# Boer x Nubian?



## HillRunner (Jun 28, 2010)

Hello I was wondering if a Boer Buck over a Nubian Does would throw pretty good Meat Kids? I know my father has Angus X Shorthorn and the mom's milk and feed great calves and show calves. I was just wondering if the same would apply to goats? I plan on milking some of the does to to milk and use some for cheese. Thanks for the help!


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## Birch Hill Farm (Dec 3, 2009)

should make for a good meat kid. We have alpine mixed in with some of our percentage boers and they are the fastest growing of all our kids. I would think crossing with a nubian would be even better since they are a solid goat with good milk.


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## Creamers (Aug 3, 2010)

Saanen over the Boer might be even better


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## copperpennykids (Sep 6, 2004)

We love Saanen over Boer... However, if you have Nubians and want meat, by all means breed your Nubians to a nice Boer buck. You will get meaty kids that grow well. If you get a doe kid out of the breeding, go ahead and breed HER to a Boer buck (but train her to milk like a dairy goat if you like (50/50 make very nice milkers). 

The kids from a 50/50 cross will be much meatier than a 50% Boer/Nubian. And you shouldn't lose too much in the milk department. A Saanen/Boer cross ;oses hardly anything in the milk department.


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## Sherry in Iowa (Jan 10, 2010)

That's the only thing we've ever bred..boer buck over Nubian and Saanen does. We sell strictly for meat. The added milk makes our weanling kids hunker on the weight early and the buyers here love them and pay accordingly.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

Boer x Nubian = Boobians

Boer x Saanen = Baanens

We bred our first Saanen boers this year and sadly lost the retained doeling to an acute enterotoxemia (despite prenatal cdtet etc). We have our second Saanen ready to kid on May 11th and are hoping for a doeling. We'll cross that back to a boer for meat wethers.


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

I've bred my Nubian to one of my Boer bucks - she's not due until June, but hoping for nice babies.

I have a BoerX doe, guessing either 1/2 Alpine or 1/2 Toggenburg, judging by the facial stripes. Her kids are always the biggest, fastest-growing meat kids. She milks like a cow. :goodjob: Absolute sweetheart on the milkstand, too.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

A lot of people around here love to run boer/milk breed crosses. That way they can "go either way" with the doelings they keep depending on which breed they choose to rebreed them to. The cross boer/nubian is very popular simply for the kids to be used as breeders.


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## OhioHills (Oct 13, 2010)

Growing up we raised purebred Nubians and later Boer x Nubians. We always used the bucklings for 4H meat goats and I do remember the crosses being more solid by fair time (maybe 6 months old?) than were the purebred Nubians. I can't remember if we ever kept and bred any of the doe crosses but that would definitely be something I would try. A Boer x Nubian - or "boobian" (HA! I love it! Jcran, you just made my morning!) - doe to a Boer buck should give you good milk production with fantastic butterfat content, as well as really solid offspring. I've never milked a Boobian (the ten year old in me is enjoying that word immensely) so it would be interesting to compare the production of a cross bred doe to that of her mother or siblings.

I must admit bias toward Nubian x Boer over Saanen x Boer, but that's just because I am a die-hard fan of floppy ears. I'm guessing Saanen x Boer would give you lots of "helicopter" ears, something I just can't get used to. That's pure aesthetics, of course. In terms of milk production, it's possible that a Boer x Saanen would give you milk similar to Nubians. I'm thinking the Saanen would increase production of the Boer and the Boer would increase the butterfat of the Saanen.

Gosh, I miss raising goats...


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## farmmaid (Jan 13, 2003)

We have raised the Nubian/Boer cross for more years than I care to remember. The Nubian does give us the best milk and cheese and raise chunky babies. We sell out every year and could not be happier..........Joan


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## copperpennykids (Sep 6, 2004)

Jcran said:


> Boer x Nubian = Boobians
> 
> Boer x Saanen = Baanens


Boer X Saanens = 'Smores! :rotfl: 

Saanen X Boer gives you large framed animals with a LOT of milk! Our Saanens have incredibly wide and long loins, so slap some meat on that frame and you have a heck of a meat goat.

Yes, the high butterfat of the Boer really ups the butterfat of the Saanen. We have more than a few 50/50 Saanen/Boer crosses out there that are being used as family milkers. The milk is always the preferred for the house milk and coffee etc. Milk production is about 10-12 lbs/day with nice long lactation - 8-10 months. Really nice multi-purpose homestead animal.


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## TroutRiver (Nov 26, 2010)

I had a set of nubian/boer twins that I bought last summer, a wether and a doe. the wether we butchered at 8 months, he had an impressive amount of meat on him. The doe we still have and we're hoping that she makes a decent milker. They definitely grew faster and were a lot meatier than our purebred nubian bucks.


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