Goats: Meat Goats

Reader Contribution by Janice Spaulding
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For years and years we raised Boer goats both as breeding stock and for meat. The breeding stock aspect was so much fun! Even though these goats were big, rugged, muscular animals, they were also gentle, sweet, and so personable! Boer does are also wonderful mothers; very protective of their young.

With all of the hundreds of Boer girls who called our farm home, I had three favorites: Patti, Nellie, and my sweet Button.

Button was as cute as a button when she was born, thus the name. She was also the mama of all mamas’! She gave us twins for a couple of years, and then one year, she had a single doeling. This wasn’t a problem for us because even though there was only one, we knew without a doubt this little girl was spectacular. The problem, however, was with Button. She obviously was crazy about this little girl, but there was only one! What to do? Kidnap someone else’s baby of course! I had no idea what was going on when one day I looked out and saw Button nursing two babies.  Not giving it a second thought, I turned to do something else, and then realized: wait a minute; Button had a single baby this year! I went running out and took a look at who else she was nursing; lo and behold it was one of Button’s moms’ twin boys born a day later! Normally you have to trick a goat into accepting another goat’s baby, but not Button, she loved them all.  After that year, it was not unusual to see Button nursing any baby who snuck under her.  What a girl she was!

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