A Boer goat's records work best as one file per animal, not one notebook for the whole meat-goat herd. Start each file with the goat's ear tag or tattoo, name if it has one, birth season, sire and dam, and sex class — doe, buck, or wether. Under that header, enter vaccinations, parasite checks, hoof trims, weights, and illnesses in date order, and write the pen or group beside every line.
The identity header a Boer file needs first
A Boer identity header matters because white bodies with red heads look strikingly alike once a kid crop is weaned and mixed. Record the tag number exactly as it reads, the tag colour and ear, any tattoo, and a short note on markings that separates this goat — a patch on one side, a crooked horn base, a scar from an old fence scrape. Add purchase or birth details and, for breeding stock, the service dates and buck used. When a goat is sold, that carefully written header is what proves the animal in the trailer is the animal in the paperwork.
Vaccinations, parasite checks, and treatments in one timeline
A Boer timeline should put vaccinations alongside the parasite work that dominates meat-goat care, not in a separate book. Log each vaccine with date and product class as your vet directs, then add eyelid colour checks, faecal results where you have them, body condition scores, and any treatment given, with a clear note of when the animal was checked again. Boers on pasture pick up internal parasites quickly in warm, wet spells, so dated condition scores show whether a goat is holding weight or sliding before it looks poor in the pen.
Weights, hoof trims, and kidding notes belong in the same file
Weights explain a Boer goat's health record better than almost anything else you can write down. Enter weaning, pre-breeding, and sale weights on the same timeline as hoof trims, because overgrown feet and lost condition often arrive together in a fast-growing goat kept on soft ground. For does, add kidding date, number of kids, any help given, and how the kids fed in the first day. If a doe repeatedly needs help or raises weak kids, that pattern is only visible when three kiddings sit on one page instead of scattered across barn notebooks.
When a Boer's record should trigger a vet call
A Boer goat's file should make the vet threshold obvious before you are standing in the pen guessing. Flag any goat whose condition score drops across two checks, whose eyelid colour turns pale, who goes off feed, scours, coughs persistently, or isolates from the group. Write down temperature, appetite, and droppings when you notice the change, and call your vet the same day if a goat is weak, bottle-jawed under the jaw, not eating, or a doe is struggling around kidding — those dated notes turn a vague worry into a usable history. KinsLe's Pet Passport gathers a Boer goat's identification, vaccinations, and dated health notes into one packet that travels cleanly to a sale barn vet check or a new owner.