Thank you God for all of the wonderful rains. We have turned out goats
that have never eaten Grass. What an adventure....they came right back
to the house. Oh well!
Last month we touched upon the selection process used here at the ranch.
Below are some of the guidelines used for fullblood boer goats.
We actually don't pay a whole lot of attention to the kids until they
are about sixty days old. At this point you should have a pretty good
idea if they must be culled (according to the breed standards) or
allowed to progress to the weaning state with supplemental fee. Bucks
with cull faults are castrated at this time and does with cull faults
are logged in as commercial only. These does will be used in our meat
program or turned into the pasture to later be used for recipient does
in our embryo transfer programs. Every year that we have culled this
way has brought us to the most delightful realization that the numbers
are decreasing in the feed lot and increasing in the stud section.
As soon as the kids are weaned (approximately 70 lbs.) we split them up.
All castrated bucks and does with cull faults are then moved to the
feed lot. Does, provided their teat structure is correct may be moved
to pastures where they will remain until they are used for recips. Bucks
and does meeting the breed standards are then separated and fed until
they are sold, bred or flushed. The does usually will run in a trap
about 150 acres and are fed once a day and are generally put up at
night. Bucks that remain here for commercial breeding are not separated
from those bucks to be retained for stud purposes until they are 12-14
months old. Then the commercial bucks are used in the pastures about
75-90 days out of the year. The rest of the time they stay at the house
on supplemental feed in a trap about 80 acres. Those that make it to
the stud level are kept on full feed until they are used in our flush
programs or sold as stud breeding stock. Some commercial bucks are
vasectomized to be used in our teaser buck program. We try to keep at
least eight under the age of three at all times.
Happy Trails
W.E. and Carolyn
We hope each of you had a very pleasant summer.
Happy Trails,
W.E. and Carolyn Whitehead
T4 Ranch
