meat goats??!??!?

so I have a nubian dairy goat and now we want to raise meat goats.....we had done some research and discovered there is a new breed of goat called a kinder goat that is a nubian pygmy cross....they are suppoesdly excellent milk goats and excellent meat goats....allegedly.....but I talked to a man at the farmers market yesterday that raises dairy and meat goats and he look at me like I was out of my mind.....he has boer crosses......so my question is do any of yall do meat goats....have you ever heard of a kinder goat and what is the prefered meat breed and is it even worth my time to cross any meat goat with a nubian>??@?? any advise would be great!

Nubian X meat goats have never looked great to me, in fact I was just looking at some of those crosses recently... But it depends on the animals in question. Kinders aren't just crosses, they're a breed in their own right now. The best traits are fairly cemented. They do look quite good overall. I guess you'd say the Boer is the 'preferred meat breed' just because it's well known but it falls short compared to some other breeds, when compared to them; but they're comparatively new or unknown so it's still considered the best meat goat, though it needs more care than these other breeds overall which can eat into the profit margin.

I wouldn't lay too much weight to any one person's dislike of any breed either, there are great and terrible examples of every breed under the sun. I'm somewhat prejudiced against certain breeds (White Leghorns, Belgian Blues, to name a few... The list goes on and on and covers every domestic species just about, lol...) but I know that my negative experiences with those breeds, or knowledge of the faults with those breeds, doesn't apply to every single family line of those breeds.

I personally like Kiko's and Savannas for meat/dual purpose goats. Interestingly American Savanna and Kiko breeders seem to think they're just a meat breed. American ones don't look like NZ or Aussie ones, though, so it's possible the dual purpose trait has been lost in American ones.

I used to like Boers but compared to either of the previous breeds I mentioned they don't look so great to me anymore. They're not as tough; but apparently Boers crossed with Kiko's make excellent meat animals. Here's some info on Kiko's VS Boers:
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Some more info and pics of Kikos, Savanas, etc:

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American Kikos and Savannas don't look like the Aussie ones I've seen, the quality is overall much poorer... Probably because they're still comparatively rare in the US, by the sounds of things. Still, great, tough, productive breeds, I want some in future.

Some Kinder info:

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This site has useful info for goat health, plus a little info on breeds as well:

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I was looking into Kinders etc a little while back... If you like any breeds, I reckon doing some in-depth research on studs and getting a good visual library of references on them is a good idea before purchasing, as well as the usual research one does, since you can get some pretty crappy representations of any breed from a pure-breeder if you're not prepared.

Best wishes.

WOW Chooks!!!! THANKS SO VERY MUCH!!!! lots of great info......this is why I love BYC!!!!!!!

Boers are the preferred meat goat here in MD where I live, and they are also the preferred breed in Central KS and Central OK when I lived in those areas. I know some producers do cross them out with other breeds, but they do not dilute the Boer genetics more than 50% (F1 cross). I am basing that statement on the entries at shows, and the sale lists from various local livestock auctions.

We are in our first year of raising Boers here, and we'll never have a "herd" of more than 12. Our main goal is to produce show prospects for our 3 children to raise each year for 4-H.

crazypoultrychx said:

WOW Chooks!!!! THANKS SO VERY MUCH!!!! lots of great info......this is why I love BYC!!!!!!!

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You're welcome. I wondered if you'd already seen some of those links, but seems otherwise. Best wishes.

Before the Boer came on the scene we would sometimes use a pygmy buck on a Nubian doe to make meat goats. The result is a nice chunky goat.

cassie said:

Before the Boer came on the scene we would sometimes use a pygmy buck on a Nubian doe to make meat goats. The result is a nice chunky goat.

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Hmm, interesting, was just looking at some useless individuals bred from such a cross. Might make good pets but no use as meat or milk goats. Can you clarify which sort of Nubian? Was it an Anglo Nubian or the true Nubian? Also, what sort of pygmy did you use? There's a few pygmy breeds. Was yours Nigerian?

Best wishes.

cassie said:

Before the Boer came on the scene we would sometimes use a pygmy buck on a Nubian doe to make meat goats. The result is a nice chunky goat.

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that is what we were thinking about doing.....and its called a kinder goat....a little smaller then a nubian but the meat is supposed to be better and the milk is supposed to be sweeter....

chooks4life said:

Hmm, interesting, was just looking at some useless individuals bred from such a cross. Might make good pets but no use as meat or milk goats. Can you clarify which sort of Nubian? Was it an Anglo Nubian or the true Nubian? Also, what sort of pygmy did you use? There's a few pygmy breeds. Was yours Nigerian?

Best wishes.

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I am talking about years ago. At that time we had never heard of Nigerians or kinders or any other mini goat. Nigerians are very different from the African Pygmy anyway. We would occasionally use an African Pygmy buck on doelings or mature does that for whatever reason we did not want to save doe kids out of. The resulting cross produced a nice chunky butcher kid. The Nubian Pygmy cross made a better butcher kid than the Pygmy crossed with the Swiss breeds. We did use the largest Pygmy bucks we could find though. This wasn't for a commercial meat goat enterprise. We had a dairy and meat kids were just a sideline.

There were a few lines of Nubians around at that time that totally lacked dairy character and I thought they could be used to develop a fine commercial meat goat. About then the Boers arrived and I abandoned the Nubian meat goat idea.

crazypoultrychx said:

that is what we were thinking about doing.....and its called a kinder goat....a little smaller then a nubian but the meat is supposed to be better and the milk is supposed to be sweeter....

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I think if you are wanting to put a goat in your freezer, a Kinder goat would be a great idea.

If you are wanting to raise meat goats to sell privately or at livestock auctions, then you might want to consider Boers. Boers will sell, at a good price, whereas Kinders may be a gamble when it comes to sale prices or actually getting them sold.