Like many beginning goat ranchers, we started in the business with some Boer goats that someone was selling in a herd dispersal. We were very exicited by the size and build of these goats and expected to make gobs of money in no time. Then, by first hand experience, we began to learn that there is much more to goats that just size and appearance.
First our goats began to fall over dead, for no aparent reason. After very little research, we figured out that they were wormy. Eventhough we wanted healthy animals that needed minimal maintenance, worming goats a couple times a year didn't seem like that big a deal. WRONG!!! Just to keep them from being REALLY run down, we had to worm at least once a month.
Then we saw their mothering abilities. We had to pull more kids than we could count! But once we got them out, they would just walk off and leave them. Kidding season is supposed to end with you owning more goats than when it began. Not with Boers. We were extremely lucky if the few singles they did raise made up for the number of does and kids that died at birth.
After a couple years of this, we decided it was time to get new goats. We played around with lots of breeds until we settled on Spanish. The Spanish goats were hardy, healthy, and raised twins without help. The only issue we had was getting the kids tagged before they were too fast to catch. Over the next few years we sold off the Boers. To this day we are thrilled to have made the change! Spanish goats are truly the positive alternative to Boers.
Spanish goats are harder to find than they used to be. Have you tried Kiko or TexMaster?
Posted by: Karen in Snook | June 03, 2012 at 05:44 AM
We still have some Kiko/Spanish crosses that work well for us. The pure Kiko we raised did not do too good in our enviroment though.
Posted by: www.postoak.us | June 05, 2012 at 08:57 AM
I can't believe I solved my problem with the help of this data. Have a good day!
Posted by: Rebecca C. Oubre | September 13, 2012 at 05:53 AM
we purchased some f/b kikos from eastern canada..1 two yr old buck and a yearling buck along with 5 registered doelings ..this was 3 yrs ago...the buck was sick when he came off the trailer and died with 10 days , the breeder refunded our $1,000.00 that we paid for him ... the yearling got sick and died a year later after being doctored for a month..one of the doelings died within the year, got thin ( had wormed etc ) red cell etc....the other 4 have survived and are doing good....we live in an area where it was -39 degress plus wind chill hitting -53..back in the middle of Feb/2014,,,goats have to be tough too live here..we have approx 50 spanish/cashmere goats and approx 60 composites...as well as 150 boer goats...yes the spanish are overall better moms by far...we do have some good boer moms as well..in that cold weather alot of the spanish will be lying by themselves not huddled up with others we are brining in 10 spanish bucks to breed up the hair coats and mothering ablilities of our composite doelings...definitely tougher than the boers,,,,too many things to say... this is enough
Posted by: ken | April 03, 2014 at 05:16 PM