Boer goats: description, breeding, feeding and interesting facts

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The breed of the Boer goat belongs to meat artiodactyls. Although many farmers breed it for milk. This is due to the fact that goat meat is considered tough, which is why it is not very popular. However, the product from the Boer breed tastes like veal, for which it is highly valued by real gourmets.

Origin of the breed

Since ancient times, goat breeding has been practiced in Africa. The breeding of artiodactyls occupied a leading place among animal husbandry. This is due to the peculiarity of goats to adapt to any conditions, better than others to absorb roughage, high resistance to various diseases.

When the Dutch settlers came to South Africa, they decided to transform the animals by creating a new breed through planned selection. For this, goat breeds were imported from India and European countries. By interbreeding, a new species was obtained. this is a breed of Boer goat.

High productivity contributed to the rapid spread of the species throughoutthe world. Now it is grown in the USA, South Africa, New Zealand and in other countries of the world. There are few Boer goats in Russia.

Features

Boer goat breed has a number of distinctive features. It is characterized by a unique color, unusual appearance. Purebreds are usually white with a brown head or completely brown. Other color variations are allowed only in impurities.

According to the description, the Boer goat breed differs from others in its massiveness, large head with an unusual convex skull shape and a pronounced Roman nose. Horns of medium length. In goats, they are twisted in the shape of a sickle. Crossbreeds may have horns of various shapes.

The breed is characterized by the following:

1. Big weight. Goats can weigh 110-150 kg. Goat weight - from 80 kg.
2. The breed has sufficient milk production - up to 150 liters per year with a lactation period of up to 5 months.
3. Newborn kids weigh about 5 kilograms. They quickly add weight, gaining up to 500 grams or more per day.
4. Goats are meat breeds with a slaughter yield of 60%.

A characteristic feature of the species are long hanging ears, short hair.

Meat Boer goats are large animals that look like Nubian animals. But the studied udder may have four teats, but two lobes. This fact is valid only in this breed of goats.

Animals are characterized by a high growth rate. Early maturation of young animals allows for slaughter as early as 6 months with a live weight of 50 kg or more.

How to grow a herd

According to the description, the breeding of the Boer goat breed is carried out with year-round grazing at temperatures above minus 10 °. Deep snow cover has a detrimental effect on animals, so they are not able to get food from under the snow. Although their winter diet is mainly shrubs, the lack of nutrients negatively affects the fattening qualities.

Boer breed is responsive to fattening. For greater fatness, animals are kept without grazing. However, this option increases the proportion of adipose tissue, but the muscle mass does not change.

To get tender meat, farmers recommend combining walking with fattening with concentrated feed. It is rational to use inexpensive waste, such as cake, meal, barnu.

Feature of the breeding of the Boer goat is the choice of the manufacturer. The resulting offspring depends on the quality of the goat. Even from goats of average fatness, you can get productive young animals that will surpass their parents in weight and growth rate. Such animals are capable of gaining about 35-40 kg of live weight by three months. If the manufacturer is not of high quality, then by this age young goats can have no more than 15 kg of weight.

To improve the efficiency of raising goats, compacted lambing is practiced. To do this, they try to get three kids at 2 years old from one uterus.

In the first pregnancy, young females bring one goat, but in the next - from two kids. Young females are ready to mate at 5 months, but experienced farmers,those who breed Boer goats recommend waiting another 1-2 months for the young to get a little stronger and gain strength for bearing offspring.

Mixes

According to reviews and descriptions, the Boer goat breed can be improved by crossing it with other artiodactyl species. Good results are obtained by crossing with the following species:

• Spanish;
• Nubian;
• angora;
• kiko.

Good results are obtained when crossing Boer and Jamnapar goats.

Getting milk

Some farmers use goats not only for excellent meat, but also for milk. For this purpose, early weaning of kids is carried out, while milking the animal. Young animals are fed with goat milk substitutes or through feeders. This method allows not only to obtain dairy products, but also to compact lambing.

Producers

The advantages and disadvantages of Boer goats determine the possibilities of their breeding. Most often, interbreeding is carried out by crossing Boer goats with beef breeds. Purebred crossbreeding is rarely practiced, as it is expensive. The price of the Boer goat breed reaches 100,000 rubles and more. For this amount, you can buy about ten heads of meat breed goats, which will be more profitable for the farmer.

When breeding, it is considered purposeful to gradually increase the proportion of Boer blood in the resulting animals. Thus, farmers manage to get a stable, highly productivecrossbreed. This model of goat breeding is used in many countries of the world where there is no developed dairy goat breeding.

Dignity

Boer breed has a number of advantages. She is characterized by:

• high temperature resistant;
• high quality meat;
• unpretentious diet;
• calm nature;
• excellent endurance and easy adaptability to the conditions of detention;
• high fecundity of goats;
• high performance males.

Flaws

Despite its advantages, goats of the breed have a lot of disadvantages. They are characterized by low adaptation to severe cold and frost. Also, animals are able to destroy all the vegetation that they find within reach. To get high quality meat, you need to keep purebred animals without impurities, and they are not cheap.

Maintenance, care

The Boer goat breed has a calm disposition, which is why the animals graze perfectly with other representatives of artiodactyls. They get along well with cows, horses, sheep. Animals are unpretentious in food and can quickly build up mass even with poor nutrition. However, leaves, young shoots, hedges, shrubs are most preferable for them.

Boer goats are suitable for any conditions of detention, the main thing is to provide them with access to clean water.

In winter, the diet should consist of hay, food waste, concentrated feed, cake, root crops. Goats are content with any food, so they are selected so that the costs are minimal.

In the warm season, goats eat green fodder in pastures. In addition, they are given various additional food. When adding new feeds, you can choose exactly the fattening scheme that will help you get the maximum amount of production.

For the Boer breed, it is important to take into account the temperature regime of keeping in winter - it should not fall below +5 degrees. In cold winters, the stall is heated.

Be sure to pay attention to gender. It can be covered with straw or sawdust. This is to keep the animals warm.

Goats are afraid of drafts, so ventilation is provided in the room. It will eliminate the need to once again open the doors for ventilation and keep the humidity level at an optimal level - 60-80%.

Feeders are installed along the walls. A high fence is built around the perimeter with a hole for the head wide enough for the animals to stick their heads through.

Boer breed differs from others in its high resistance to various diseases. But even excellent immunity does not guarantee that animals will not get sick when kept in rooms with a high level of humidity. The weak point of goats is the limbs. Boer representatives have their hooves trimmed. This procedure is carried out twice a year - before winter and in spring, before the goats go to pasture.

In the summer, goats are kept under a canopy. It protects them from the rain, the scorching sun. Feeders and drinkers are also equipped there.

Sin order to increase immunity, animals are vaccinated.

Breeding in Russia

On the territory of the Russian Federation, goat meat is not very popular. Because of this, it is unprofitable to breed. Although recently more and more restaurants are starting to buy products of the Boer breed.

Diseases

Boer goats are virtually immune to most artiodactyl pathologies. However, with depressed immunity, parasitic diseases can occur, as well as paramphistomatosis, fascioliasis, eurytrematosis, hastileosiosis, dicroceliasis.

Young animals usually suffer from parasites. To reduce the risk of disease, timely treatment of worms is carried out, all livestock are vaccinated.

Conclusion

Boer goat breed is profitable to breed from an economic point of view. She is able to produce a large amount of tender meat. Currently, goat breeds are bred mainly in the south of Russia, as it is too cold in other regions, and the breed adapts to the cold for a long time.