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 Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:37 pm
So, I need a sire for next show season's kids. I'm going to be using a paint or traditional boer for stud service. The question is though, should i buy a buck, or not?
Advantages:
One time fee
On site
Detect heat in does much better
Health of sire is known to be absolutely good right before breeding
Disadvantages:
One or two sires for whole herd so a more limited gene pool
Large size (300+ when full grown at about 3yrs)
Bucky behavior
Smelliness
escapes and accedental breedings are very possible
New pen and shelter costs
Feed costs
So ur opinion?
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 2:11 pm
Unless you know alot about the stud you want to use, I would just get my own (then again, I keep fish, not livestock lol). Not only can you breed for apperance, you can also breed for temperment and health (as I'm sure you know).
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Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 5:40 pm
animegalash So, I need a sire for next show season's kids. I'm going to be using a paint or traditional boer for stud service. The question is though, should i buy a buck, or not? Advantages: One time fee On site Detect heat in does much better Health of sire is known to be absolutely good right before breeding Disadvantages: One or two sires for whole herd so a more limited gene pool Large size (300+ when full grown at about 3yrs) Bucky behavior Smelliness escapes and accedental breedings are very possible New pen and shelter costs Feed costs So ur opinion? well,I would take out the one time fee,since it catches up to you with feeding,and the shelter/pen,not to mention vet bills,and on site should go in there too,because even though you do have to pay gas for moving whoever is moved,its cheaper than a pen/shelter/feed/vet also,if he escapes,he might get injured,and that would be bad too,not to mention,he may breed with some does that are too young or something,personally,I would find a sire you like,and stick with him for a few years,or that company that owns him,that would be much cheaper and in the long run easier,so the only advantages are the heat thing,which you could get yourself a little teaser buck,like a pygmi,and he could do that job,but be too small to actually mate,or stick to what your doing,and the other is the health,which you could start scoping out a few weeks/months ahead of time,and checking up on him,that way you can see his health,and keep your does UTD on shots.thats just me comparing things....
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Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:51 pm
Yeah, our only thing is short term funds. And with so many does(4) it will get to be well over 1000 by the time they are all bred, and thats not including if we have to go back for a re-breeding, and gas money. If we buy a buck its about 100-200 to get a shelter built, and then about the same for fencing in a pen, but maybe cheaper if we get an electic thing going for our does soon, and then about 200 or so for the buck itself depending on where we buy it. So all in all the buck short term cost is about 600, and mabey a little more for leads and a harness ect. but still cheaper.
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Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 8:43 pm
animegalash Yeah, our only thing is short term funds. And with so many does(4) it will get to be well over 1000 by the time they are all bred, and thats not including if we have to go back for a re-breeding, and gas money. If we buy a buck its about 100-200 to get a shelter built, and then about the same for fencing in a pen, but maybe cheaper if we get an electic thing going for our does soon, and then about 200 or so for the buck itself depending on where we buy it. So all in all the buck short term cost is about 600, and mabey a little more for leads and a harness ect. but still cheaper. well,you could buy a buck,breed him,then sell him (then he could be housed with the does) but that would have to include selling,which I cant bring myself to do DX why cant you house him with the does? we housed our ram with our ewes....
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Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:23 am
I went through this years ago when I was still activly breeding goats. I decided not to get my own buck for a number of reasons, but I may be able to help.
Reasons I didn't.
1. I like a wide genetic base. For me to achieve that while owning my own buck I would need to own several to keep from back breeding, or I would need to sell off all kids each year and purchase new does to replace older breeding does.
2. Space. I really didn't have the space to house a buck. I didn't have the fencing either.
3. I had a bucky wether. I had a wether we castrated late who acted like a buck his whole life. He was a great heat indicator that I could leave with my does year round. He was also cheeper to feed and house then a buck.
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Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:30 am
Cowgirl-with-heart so the only advantages are the heat thing,which you could get yourself a little teaser buck,like a pygmi,and he could do that job,but be too small to actually mate, I need to comment on this. My prefered breed is Kinders. They are a cross between a Nubian doe, link for pic only, and a Pigmy buck, once again link for pic only. While it was an intentional breeding the buck needs no help in mounting the doe, who is twice his height. So keeping a Pygmy buck with the does would really only result in Boer/Pygmy crosses. Sheep can be kept with the ram because ewes only come into heat twice a year. Goat does come into season every month until they breed. They can rebreed 1 month after delivering. Keeping them together would result in kids being born year round, and would end up in a loss of kids born late in the year or too early.
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Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:14 pm
Shearaha Cowgirl-with-heart so the only advantages are the heat thing,which you could get yourself a little teaser buck,like a pygmi,and he could do that job,but be too small to actually mate, I need to comment on this. My prefered breed is Kinders. They are a cross between a Nubian doe, link for pic only, and a Pigmy buck, once again link for pic only. While it was an intentional breeding the buck needs no help in mounting the doe, who is twice his height. So keeping a Pygmy buck with the does would really only result in Boer/Pygmy crosses. Sheep can be kept with the ram because ewes only come into heat twice a year. Goat does come into season every month until they breed. They can rebreed 1 month after delivering. Keeping them together would result in kids being born year round, and would end up in a loss of kids born late in the year or too early. oh lol,well,my other thought would be a pygmi who had been withered with the testicles up in his body,it makes them sterile,because its too hot for sperm to grow,but they are still bucks (at least thats how it is with sheep,its something to look into,cause it usually happens with bulls as well) and I didnt know that the does went into heat every month,it would be very unhealthy for the does to breed that often....
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Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 5:39 pm
Yeah, and i dont want to sell the buck back either, unless its absolutely necessary. If we do get a buck though, there is also the issue of a companion for him too. I could get two bucks, or put my wether Jack with him, But i doubt Jack will be too happy about it, cause he's a spoiled brat who loves his girls. mrgreen
Then I could also get another wether as a companion, but then thats basically in the long run wasted feed. neutral
Also its not necessarily every month... Its every month during the rut, except in some breeds which are year round breeders. If i recall correctly boers are.
And I wonder what a Pygoer would look like... eek Hmmm. I should totally get a Lamancha buck! and make BoManchas! XD Jk Jk that would probably look akward lol
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Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 3:18 am
animegalash Yeah, and i dont want to sell the buck back either, unless its absolutely necessary. If we do get a buck though, there is also the issue of a companion for him too. I could get two bucks, or put my wether Jack with him, But i doubt Jack will be too happy about it, cause he's a spoiled brat who loves his girls. mrgreen Then I could also get another wether as a companion, but then thats basically in the long run wasted feed. neutral Also its not necessarily every month... Its every month during the rut, except in some breeds which are year round breeders. If i recall correctly boers are. And I wonder what a Pygoer would look like... eek Hmmm. I should totally get a Lamancha buck! and make BoManchas! XD Jk Jk that would probably look akward lol For a companion your best bet would be another buck or a very dominant wether. Even then I'd keep them in abutting pens, but not together. Bucks can get very territorial when then can smell the ladies I'm fairly sure that Boers are year round breeders. I know Pygmys are, and that's where my Kinder's got it. I've seen some very nice Boer/LaMancha crosses. They tend to be a bit taller and leaner then Boers, but more heavily muscled then LaManchas. And they have the cutest ears 4laugh
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Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:36 pm
Shearaha animegalash Yeah, and i dont want to sell the buck back either, unless its absolutely necessary. If we do get a buck though, there is also the issue of a companion for him too. I could get two bucks, or put my wether Jack with him, But i doubt Jack will be too happy about it, cause he's a spoiled brat who loves his girls. mrgreen Then I could also get another wether as a companion, but then thats basically in the long run wasted feed. neutral Also its not necessarily every month... Its every month during the rut, except in some breeds which are year round breeders. If i recall correctly boers are. And I wonder what a Pygoer would look like... eek Hmmm. I should totally get a Lamancha buck! and make BoManchas! XD Jk Jk that would probably look akward lol For a companion your best bet would be another buck or a very dominant wether. Even then I'd keep them in abutting pens, but not together. Bucks can get very territorial when then can smell the ladies I'm fairly sure that Boers are year round breeders. I know Pygmys are, and that's where my Kinder's got it. I've seen some very nice Boer/LaMancha crosses. They tend to be a bit taller and leaner then Boers, but more heavily muscled then LaManchas. And they have the cutest ears 4laugh OMG! I wanna see! 4laugh 4laugh Hmmm, I can imagine a buck would get pretty lonely by himself? And i've never heard of anyone saying they keep thier bucks alone or penned seperate from other bucks... neutral I guess its just a preference thing?
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 5:14 am
animegalash Shearaha animegalash Yeah, and i dont want to sell the buck back either, unless its absolutely necessary. If we do get a buck though, there is also the issue of a companion for him too. I could get two bucks, or put my wether Jack with him, But i doubt Jack will be too happy about it, cause he's a spoiled brat who loves his girls. mrgreen Then I could also get another wether as a companion, but then thats basically in the long run wasted feed. neutral Also its not necessarily every month... Its every month during the rut, except in some breeds which are year round breeders. If i recall correctly boers are. And I wonder what a Pygoer would look like... eek Hmmm. I should totally get a Lamancha buck! and make BoManchas! XD Jk Jk that would probably look akward lol For a companion your best bet would be another buck or a very dominant wether. Even then I'd keep them in abutting pens, but not together. Bucks can get very territorial when then can smell the ladies I'm fairly sure that Boers are year round breeders. I know Pygmys are, and that's where my Kinder's got it. I've seen some very nice Boer/LaMancha crosses. They tend to be a bit taller and leaner then Boers, but more heavily muscled then LaManchas. And they have the cutest ears 4laugh OMG! I wanna see! 4laugh 4laugh Hmmm, I can imagine a buck would get pretty lonely by himself? And i've never heard of anyone saying they keep thier bucks alone or penned seperate from other bucks... neutral I guess its just a preference thing? Some people do keep them together, but all the ones I've seen housed that way just fight all the time. They're constantly vying for dominance once they've bred. The best set up I've seen is one that works like a kennel. Each buck has their own small pasture, about 8x8 with a 4x8 house box that can be closed up entirely. All one right next to the other. Of course they had about a dozen bucks, but it was really nice. You could just go right down the row giving hay and feed and it was also really easy to do a basic visual health check as you walked past.
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Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2010 6:37 pm
Shearaha animegalash Shearaha animegalash Yeah, and i dont want to sell the buck back either, unless its absolutely necessary. If we do get a buck though, there is also the issue of a companion for him too. I could get two bucks, or put my wether Jack with him, But i doubt Jack will be too happy about it, cause he's a spoiled brat who loves his girls. mrgreen Then I could also get another wether as a companion, but then thats basically in the long run wasted feed. neutral Also its not necessarily every month... Its every month during the rut, except in some breeds which are year round breeders. If i recall correctly boers are. And I wonder what a Pygoer would look like... eek Hmmm. I should totally get a Lamancha buck! and make BoManchas! XD Jk Jk that would probably look akward lol For a companion your best bet would be another buck or a very dominant wether. Even then I'd keep them in abutting pens, but not together. Bucks can get very territorial when then can smell the ladies I'm fairly sure that Boers are year round breeders. I know Pygmys are, and that's where my Kinder's got it. I've seen some very nice Boer/LaMancha crosses. They tend to be a bit taller and leaner then Boers, but more heavily muscled then LaManchas. And they have the cutest ears 4laugh OMG! I wanna see! 4laugh 4laugh Hmmm, I can imagine a buck would get pretty lonely by himself? And i've never heard of anyone saying they keep thier bucks alone or penned seperate from other bucks... neutral I guess its just a preference thing? Some people do keep them together, but all the ones I've seen housed that way just fight all the time. They're constantly vying for dominance once they've bred. The best set up I've seen is one that works like a kennel. Each buck has their own small pasture, about 8x8 with a 4x8 house box that can be closed up entirely. All one right next to the other. Of course they had about a dozen bucks, but it was really nice. You could just go right down the row giving hay and feed and it was also really easy to do a basic visual health check as you walked past. Oh Wow! Thats a neat idea! Though i can imagine it'd get pretty expensive. Especially with that may houses, and gates. O.o I would never be able to afford it, or at least not any time soon.
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Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:05 pm
animegalash Oh Wow! Thats a neat idea! Though i can imagine it'd get pretty expensive. Especially with that may houses, and gates. O.o I would never be able to afford it, or at least not any time soon. Well it wan't individual houses. It was more like a long building that had the pens coming off the one side. The interior pens could be opened between each other so that Bucks who were good with eachother could be housed together, but also easily seperated if they started to fight too much. And the pens wern't just on the one side, it was down both sides of the barn and the inside had a nice wide ally that they kept food in and a mow for hay. I so want to build that barn if I ever get to have a barn again.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:48 pm
Oh, i see. It makes me want a barn. D: My stock just have sheds for housing. A barn would solve so many of or problems.
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