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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> 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.