# KIKO vs BOER



## pygmybabies

Opionions....thoughts...comments....pros....cons??????????????

Saw a video at 
www.kikogoats.com and showed it to hubby, now he (my 7 limit husband) is very interested in them. I just got one boer and 2 weeks ago and she is only 4/5 months old, so it will be a while before we get any meat babies. But wondering about these kikos instead or in addition to boers?


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## KSALguy

Boer have a wider thicker frame in general, not saying Kiko is not a good meat goat, it is actually a pretty good one just put togather differint and developed under differint conditions, kiko is a more narrow range type goat, some lines have been bred to a more "beefy" structure but not all, they were bred to produce off of basically a Minimalist stand point and developed in a wet mountanis region, the Boer was developed in a more airid flat farming region with more input from farmers, the boer is always going to be the Angus of the meat goat world but the Kiko also has its place, 
Kiko does are the NewZealand equivalent of our south west Spanish type goats, they do everything on their own, they dont need your help to raise their kids, you just put them out on range and collect the kid crop when needed basically, if you put a Boer buck over Kiko does you get a great cross, 
boer did very well for me out in kansas, but now that i am down in the DEEP south i would be more inclined to look at the Kiko just because they were bred developed in a similar climate, they seem more disease and parasite resistant in climates like this,


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## Pony

Oh.... Gosh....

Both.


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## chris30523

I have had both. The Boer/kiko cross is a very hardy goat in the south. I do have fewer parasite problems in my cross does. The worst buck I had though was a kiko . He was mean and STINKY!! I no longer have any full blood Kikos just a few cross and fb boers. I prefer the boers and crosses . I also have a few nubians.They are my favorites!


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## deetu

Interesting thing too. If you take a white goat with a brown head to the market, it will sell better then a solid colored animal that looks better. Just the mind set I guess.


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## Goat Servant

chris30523 said:


> I have had both. The Boer/kiko cross is a very hardy goat in the south. I do have fewer parasite problems in my cross does. The worst buck I had though was a kiko . He was mean and STINKY!! I no longer have any full blood Kikos just a few cross and fb boers. I prefer the boers and crosses . I also have a few nubians.They are my favorites!


Chris what do you prefer about the Boers & crosses?


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## Pony

chris30523 said:


> I have had both. The Boer/kiko cross is a very hardy goat in the south. I do have fewer parasite problems in my cross does. The worst buck I had though was a kiko . He was mean and STINKY!! I no longer have any full blood Kikos just a few cross and fb boers. I prefer the boers and crosses . I also have a few nubians.They are my favorites!


You obviously have incredibly discerning taste in dairy goats.


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## Alice In TX/MO

My veterinarian who has goats says that Boers are looking for a reason to die.


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## KSALguy

i would say the cross would have the benifit of the thrifty Kiko doe produceing larger hybred vigger kids from a Boer buck, and then keeping the cross would both have the wider bulky build of the boer with the retained thrifty low input attributes of the more wild kiko, 

Kikos are basically just feral NewZealand goats that have been selectively bred to produce a simbalance of a more uniform animal for market, but they still dont have the uniformity and structure of the Boer, both are meat animals, and there are some impressive Kiko bucks out there, but other than the breeds hardy wild low cost low input qualitys, and the fact they handle the wet rugged climates better the typical boer will be more of a meat producer, 

the problem comming up now with the Boer breed is there has been alot of breeders keeping any ol buck with a red head and white body and produceing mediocer animals and selling them as something they are not,


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## KSALguy

the Boer breed needs more attention from humans, they were developed in a more labor intensive pamperd environment, if they were actually closer to the native african stock they came from they wouldnt have as many problems as they seem to have now,


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## chris30523

My cross does seem to be hardier. The Boer/Kiko and Boer/Nubian does have a better milk supply and raise the kids to market weight quicker than my boer does. The Boer does don't seem to be able to raise multiple kids as well. I Breed back to a Boer buck as some one else said "white kids with a brown head bring more at the sale". This being said I have a closed herd and have bred for worm resistance and milk production in my does.


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## ozark_jewels

Alice In TX/MO said:


> My veterinarian who has goats says that Boers are looking for a reason to die.


I beg to differ.
My Boers were hardy and productive. In ten years I only had one doe that I culled for unproductiveness, and that was because she raised crappy kids. She sure was a stocky thing though and tastes wonderful.
If I was interested in Kikos, I would cross a Boer buck over Kiko and Kiko/Boer does. And just like Boers, don't buy the kiko for the name. There are crappy Boers and great Boers. There are crappy Kikos and great Kikos.
Most of my Nubians carry as much meat as the average Kiko. Seriously.


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## Cannon_Farms

I dont think the breed itself matters a hill of beans. Both are starting to have the same problems because people dont know how to cull or cull at sales where people breed the culls just wanting a quick dollar. Same with the movie fad dogs the breeds can get ruined in a hurry.
I am more partial to boers than kikos, either kikos dont do as well in GA as boers will or we have some crappy ones as I have never seen one that weight over 100lbs where my boer kids would weigh that by the time they where 8 months old. The herd Im giving a hand too is about to cull all the kikos out of it and go with good boers.

Chris its nice to see you back, if your back into breeding large numbers again pm me as I am looking to buy about 100 meat goats in the next couple of months and would love to buy as many as I can from you.


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## pygmybabies

Cannon...what will you do with 100 meat goats? Do you butcher for people or sell them at market..just wondering as I am wanting to raise my own meat..and someone told me if I had goat meat they would buy it from me...that wasn't my plan originally but I could raise some extra I guess...wow 100 seems like a lot to buy...I don't know


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## Creamers

I'm just going to tell you what a vet (not my usual vet) told me when out to see a horse needing treatment. . . He has a state of the art equine reproduction facility in Ohio and is well know in his field.. . . 

He said he runs 150, give or take, head of meat goats. He started with Boers and said he couldn't keep them alive and figured if he, as a vet, had that type of trouble, he wasn't going to fool with working with them. He went to a 150 plus herd of Kikos and said they are very hardy and there is more profit as a result.


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## chris30523

Cannon_Farms said:


> I dont think the breed itself matters a hill of beans. Both are starting to have the same problems because people dont know how to cull or cull at sales where people breed the culls just wanting a quick dollar. Same with the movie fad dogs the breeds can get ruined in a hurry.
> I am more partial to boers than kikos, either kikos dont do as well in GA as boers will or we have some crappy ones as I have never seen one that weight over 100lbs where my boer kids would weigh that by the time they where 8 months old. The herd Im giving a hand too is about to cull all the kikos out of it and go with good boers.
> 
> Chris its nice to see you back, if your back into breeding large numbers again pm me as I am looking to buy about 100 meat goats in the next couple of months and would love to buy as many as I can from you.


Wasn't ever gone. Just watching Quietly from the side lines. I have culled my herd quite a bit. We have a farm in the area that has gone into Large production(over 1000 boer does) I am waiting to see what happens to them . I couldn't find a boer buck I liked to breed to this year so I have bred to my Nubian buck. The kids this year will be Nubian/Boer . Should be expecting the end of Nov. through Jan.Next years kids should be great though. I have a really nice buck coming up. Best one I have raised since Mick.


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## copperpennykids

ozark_jewels said:


> I beg to differ.
> My Boers were hardy and productive. In ten years I only had one doe that I culled for unproductiveness, and that was because she raised crappy kids. She sure was a stocky thing though and tastes wonderful.
> If I was interested in Kikos, I would cross a Boer buck over Kiko and Kiko/Boer does. And just like Boers, don't buy the kiko for the name. There are crappy Boers and great Boers. There are crappy Kikos and great Kikos.
> Most of my Nubians carry as much meat as the average Kiko. Seriously.


Ditto.

Our Boers are hardy and productive - disease free too! Excellent weight gain, great meat. And ours also do extremely well in the show ring as well. The key is to purchase healthy stock with excellent genetics and implement some simple management practices.

As for Kikos - I've heard more folks prefer to cross with a Boer to get a better carcass. Also there are fewer Kikos so it is harder to find diverse genetics and/or clean herds ( a gal with one of my Boer bucks shopped over a dozen herds in 7 states looking for a herd without CL).


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## Cannon_Farms

I was hired to buy good goats and care for them. Most will be for consumption but the best will be for breeding right now we have a demand for 50 carcasses a month with room to expand. My target breeds will actually be boer and dairy cross mainly the nubians with boer being the main part. I dont like kikos and theres nothing that a good boer cant out do a kiko on.
Chris Mick isnt with us but is with a person who is getting some very nice kids out of him, I just sold his last one and we placed first twice with mick in the showring and won quite a bit with his kids. Personally I dont own any more meat goats. Keep me in contact.


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## chris30523

The area of the country you live in helps to determine whether you have parasite problems also. Here in the hot humid south we raise parasites easier than we raise goats. The conditions are perfect for all kinds of the little critters. Good genetics help but it also helps to live in a part of the country that isnt conducive to the life of a parasite.


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## chewie

why do boers have to have a red head? aren't some black? just askin, sorry for the hijack!


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## KSALguy

Boers can come in black and red, but the black is NOT common at all, most of the work in the breed has been done in the traditional red head white body, some in the red and the black is not that common,


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## Pony

chewie said:


> why do boers have to have a red head? aren't some black? just askin, sorry for the hijack!


Well, redheads are just more fun.


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## mekasmom

The attitudes of boers are better than kikos, and they weigh out better. They also sell better at meat sales, but are more common. If you are selling to collectors then you would do better with kiko than boer simply because they are less common. 
If you just want a herd of meat goats for yourself, I would get boer or percentage boer. They are just not as wild as the kiko, and are easier to handle, plus give more meat per animal due to the size.


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## Caprice Acres

ozark_jewels said:


> I beg to differ.
> My Boers were hardy and productive. In ten years I only had one doe that I culled for unproductiveness, and that was because she raised crappy kids. She sure was a stocky thing though and tastes wonderful.
> If I was interested in Kikos, I would cross a Boer buck over Kiko and Kiko/Boer does. And just like Boers, don't buy the kiko for the name. There are crappy Boers and great Boers. There are crappy Kikos and great Kikos.
> Most of my Nubians carry as much meat as the average Kiko. Seriously.


The ones I got from Emily haven't accidentally died yet... So they can't be looking too hard for a way to die.  

I did have ONE die... I butchered out the wether I got from Emily FINALLY just this last week. For his size, I was very, very, very pleased with the amount of meat on him. I think I was getting too used to seeing the miniature goat carcasses... which are meaty for their size... but they're tiny.


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## Cannon_Farms

www.thegoatfactory.com nuff said


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