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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Goats and Hay
  • Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:30:32 EDT



> Also, they are already bred to the Boer buck, so those offspring will
> show me if they are decent meat producers of inferior. I don't expect
> to keep any of them for milk.
>

The Boer/Alpine crosses will certainly be superior meat goats to any strict
dairy breed, although not nearly so good a meat producer as a Boer or the
like.

Chevon for a dairying homestead is incidental. In the normal course of
things there are going to be surplus goats and goats that have lived beyond
their
usefulness. The logical thing to do is eat them (or sell them, but with meat
prices what they are, one is most often ahead eating them). A strict dairy
goat (not necessarily a purebred and preferably not) is a poor meat animal
and I
doubt anyone in their right mind would raise them for that purpose alone.
They do not convert feed (or grass or browse) to meat efficiently, % of
usable
cuts for slaughter weight is low, and they never get all that big.

The quality of the meat is often very good, not always, though. Wethering
the billies helps some, but not all that much.

So crossing a Boer with a milk goat will give a better meat goat than a
strict dairy goat, it's still probably not going to prove to be a reliable
meat
source.

If you knew for a fact that you were going to eat the offspring, maybe. But
the prospects of raising up replacement does, or does for sale, IMO outweighs
the benefits of intentionally crossing the two types of goats.






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