Decision time nears on what to do with buckling crop

Part of the Kiko buckling crop.

By lining the goats up like this I can make side-by-side comparisons
of body width and length as well as overall size in comparison to their cohorts.

Nomination time is nearing for the two buck performance tests in which I plan to participate this year. Kerr Center in Oklahoma needs to know by June 15 which bucks I am sending there, with delivery on June 21; I'm not sure if Western Illinois University has a nomination deadline but they must be delivered to the campus farm on June 30.


The bucks are currently on medium quality pasture and are being lightly supplemented with approximately .5 lbs. of 16% medicated pellets per day. I have not done weights to calculate average daily gain with this group; I have used the unscientific method of eyeballing the bucks on a regular basis. As I have said for years, the biggest kids in the pasture are the best gainers, whether they were born triplets or singles. This eyeball analysis won't work when evaluating the mother's production performance, but it is a method that has worked for me when selecting bucks for test.


This year, however, I have multiple decisions I must make regarding the bucks. I have to decide who goes to the forage test in Oklahoma, who goes to the full-feed test in Illinois and who I will keep at home to sell this summer. Then there are the categories of culls and keepers — these are usually easy to pick. 


At least 50% of the buck crop goes into the cull category in the first 6 months. You can watch them in the pasture, view them as they stand beside others in their contemporary group and instantly see who is not performing as they should. (You can look at the photo of the bucks at the trough and easily pick out at least 3 culls.)


And what to do with those culls? Well, these days they're worth a lot of money as slaughter goats if grown out and finished with a little extra feed. I and others have discussed this at length, and if meat goats are bringing $2.00-$2.50 a pound, a producer can afford to supplement. I tried putting a pencil to it this morning to see how much supplementation and for how long would be feasible. The big unknown factor is pasture quality. Winter grasses are drying up and summer grasses are medium quality at best since I refuse to fertilize (spending money on feed versus fertilizer is a tough call). For now I choose to spend on feed. But calculating anticipated average daily gain (with and without supplementation) for the next 6 months is — as Dr. Frank Pinkerton says — a wild ass guess.


Let's assume the bucks that are destined for the slaughter house and not the breeding pen now average 45 pounds. I plan to market the bucks no earlier than November so they will be here another 6 months. If I let them forage all summer, if we get an occasional rain and if pasture nutrition remains moderate, I might see a .2 pound per day gain per head. Over the next 180 days the typical buck should gain 36 pounds for a total weight of 81 pounds — a good market weight. 


However, with some supplementation — .7 pounds a day of 16% feed — I might boost that to .3 pounds ADG for a total of 54 pounds of gain, or 99 pounds total weight, which may be too heavy and garner a discount from the slaughter buyers. I'll do some more ciphering and get back with you...