04/05/2022
Boer Goats offer many advantages: they’re an excellent source of meat and milk, resist disease, make good mothers, and adapt to difficult conditions. However, the kids demand care and management for the first few weeks after birth. If you fail to look after them properly during this important stage, you could easily lose up to half of them.
The Boer Goat ewe
Good care of the kids actually starts before they are born! In other words, you need to look after their mother, the ewe. So let’s start with her. If they get enough food, ewes can breed as early as six months of age.
However, you should not let them mate this young, as it can slow their growth and they might have trouble breeding again. Mate them only when they’ve reached two-thirds of the average body weight of the adult ewes in the herd.
Put the ram to the ewes for 36 days. Ewe comes into heat every 18 days, so 36 days will give each ewe two chances to conceive. Don’t leave the ram with the ewes for longer than this as he will become exhausted and unproductive. To ensure the best breeding results, do the following four to six weeks before mating takes place:
Give the ewes zinc and manganese if required (your vet can advise you). This will make them more fertile.
Immunise them against enzootic abortion and enterotoxemia, and dose them against roundworm and nose-worm.
Cull any ewes with damaged or bunched teats, or teats that are too large.
Inoculate the ewes against gangrene of the uterus eight to 12 weeks before they kid. This is extremely important as the disease can kill a ewe two or three days after kidding.
If you are unsure about any of these problems, seek advice from your vet or animal health practitioner. The ewes are pregnant for five months. Make sure they get enough food to gain 7kg to 9kg during the last six weeks of pregnancy. If they don’t eat properly at this stage, the kids will be born small and weak, and the ewes will not have enough milk for them.