Breeding plan
The second decision is how to get to the breed that you want. In the case of purebreds
there is only one way: buying sufficient purebred females and at least one purebred
male.
But if your target is keep crossbreeds, you have a choice. You can buy breeding
stock of the grade that you are aiming for, or you can start with local goats and
crossbreed them with high-grade males. If your target is 75%, you should use purebred
males to give 75% offspring after two generations. If you want to keep 50% crosses,
you can use either purebred males, which will give you 50% crosses in the first generation,
or you can buy 75% males, which will give 50% crosses after two generations.
Choosing your target
When buying breeding stock there are two decisions to make. The first is to decide
on the grade that you are aiming for. The links below lead to summaries of the advantages
of purebred, 75% crosses and 50% crosses.
As a general rule, the higher the grade, the more milk they can produce, but the
lower the grade the easier they are to keep.
