Price for goats

[TKehl]

I'll second that with the Boers.  I bet they are great in dry rocky climates.  They struggle with worms in our hot humid climate unless you medicate heavily or don't graze at all.    Had more hoof problems with the Boers as well.  (I've heard much of this is due to breeding for show animals rather than production since they arrived in the US.)

I've been moving mostly toward the Spanish goats that semi-naturalized here, but have mixes with Boer, Kiko, Fainter, even a bit of dairy in some.  Started with 60 and culled down to the best.  Currently down to 12 and their offspring, but they are VERY low maintenance.  No worming for 4 years.  They only ate half a bale of hay over the winter and foraged the rest.  Just weren't interested in hay.  I give them minerals and that's about it. 

Even so, they gave me 15 babies this spring and knocked the snot out of the multiflora rose bushes that were starting to take over!  8) 

I will say that even with the culling, after 4 years, our goats paid for themselves, but have not yet paid for the extra fencing.

[Grizzly]

Like Red said earlier on this thread, any search for goat and most of what you find is a certain forum member of lofty reputation who hides behind curtains to see this thread or I see him running like a dog on other threads and then he suddenly comes up with fantastic projects. But I have some other questions for those familiar with raising goats.

I'd like to see some hard info on the cost of raising goats in a semi-confinement system. I've inquired with our local goat breeders but like usual thought I might get more realistic info here. We have access to hay/feed and markets aren't too far away (by our standards) but what is the real cost of raising a decent commercial kid from dominantly Boer goats? I have access to all the local selling info so I can build the revenue side of my spreadsheet I just need good info to make the expense side. Any help anyone?

[TKehl]

Can't help with numbers for confinement.  Mine are 99% foragers.  (Fed 1/2 a bale of hay total to my dozen does last winter.) 

What you describe would be similar to how a lot of dairy goat operations run. 

Probably on the right track with Boers.  The other option would be dairy males which can be had dirt cheap as bottle babies and would finish fine if your feed cost is low enough.  Just more care.

Do some i-net searches for Eric Finch's operation in Iowa.  May point the right direction for what you are wanting.

It may be more profitable to run dairy goats with males raised for meat as a sideline...  Otherwise dairy males wouldn't be so cheap... perhaps...

[florida]

When my buddy was raising goats it was almost always Indian doctors in Mercedes Benzes that bought them. They would drive out to the barn, put on overalls and boots then lay plastic on the ground. Once that was done they cut the goats throats over the plastic and caught the blood in a bucket. Then they skinned it out, cut it up, picked up everything, changed clothes and drove off. They never let us assist in any way.