How Old Can Boer Goats Be Bred? A Detailed Guide to the Suitable Breeding Age
The Boer goat is a very high-quality meat goat breed, with characteristics such as a large body size, fast growth, strong reproductive capacity, and many kids per litter, so at what age can Boer goats be bred?
1. How old can Boer goats be bred
Usually rams reach sexual maturity at 6 months of age, and ewes at 10 months of age. Their estrous cycle is about 20 days, the duration of estrus is 1-2 days, the first estrus occurs at 6-8 months of age, the gestation period is about 150 days, and they produce 3 litters every 2 years.
2. Living habits of Boer goats
The Boer goat is one of the livestock breeds with the greatest tolerance for coarse feed and the strongest adaptability. It can adapt to various climate zones in South Africa, and grows well in inland climates, tropical and subtropical scrubland, semi-desert and desert areas. Under drought conditions, with no water or feed supplied, it survives longer than other animals. It has grazing habits and can consume small trees, shrubs, and plants that other animals do not eat. Its feeding range is wide, reaching leaves and bark as high as 160 cm and grass as low as 10 cm. Therefore it is suitable for mixed grazing with cattle to increase the meat production per hectare of pasture. The Boer goat has a rare disease resistance, such as resistance to bluetongue, hydrocyanic acid poisoning, and enterotoxemia, etc. But it is extremely prone to diarrhea as well as colds, pneumonia, sheep pox and other diseases.
3. Management of Boer goats
Adjust the flock and implement housed feeding in winter and spring. Before the beginning of winter, the flock must be adjusted; besides selling off meat goats as much as possible, barren ewes as well as weak, sick, disabled and old goats must be resolutely culled. Determine the raising scale according to your own specific conditions, such as the amount of stored forage and feed, and the area of warm sheds and pens. Store sufficient forage and feed; the storage of forage and feed is the material basis for ensuring housed feeding of the flock in winter and spring, and farmers should put the storage of forage and feed in the first place. In production, the following measures are generally taken to store forage and feed. Sun-dry green hay. The nutritional value of green hay is higher than that of crop straw; sheep farms with the conditions should collect wild grass and shrub branches and leaves in summer and sun-dry them into green hay. Collect crop straw.
Corn stalks, rice straw, wheat straw, peanut vines, sweet potato vines, bean stalks and bean pods, etc., are all roughage for housed sheep, and can be stored and fed after processing. There is also planting high-quality forage grass. In areas with the conditions, high-quality and high-yield forage grass can be planted; hn-mc alfalfa yields about 10,000 kg per mu, and can be cut for silage or sun-dried; because of its rich content of nutrients such as protein, there is also hn-mc sorghum-sudangrass, etc., which has a relatively high crude fiber content; these are all suitable for feeding Boer goats and can play a certain nutritional regulating role in supplementary feeding of housed sheep in winter and spring. In terms of prevention and management, it is necessary to do well the deworming and epidemic prevention of Boer goats, and the management of feeding by groups. Before the beginning of winter, housed sheep must be dewormed and given epidemic prevention, and rams, pregnant ewes, and replacement sheep must be raised and managed in separate groups. For the Boer goat, build warm sheds and repair pens; before the beginning of winter, the warm sheds and pens for housed feeding must be built and repaired, and after thorough cleaning, disinfected; the exercise yard must also be tidied and disinfected, and a disinfection pool set up at the entrance and exit. Boer goat farming needs to maintain moderate exercise. After sheep farmers implement housed pen feeding for sheep in winter and spring, they also need to keep the flock exercising moderately, which can enhance the sheep's physique. Generally, on days without rain or snow, the flock is driven to grazeable grassland every day and then grazed appropriately for 3-5 hours, so that the flock can consume a certain amount of green shrub branches and leaves and wild weeds, which also enhances the sheep's physique and can reduce the sheep's spring fatigue.
The Boer goat has a very strong reproductive capacity, produces a great deal of meat, and has strong adaptability; where conditions permit, it can be raised appropriately.