background preloader

Goat Breeds

Facebook Twitter

Goat Breeds. Kinder Goats: A Small Breed For Milk & Meat. I have had dairy goats for most of the last 20 years or so and have raised almost every standard breed. But when my grandmother, my youngest daughter, and I moved to a bare one-acre lot near Klamath Falls, Oregon, I decided it was time to look at the smaller breeds. We wouldn't have room for pasture, so all feed would have to be purchased. Smaller goats eat less than their full-sized counterparts, and so would cost less to keep. I would be able to keep more of them in a smaller area. Also, as I get older, the advantages of smaller animals to care for become more and more obvious. Pygmies were immediately ruled out because our primary need was milk and, while pygmies can be milked, they are really not dairy goats. I looked into Nigerian Dwarfs, but they are still somewhat in the exotic category and seem to be more expensive than the standard breeds.

There are enough breeders already, so that Kinders have their own classes in some goat shows making them fairly available almost anywhere. American Kiko Goat Association. American Boer Goat Association. Goats: Meat Goats. For years and years we raised Boer goats both as breeding stock and for meat. The breeding stock aspect was so much fun! Even though these goats were big, rugged, muscular animals, they were also gentle, sweet, and so personable! Boer does are also wonderful mothers; very protective of their young.

With all of the hundreds of Boer girls who called our farm home, I had three favorites: Patti, Nellie, and my sweet Button. Button was as cute as a button when she was born, thus the name. What makes a meat goat a meat goat? First of all, goats store fat very differently than most animals (goats, much like deer, do not marbleize their fat in their muscle (meat)). A few years into our Boer goat raising experience we found ourselves really low on goat meat (we were licensed to sell it); after checking around we found two Boer wethers for sale (a wether is a neutered male). We asked our processor, and he explained that these two goats had way more fat than muscle. Folks often.

Goats: Raising Angora Goats - Caprine Community. Although we haven’t had Angora goats for many years, they are still near and dear to my heart. Angoras were the very first goats we purchased 24 years ago! These ethereal creatures, although work intensive, are so much fun to have around. They are laid back, calm, quiet, gentle, and contrary to popular belief excellent mothers. They are very protective of their young! One very interesting thing we observed in our Angora goat herd was the use of “baby sitters”. When the moms would get ready to head out, you could hear lots of talking between them and their kids. In order to harvest the very best fleeces, though, you must keep after these goats as their hair grows.

Between shearing’s, we watched both boys and girls like a hawk making sure that their fleeces stayed clean. As for the boys, they need to occasionally be sat on their butts and the fleece around their pizzle trimmed close to their skin. Here is some really exciting news! And don’t forget, my books are always available!