Opinions on Nigerian x Boer cross

[Muleman]

Ok, here is the situation. Some of you may remember my daughters have a small herd of Nigerians they have been raising several years. I have been wanting to get some meat goats, but really do not want to have an entirely separate herd to manage. What is your thoughts on simply getting a few Boer does and running them with their Nigerians and allowing their Nigerian buck to breed them. Would this just result in a short stocky meat goat?? I do not want so many as to offset the expense of a Boer buck really and I do not have the time nor care for the idea of taking does somewhere to get them bred.

[billinwv]

The only problem I see is you mayget a boer doe that is aggressive and could hurt/kill a Nigerian. Separate feeding would be essential.

[CraterCove]

Hey they have mini everything else these days, why not mini boers? I, myself, am looking to breed bigger with my Saanens and Boers-- I am obsessed with the awesomeness of the middle eastern goats the size of ponies, the Jamunapari. I am going for a large, well muscled goat with better milk potential than the Boers offer that can easily be used for draft purposes.

It'd be interesting to see those mini-boers. If you make any you'll have to post lots of pics!

[punchiepal]

I agree, separation essential.

Also, consider that the little dudes born may take after ND's and need to be banded soon to make sure they don't re-breed all the new moms too soon and also to prevent fence breaks to the nigerian doe pen. One wouldn't want a 1/2 boer to breed a nd doe.

I have read of a few mini boers being out there and they look to be meaty little ones.

[Muleman]

So if I ran the Boer does in a separate pasture and simply moved the Nigerian buck in long enough to bred them, that should work fine? Band the little bucks early. I have never had Boers. Since you all are saying they may hurt the Nigerians, are you just talking about the size difference, or are the Boers known to be more aggressive? I have no real desire to bred "new" miniature Boers, just trying to figure a way to raise some meat goats without having to deal with another buck and all the associated issues and cost.

[wintrrwolf]

Ok you asked for it ...boer why boer? So your wanting to get some meatier kids and boer are definitely that but they aren't really that cheap either, having a nigi buck cover boer doe's makes sense but I would think if you want to get some easy meat why not some pygmy doe's or mytonic instead...alot of peeps seem to want to cross the dairy with boer I don't because I don't want the multi teet thing anywhere near my diary girls.
With pygmy they grow fast heck they even start out meatier and they are cheaper to begin with.

[CraterCove]

Multi teat is easily culled out, IMO. Also there are, supposedly, Boers with four working teats... the claims are they even have the chambers to support them, but I would just rather cull the fishtails and put that meat on a Saanen frame.

Are there issues with breeding Nigerian to pygmy? They are both pretty small, right? And the pygmy is already a meaty goat.

[Muleman]

The reason I was looking at Boers, is they are bigger, that's all. I understand the pygmy is smaller and has a bit more meat than the ND, but would the Boer cross not give a bigger goat, thus a bigger carcass? Just seems from everything I know serious meat goat people are using Boers, so I figure the closer I can get to them the better? The Boers do seem to be more expensive. That is another reason I was considering the ND buck also, as Boer bucks seem to be in the $400 plus range. I have seen Boer does in the $150 plus range which is in line with the higher priced Pygmy I have seen.

BTW, there are no issues with the ND x pygmy cross. my daughters do have 2 pygmy nannies. They are a little heavier but still pretty small.

Hi Muleman,

One of my thoughts would be that a much larger doe would have to be fed (a lot) to raise much smaller meat animals than itself. Just thinking of efficiency. The breeding would be successful.

Depending on how you feel about close relation and how many boer does you would have, you could retain one of the best bucklings to rebreed the boers to increase the terminal kids size. You would still have to feed another buck but prevent you from having to buy one.

Regarding the size difference between a mixed herd of boer and Nigerian does, it's done regularly with other standard breeds and 99% of the time would be no problem. Just the horns/no horn difference could cause an issue. One would just have an unfair advantage over the other.

[Muleman]

Thanks every one for your opinions and advice on this. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel. I am just trying to figure the best way to utilize what is already available to me (ND buck) with the least amount of additional input and still have reasonable expectations of the end result. I am not dead set on this option, just wanted to get some additional input and opinion, before just buying some does and taking a "Lets see what happens" approach!

[Frosted Mini's]

Yeah, I was thinking like Davstep. You would be feeding a large-breed momma whose kids are mid-size, so you're getting less meat per inputs when bred to a Nigerian buck. I would maybe try and get some bred does if you can, and then keep a buckling out of one of your does and rebreed to the boers, then eat or sell. Or you can purchase a buck and resell it. Boer bucks seem to have reasonable resell value, especially if you got it early in the breeding season and sold it right after your does are bred, so that people are thinking about breeding their does. Or you could get a boer buckling each spring and then sell or eat after breeding is done. Surely, you could find a buck cheaper than $400 if you are just looking for a terminal sire and not a registered show buck.

[Clovers_Clan]

You might have better luck with Pygmies, Kinders or Myotonic does and a pygmy buck. That way you can keep all the does together without worrying about the smaller does getting pushed around. The ND and pygmy bucks can be buddies when you need to keep them separated from the does. And you never have to worry about a big buck getting in with the ND does. What are your plans for processing? I don't think there will be much difference in marketability between a Boer/ND and a meaty pygmy. Actually, I would think the pygmy would give a more consistent carcass.

[Muleman]

My plans are for meat for us and also for a small CSA offering from time to time. I have been helping my kids with their goats and just not wanting to go a whole new herd route and make them think I am abandoning their efforts. I was thinking if I got a few meat does and bred them to their buck it would allow them to still kinda be part of it and have an interest in it. Then if we did a few breeding's and it just looked like we needed another buck or something, they could see it and realize the need as well. If that turned out to be the case?

I realize the best, would be a strait meat goat herd, but maximum economic gain is not the main goal. Providing some better meat animals, while still helping my kids with their little herd is really what I am wanting to do. Their goats of course are on my property, so I do not want to do anything to make them think I am competing for space with my goats, or trying to push their little operation out, if you know what I mean. I will just not have any myself before I do that.

[where I want to]

Meat on the hoof is one consideration but ease of butchering another. Why skin and debone little packages where you have to kill twice as many animals for the same amount of meat on one full size goat?
It is not only size overall but length of back, depth of girth, etc that makes a meat goat. And rate of growth. That depends on the result of the breeding.
You could do what I did- take the offspring of the first boer doe and allow him to breed back before butchering. If you have enough does you should be pretty certain that there will be one buckling each year. Since all animals will be butchered, inbreeding is not so much of an issue and the bucklings are gone before they become real stinkers.
I liked that because there was no disbudding or castration. The bucklings had a short but happy life.

[LFRJ]

um... how exactly are you going to get the nigi buck to go over a boer doe though? I mean, considering the size differential, won't the OP need to provide some assist in that department? just wonderin....

[Goat Servant]

The only breeds we have ever raised is a few Nubians & the Boers.
Boers are very laid back & rarely are the does aggressive, unless it's feeding time when they can get kinda pushy with each other.

[Frosted Mini's]

Oh, I also keep full size alpines and Nigerians together, different sizes are not really a problem. And I have also bred Nigerian bucks to Alpine does, even a baby Nigerian buck over a full size alpine one time. They do need help of some kind, you can dig a hole, use a hill, etc.

[Muleman]

We are in very hilly terrain, so I have little worry about them being physically able to cover the does myself. It has been my experience with horses and smaller jacks that it has to be extreme circumstances for it to really create a problem.

[CedarGait]

I'm not sure how much you worm but if you get pure boer be prepared to worm like crazy. We have a very hard time keeping the pure ones eye lids pink. Boer crosses and our Spanish are lot easier to manage the worms.