I recently saw an ad for Spanish does bred to a Boer for $60 each and also Spanish/Boer cross kids. This seems very reasonable, but meat type goats don't seemm to be selling well in my area. OTOH, dairy types are expensive! We've been wanting a goat for weed patrol, companionship (I like em), and maybe a small amount of milk. There are only 2 people in our household, so we don't need or want tons of milk. Assuming these goats are disease free, do you think this is a bargain, how big are these goats, & how much milk might on of these Spanish ladies give? I know the kids will be good for eating if we choose to do so.

-- elle (eagle-quest@juno.com), February 09, 2001

Answers

That seems suspiciously cheap to me. My inclination would be to get what is selling well so that I could have a market for the extra kids. The cheap goat and and the higher quality one will both eat about as much feed and take as much work, I would rather feed something beautiful that I enjoy seeing everyday and that will give a better return in quality of kids, performance, and being disease free.

The spanish goats I've seen are about the same size as a dairy goat. As far as being companionable, many of them haven't been worked with at all since they are meat goats. You could probably tame it down, though. Vicki might know more about how much milk they'll give.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 10, 2001.

We run spanish/ boer cross nannies but do not milk them. We have 20 nannies at the present and 60 dollars for a nannie bred to a regestered buck is a very good buy. Stud for a regestered Boer starts at 200$$ in our area, Santa Fe Texas. If the buck has papers and the doe dropa a nother doe it can be registered as a persentage doe. The Boer could be milked but u will have a good time until they get trained..like breaking a horse to ride...lots of jumping LOL. Some of our spanish/crosses have a good udder and some dont, we have had to bottle feed some babys due to a lack of mothers milk. For a good brush goat a 10 rating would be fair as a milker a 3 or less in my opinion. God Bless and have a GREAT Day

-- Charles steen (xbeeman412@aol.com), February 10, 2001.

Hi elle, my only experience with Spanish goats was in Haiti, where they run all over. I think it is highly unlikely you would get any household milk from them, but they sure know how to eat brush. I personally would look around and find a nice dairy herd and buy a goat from them. I am not sure what you mean by expensive when you talk about dairy types. A well cared for dairy doe will give you your money back with the first nice doe kid you sell. Just a thought.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 10, 2001.

elle,My experience with Spanish nannies was not good, they were wild as a March hare and you could barely catch them much less milk them and they are not very good a milking very much for very long time(a lot of very's in that statement) I would get a couple of doe kids and raise them so they are friendly and easy to handle. Grade kids are good to start with so if you make any major mistakes it will not be a great loss. I would get them from a "goat" person cause we love to give advice and can help you find the right buck to breed them to and If you don't want a lot of milk will make it even easier ro find one. Please remember these animals are livestock so need their own shelter, fenced pasture, feeder, and waterer. You will not like them in your yard, on your porch, or on top of your car.

-- karen (kansasgoats@iwon.com), February 10, 2001.

With a boer behind every tree in this part of Texas, course thats kind of like saying anything with a flop to its ear years back was a Nubian :) and with Spanish goat, now meaning any kind of unknown brush goat, 60$ here north of Houston is actually a little steep! Now a true Spanish doe bred to a really nice truly fullblood Boer, for 60$ is a steal! Any goat will eat brush, they actually are browsers and their certainly isn't one breed of goat that eats more browse than another. There are horrible Nubians that milk a couple of pints a day, and I am sure their are spanish does with great milk supplies. Without knowing anything about the parents of these goats, did the mom have a good milk supply? It is just guessing. And truly the hardest way to get into goats. Horned, wild, diseased with no medical history........think about it this way, for 40$ more per goat you could buy some nice kids from a diary or reputable goat farm, you could raise them as their mom, disbud them, and if the 100$ doesn't come with registration papers you can still record them as grades. Stick with something with a resale, so you have at least some income from selling kids. If you find the right person, you could even have an unrelated buckling thrown in for free! Remember that you will on top of the price of the stock have to bottle feed for 12 weeks, so just like any other stock, nothing is really free. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 10, 2001.

Thanks for all the info. I decided against buying one of these bargain goats, mostly because I found the distance was way to far to drive. I recently found an affordable Nubian and will be bringing her home later this week! I will post on that under a new heading if anyone is interested. Thanks again!

-- elle (eagle-quest@juno.com), February 12, 2001.

1. The price is great for any where that I have seen yet. 2. Spanish (that I have seen) are mostly small goats but very meaty. A Boer is a much larger goat (also very meaty), & a cross of the two will bring the Spanish up in size. 3. I don't think you will get much if any extra milk from MOST meat breeds of goats. However, there are a couple of alturnatives that are still a meat breed. You could buy the Spanish/Boer crosses you were looking at & breed to a buck of these other goat breeds. The kids will milk better, & you could sell or butcher the rest.

The alturnative goats I mentioned before are Kiko, an Australian breed. They took a feral (wild) goat, crossed to large dairy males, then crossed the offspring back to large dairy males. Then selected for the traits they wanted (ie. twining, growth rate, constitution). I haven't tried them yet, but it seems to me that a goat bred to be 3/4 dairy, should be able to get some milk from them, however, they sure are meaty.

Kinder goats are a nubian/pigmy first cross (thats 50/50). They are a moderate size milking breed that dress out very well (comparible to meat breeds for the size). They are a dual purpose breed, & are held to such standards (ie. they are tested under the same guidelines as full size dairy goats, & are very desirable as a meat animal as they grow fast, put on weight well, & dress out at favorable weights (60 to 80 percent depenting on age of slaughter).

Myotonic (fainting) goats, have a condition that make them appear to faint, but their muscles just stiffen up & they fall over. It's this condition that make this breed so meaty. The Ok state university site (www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds) mentioned they are good milkers. It also sayes the fainting gene is recessive, & that crosses (Boer most popular) don't show this fainting trait. There is one place that breeds what they call Tennessee Meat Goats (www.tennesseemeatgoats.com) that are deffinatly not the same as other fainting goats. This place has tried to breed the flightyness out, breed to a larger size, yet keep the muscleing. To say the least, I was impressed with what I saw on their web site.

If you want a small goat, a pigmy might also be your answer. Some say they milk ok for a small familey goat & they dress out decent.

I hope this gives you a few more choices without limiting you to dairy breeds.

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jwlewis@indy.net), February 14, 2001.