Chat
05-16-2014, 05:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-17-2014, 01:18 AM by Dave-Trinity-Farms.)
Beautiful boys of course 
As for size, there is no real way to judge when they are young how they will turn out. I have seen outstanding kids who turned out average and smaller kids grow huge as adults. Goats go through growth spurts and your opinion of them can change from month to month. But with the first year being the biggest in growth for any goat, by the time they are 1 year old you should have a good idea on how they will turn out. There is a standard breeding weight for yearling does. Thats 85 lbs minimum. About half of our does average this by a year old. So I think it would be safe to say if a prospect isnt at least 100 lbs by 1 year of age, then he may need a change of diet, a slow grower or may just not get as big as expected. Legion was 125 lbs by 10 months of age. Which was a bit ahead of the curve. His pen mates were between 90-115 lbs at the same age. The smallest was a month younger.
I really like TOUs expectations. 200/36 is a nearly perfect goat in my opinion as that is the norm and would be less likely to develop leg issues. Though I might push it to 220 for an ending weight. Unless a prospect is picked up from an unknown breeder/herd, there is no reason why just about any decent prospect couldnt achieve this goal. They would be 100% usable, easy to manage and no real custom sized stuff would be needed. Large goat blankets should still fit reasonable well, could be transported in the back of a truck with a high boy canopy (2 max in a standard bed).
As for size, there is no real way to judge when they are young how they will turn out. I have seen outstanding kids who turned out average and smaller kids grow huge as adults. Goats go through growth spurts and your opinion of them can change from month to month. But with the first year being the biggest in growth for any goat, by the time they are 1 year old you should have a good idea on how they will turn out. There is a standard breeding weight for yearling does. Thats 85 lbs minimum. About half of our does average this by a year old. So I think it would be safe to say if a prospect isnt at least 100 lbs by 1 year of age, then he may need a change of diet, a slow grower or may just not get as big as expected. Legion was 125 lbs by 10 months of age. Which was a bit ahead of the curve. His pen mates were between 90-115 lbs at the same age. The smallest was a month younger.
I really like TOUs expectations. 200/36 is a nearly perfect goat in my opinion as that is the norm and would be less likely to develop leg issues. Though I might push it to 220 for an ending weight. Unless a prospect is picked up from an unknown breeder/herd, there is no reason why just about any decent prospect couldnt achieve this goal. They would be 100% usable, easy to manage and no real custom sized stuff would be needed. Large goat blankets should still fit reasonable well, could be transported in the back of a truck with a high boy canopy (2 max in a standard bed).