actually causes any fertility problems in bucks. If you put all of his kids in the freezer anyways, it shouldn't much matter. Being a cross himself, his kids won't be worth much besides meat anyways.

[markcrain]

He is healthy, been wormed had all his shots etc. He has free access to a mineral bucket as do all of them. I want to keep him as my buck to breed because he just so friendly and easy going. But I've also read where the buck is half your herd so get the best you can.

[Donna1982]

I have bottle babies and they are not behind a dam raised kid. Actually my 3 month old wether is 62 lbs now. I would say he was stunted from cocci or worm load or both before you got him. I look at anything I am raising and ask myself what does he or she have that will improve my herd. Then ask what could this doe or buck throw that would not help my herd. The idea (imo) for breeding is to make sure the offspring is a better product then the parents.