Selection

Selecting the best Boergoats to retain in your flock is essential to making rapid genetic progress. This will ensure good production, high fertility rates and the Boergoat's renowned hardiness.

Rams

Commercial breeder

Castrate male kids at 2-4 weeks. Methods: rubber bands, Burdizzo or knife.

Stud breeders

First selection at 2-4 weeks: castrate all kids with cull defects, as well as those which are promising. Second selection should take place at 2-3 months: castrate all kids which do not have potential. After three months, young cull rams may merely be Burdizzoed or marketed as they are slaughter animals.

A golden rule for every stud breeder is to market all rams which are eliminated as slaughter animals, since keeping them will only have an adverse effect on your good name; and if you keep them, they will also have a detrimental effect on the healthy raising of other animals.

Ewes

The first selection takes place at the first selling stage, up to the period before the ewes kid for the first time. Hereafter, they should be screened only on the basis of their offspring and their reproduction capacity. It is in fact necessary to select large ewe phenotypes.

Try not to place lactating ewes with dry ewes in the same group, as the ewes in lactation which have worked hard will create a poor impression, while dry ewes which are not productive at a given time will make a good impression.