testimonial

Our farms (2 brothers farm side by side) have been using OCR Tennessee
Meat Goats™ and Texmasters™ for a few years now. They have Improved
our meat producing herds in many ways. More muscling to bone ratio,
very easy keepers (little input to maintain good body condition),
great prolific bucks and does. They do start out smaller at birth,
but this is a GOOD thing. We use almost exclusively TMG™ or
Texmaster™ bucks on all our first timer doelings, as they have an easier
time giving birth to a kid with smaller head and shoulders. Those
TMG/Texmaster™ cross kids are more vigorous at birth, fewer mortality
issues. These crosses are easier to grow as they require less to
maintain good body weight, develop into nice rounded full rear-end
and square thick shoulders/loin area on less bone. they are a
shorter size, but weigh more than our boer/dairy crosses or
boer/cashmere/kiko crosses. Less hoof work, and seem to be more parasite resistant. They acclimate well to our extreme cold environments. They are consistently good producers (multiples) and good mothering instincts early on. Never had a problem with having enough milk to sustain triplets on even the youngest doelings. The TMG - Texmaster™ influence in our herds has been one of the fastest/easiest improvements to our commercial meat production we could ever implement.

Fultz Family Farms
http://www.ppqhorses.com
Dan & Peg Fultz,
Mark & Michele Fultz
Bagley, MN 56621

I have been raising breeding does and butcher wethers for the goat meat market since 1999. I bought my first Boer buck in 2000 and have raised and sold registered Boer crosses since then. Two years ago I brought a Texmaster™ buck and Texmaster™ doe home from Bending Tree Ranch in Arkansas in order to test the market here for meatier breeding stock.
I knew that TMG™ and myotonic kids were born with smaller heads and shoulders and that they were said to be hardier and easier to raise to weaning so I was looking forward to trying the Texmaster™ buck on my Boer percentages. Last year those Texmaster™ crosses just sort of popped out and got up and nursed their dams. None were lost and all were raised to weaning. I am very pleased with their muscling.
This year we brought in a second Texmaster™ buck. His kids are very impressive as well. The Texmaster™ bucks have crossed well with all Boer percentages, adding hardiness and muscling to the kids. I am excited about the possibilities that Texmasters™ will bring to the meat market. Muscle means meat!

Lynne Moos
Spickard. MO
www.meatgoatsmissouri.com

I purchase six TexMaster bucks, in the fall of 2006, in south Florida. These bucks had been used in a worm tolerance field test by a scientist from the University of Florida. He was so impressed with the bucks that he wanted me to try them on my ranch. I had them on my place in Immokallee, Florida for several months, then I moved them to Sylacauga, Alabama in February of 07 during the worst drought in recent history. Forage was scarce and since we had just purchased the property we only had one pasture fenced and it was really too small for the amount of goats we had. I must admit, conditions were poor at best, and we lost about twenty percent of the herd from worms before we could get more pastures ready. This year we have had near normal rainfall and the worms are bad again because of the rain. I am proud to say that the TexMaster bucks have required the least amount of care of the different breeds I own. I have never had to worm half of them and rarely wormed the others. They need the least amount of hoof care, also. I intend to use these bucks in all my future cross breeding programs. As a matter of fact, I recently sold goats at the Columbia, Tennessee auction and four buck kids from these bucks brought the best price per pound, because of their body condition and conformation. Needless to say I am extremely impressed with the TexMaster breed and intend to improve my operation by purchasing more in the very near future.

When I sell for slaughter I get the higher meat prices on my TexMaster™ and TexMaster™ crosses than my fullblood Boer kids and I raise some pretty nice Boers. Some of my TexMaster™ does are bigger than my fullblood Boer does, some run a little smaller. About the only way anyone can tell the difference is that my TexMasters™ are fat compared to my Boers and their ears are shorter. It takes "less" input to get more "product" from the TexMasters™. I'd like to run the TexMaster™ separate from my Boers then they wouldn't get as fat (and my pocket book wouldn't take such a hit) but I don't have the space to do this. I keep free-choice hay out (grass hay), they get 1/2 lb per head of a 12% all-purpose pellet, minerals and a couple of times a month I try to put out a molasses tub during this cold weather.

I rarely use heat lamps, don't like them. I want kids that are up and nursing in this cold weather. I do provide small dog houses for the kids to snuggle up together in. This Jan/Feb I only had Boer and Myotonics kidding. My TexMasters™ won't start kidding for another couple of weeks. Right now I have 2 heat lamps going on Boer kids. I've lost 2 Boer kids to the cold weather. None of my Myotonic kids have had any problems.

I've never had to assist my TexMaster™ with kidding. I have had to help some of my Boers. They don't stay around if they can't kid by themselves. I see more weak hind legs in the Boer kids. TexMaster™ kids are usually about 7-8 lbs average at birth. The tend to have more narrow heads and shoulders thus making them pass thru the birth canal easier. They are up and searching for that teat within minutes after birth. Myotonic kids are the same way. My Boer kids usually need to rest for a while after the birthing process which is NOT good this time of year. TexMasters™ and Myotonics both breed year round as should Boers. However, you will see fluctuations in their breeding that seems to be affected by the weather. Some Springs they don't seem to cycle as strongly. This past year is a good example. Nothing here cycled. It's the first time I've not had Oct/Nov kids. It was actually nice to get a break. We were also 2 years into a bad drought.

I have some gorgeous yearling (just turned yearling) does here that are ready to breed. These girls have been on free-choice hay, 12% all-purpose pellets and minerals. Check out my website to see examples of all that I have talked about here.

I took 6 goats this past weekend to a goat/sheep sale. Two, nice, breeding age fullblood Boer does with mile long pedigrees, a yearling TexMaster buck and 3 Myotonic bucks. My TexMaster buck brought $15 dollars more than one of the does and $18 more than the other.

If anyone has any other questions all I know to tell you is come and see them for yourself. It helps to see these goats running side by side with Boers, Boer dairy crosses, etc. It takes seeing them, their offspring compared to the others kids, etc to truly understand the breed.

We have been very impressed with the TexMasters since first seeing them at GoatCamp in 2005. In 2006, we purchased 1 TexMaster buckling and 1 Myotonic buckling (now TMG) from Pat Cotten of Bending Tree Ranch. We are the first ones in our area to raise them. The other meat goat producers around here raise Boer crosses. Upon hearing about what we were bringing to town, we were advised against it and even teased about wanting to raise “those little meat goats.” We ignored them since we had already learned about the higher meat yields in the TexMasters and TMGs. In 2007, we brought home 1 TexMaster doeling and 1 Myotonic doeling from Pat, along with a TMG doe from Suzanne Gasparotto of Onion Creek Ranch, where GoatCamp is held.

We bred our TexMaster buck to one of our BoerX does for spring ’08 kids. She had twin doelings and they are a definite improvement over their dam with much better muscling. Our TMG doe also freshened with kids sired by our TMG buck. She had a very easy labor and delivery and had the kids cleaned up very fast without any help from us. We were very impressed with the TexMaster and TMG kids at birth. Their strength and vitality at birth is very remarkable.

Now that our bucks and does have grown up, the naysayers around here have had to eat their words. Those that have come over to see them can’t help but be very impressed with the stocky, muscular goats in front of them. We had them on display in our 4-H livestock area during our town’s Fall Festival last year. They were a big hit with people eager to know more about them. One of our bucks has his picture on our town’s website. We have 4-H youth that are eagerly waiting to see the kids that are due this spring. There are some that plan on using the TexMaster crosses for their market wethers.

We know we made the right choice in buying the TexMasters and TMGs. We can raise seed stock for other breeders wanting to improve their herds, as well as crosses for the commercial market. Their hardiness and vigor are beyond compare.

Attn TexMaster owners/breeders if you want to add your testimonial to this page
along with a link to your website and/or e-mail contact the webmaster.