Prices of Boer goats.

[Bunni]

Can you buy a decent Boer goat for $150.00 to $250.00 ish? I am including crosses too. The cheapest does we are seeing is $400.00 around here but you can't buy many at that price. We are looking mostly for meat but maybe show down the road. we are in eastern NC. Lynn

[Tango]

It might depend on location. In Florida you can find a decent % Boer doeling for $150 but I've purchased mine all for much less with some investment of time and patience. I purchased my 50% Boer, Napster, for $75 and she was pregnant by a fb, so my little doeling Kazaa is 75% and was a freebie I found my buck, Cry Baby, 50% Boer/ 50% Nubian for $50. His breeder wanted to sell him for pet stock but hadn't wethered or disbudded him and she couldn't find a home at the price she was asking. At the time I was looking for a meat goat and she dropped his price to $50- I got attached and he's bred all my does this year. My last boer is 75% and I got her for $50. I've never been to an auction- these are breeder prices and all of my stock is fine. Check feed store bulletin boards and your state's agricultural market magazine.
I should add that these are not show prices. The moment you say "show," you'll be looking at a whole different range of prices which will be more suitable for potential show stock. You might be able to start with meat stock and then make additional purchases later, just a thought.

[stellie]

Originally Posted by Bunni

Can you buy a decent Boer goat for $150.00 to $250.00 ish? I am including crosses too. The cheapest does we are seeing is $400.00 around here but you can't buy many at that price. We are looking mostly for meat but maybe show down the road. we are in eastern NC. Lynn

I highly recommend just going to a livestock auction and see if there are animals you like and would consider placing into your flock. Markets, depending on where you are and who happens to be at the auction at the time, can fluctuate anywhere between $20/head up to $300-$500/head. Again, it all depends on where you are and who is there at the time... and, ultimately, how much someone wants that animal.

(And to be perfectly honest, boers aren't all they're made out to be -- we have a few crosses and a lot of little mutt-goats running about. 95% of the time, our mutt-does throw the best kids as far as conformation, weight gain, over-all leaness and... well, the big factor -- they don't need feed pumped to them to keep their condition!)

Through the American Boer Goat Association, one can purchase one full-blooded, registered boer buck or American boer buck and breed whatever they like and be able to register the offspring as an American Boer. Then you get into the fractions.

http://www.abga.org/registration_rules2002-11.htm

Eastern NC? How close are you to Virginia? If you're anywhere near Amelia County, I highly recommend going to the boer goat/ goat&sheep sale -- I believe it has past this year, thinking its always in October. We've gotten quality animals from there and haven't regretted a thing

[TexCountryWoman]

I paid $110. for my pedigreed Fullblood Boer buckling from someone off the goat index forum. He is well built, tame and from Suma and Mojo Majic lines. I was given a Nubian doe and her 50% Boer doeling for free from another person who lives near me. The half Boer doeling is beautiful and correctly marked for a Boer. So I have a nice "start up" pair for a total of $110. The offspring will actually be 75%, but I will only be able to register them as 50%. But that's fine. I am a great believer in rumen developement and feeding as little concentrates as possible. These Boers get far less grain than my dairy goats and stay fat as butterballs on coastal hay and a cup and a half of 14-16 percent grain mix once daily. I keep cutting back their grain and they keep getting fat even though they are both under a year old. I am quite pleased at how well they maintain themselves. These are my first Boers and I am "learning" on them. They are for meat, not show, but I feel I got a good deal on the buckling. My cull LaManchas (those whose udders aren't what I deem adequate to warrant further breeding as a dairy animal), will be intergrated into the Boer herd. This is my grand plan anyway. Boer goats are quite prevalent down here and I imagine can be found at any price depending on where you go and who you talk to. If you do get one from a sale barn (I don't buy anything, cattle or goats, at sale barns) just remember to quarantine it and be careful of what you bring home. But come to thing of it, I quarantine goats from other farms too. I have a special pen away from my other goats that I keep any new arrival in for at least two weeks or more. Good luck getting your goat!

[Honeybee]

I've seen them advertised recently for 67.5 cents a lb. to $1 a lb. for meat kids and as high as $600 for proven purebred, registered breeding stock and everywhere in between. Just recently a lady I know sold a purebred buckling (8 months old) for $100.

I personally wouldn't go through a livestock auction for breeding stock. You don't know anything about them, diseases or illnesses within the herd they are coming from. They are most likely being sold as meat or have been culled from the herd for some other reason. Then there's what they might pick up in the sale barn itself. A 4-H auction or something along those lines I would be more comfortable with myself. But that's just my .02

I've purchased a diseased goat once. It was a hard way to learn and hopefully the last time I ever make that mistake. All the goats I have now are from closed tested herds and that peace of mind is worth a fortune to me after what I went through having a goat with CL.

I have 5 - % Boers, 2 of the does are registered and I didn't pay over $100 for any of them so good deals are out there if you look long enough.

There are a few Boer goat lists and livestock sale lists at yahoo. You might find someone local with good prices there.

Good luck - let us know how it goes