renting a goat herd. (update)

[pardygwyn]

7 Boers would be great! They'll clear things out in no time, and if they're still young enough or registered, you can turn around and sell the extras for meat or breeding. All of the Boers I've ever met have also been naturally sweet and mellow compared to the average milk goat... I say go for it! Not sure whether the 5' panels will keep them in, though. Boers can be BIG!

But as I said, they're mellow, too. Probably the best thing to do is try the panels out and see what the goats do. Good luck!

 

[petchickenlover]

Want my two goats?

 

[jason_mazzy]

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it ur close I'll take em!

 

[carolinagirl58]

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LITTLE goats??? Boers are hugh thick meaty goats....nothing small about them. They may be shorter than dairy goats but they can grow to nearly 250 pounds pretty easily. I raised boer goats for years. Like all goats, they can ruin your fences quite easily. I suggest a hot wire on top to keep them from jumping over and another hot wire inside around 15" up from the bottom to protect your fences. Goats LOVE to rub on fences and will destroy them. They also like to stick their heads through to get what is on the other side and will get their horns hung up.

 

[laughingdog]

should i worry about my not held up well chainlink, with my seeming ND?

 

[carolinagirl58]

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worry? Probably not, but do keep an eye on it. Even if he can't get out, a poorly held up fence could make it easy for dogs to get in. And that would be bad.

 

[laughingdog]

oh i dont worry about the neighbor dogs anymore, as once or twice they got in or to close and game hens attacked without mercy, and since had goat, my dogs will tear apart anything that tries to attack it. kinda feel bad for the neighbor dogs though, as the first couple times my dogs just chased and nipped and ran off to next county seeming, but last time few times they got tired of chasing them off and actually ran down and beat up badly, and since then, the neighborhood dogs give a wide birth to my goat if out, even shaking if my dogs are no were to be seen. the goat of course has noticed this also, and found it fun to chase one now. i do worry about something or one sneaking in and taking chickens or goat though still, so thanks, and wondering how to enforce fence, or if it would just be funny to install hot wire and not tell neighbors.

 

[petchickenlover]

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I'm in WA.

I think the little ones might be sad if i got rid of the older two

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

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LITTLE goats??? Boers are hugh thick meaty goats....nothing small about them. They may be shorter than dairy goats but they can grow to nearly 250 pounds pretty easily. I raised boer goats for years. Like all goats, they can ruin your fences quite easily. I suggest a hot wire on top to keep them from jumping over and another hot wire inside around 15" up from the bottom to protect your fences. Goats LOVE to rub on fences and will destroy them. They also like to stick their heads through to get what is on the other side and will get their horns hung up.

The few I've worked with around here have been on the smaller size. About medium size I'd say. They tend to be very short and stocky around here although I have seen a couple very large bucks and whethers. I'm used to alpines, toggs, sanaans, and nubians, but even the size of those really depends upon the breeders they come from. At nubian shows there is a HUGE variation on size depending on who breeds them. Same with the boers. The backyard pet breeders usually have the smaller goats, which is what a lot of people here buy them for. There's just something about brown and white goats in a field that people like! The meat breeders breed the huge, blocky, heavy boers, but they don't usually last long enough before slaughter to reach their full size!

 

[carolinagirl58]

The smaller boers you see all over the place are probably not full blooded boer but are percentage boer (boer mixes). That's why they are smaller. Well, that and poor breeding. Well bred boers are anything but small. They can be shorter than dairy goats, but much heavier. The typical boer coloration....the brown head and white body....is a very powerful genetic trait though so it passes on through many generations even when the percentage of boer in the goat is very low. There is a guy near me that buys whatever goats go through the auction cheap. I bet 80% of the goats in his fields have brown heads. But they are mostly briar goat or dairy goat crosses so they don't have the nice thick boer bodies.