Is 100% South African
the Ultimate Answer?

 What is your ultimate goal?

We raise breeding animals that are focused on meeting the needs of the "meat goat" industry today and in the future. Our goal is focused on  raising animals that will produce the maximum total weight of kids per dam. The more kids we can raise per doe and the heavier they are at weaning time, the better opportunity for more potential profits. We have to be able to meet the expectations of the potential buyers today and prepare for the needs of the potential buyers of the future even if they are not sure of what the needs will be.

Let me try to explain MY UNDERSTANDING of the original source of this. Some of the first boer  goats getting out of South Africa came to  New Zealand. These came from commercial herds and  not from premium breeding stock. The animals had to be quarantined for 5 years before they could be released for exportation to the US. The US did not have any protocol with South Africa allowing boers to be imported so New Zealand was a prime site for importing the first boers. In January of 1993 the first sale of Boers by Landcorp Farming Ltd occurred in the US . Thus the South African boer goats came into the US my way of New Zealand. One of the well know names was "The Doe Maker". The prefixes of these animals were *K, *W, and *A. The boer goat industry in the US started to spread fast. Other South African boers were also imported from Australia.

Canada did not have the same protocol problems with South Africa as the US did since they were both associated with Britain and therefore South African boer goat embryos started coming to Canada. Canada was much closer to the US than New Zealand and Australia, so the importing source changed. These animals coming to Canada did not have the same 5 year quarantine period that New Zealand did so breeders getting these animals from Canada marketed them as the "new" South African genetics. Balson Boer Goat Farm in Alberta Canada had a production sale July 20, 1995 and offered 64 Fullblood Boer Goats with South African Genetics. Some of the kids included in this sale became household names of today's pedigree. They included Mzuri, Johaan, Tabu, Tamu, Kivumbe, and others. Balson Boer Goat Farm's herd prefix "BBGF" is now scattered across a major amount of the pedigrees of today.

After the the South African boer goats started entering the US thru Canada, they really stopped being imported from New Zealand and Australia. The marketing pitch became "You have to get the NEW genetics of 100% South African". They actually were no more South African than the New Zealand animals. They all originated from South Africa. Some US breeders started working with South African breeders and breeders in Canada to have Canada be the middle man in bringing South African embryos into the US thru Canada. These animals were originally generally better quality than the original New Zealand animals.

Is it the best answer today?

One of the first requirements we hear from the majority of potential buyers is "Are the animals 100% SA?" There is no getting around that at this time. If you want to meet the majority of the current requirements, you will need to have animals that fit the criteria of 100% SA even though most people will not be able to tell you why. The breeders importing the Boers from New Zealand started their breeding programs to take the best animals and start their improvement programs. In the late 1990's, there were some outstanding Boers in the US that came from the bloodlines of the New Zealand imports. However, many people coming into the boer industry new, were not looking for the quality of the animal as much as they were looking for the latest and greatest South African animals. Breeders were taking 100% SA bucks and breeding to their NZ boers. Now people had to advertise their animals as fullbloods and some percentage of South African even though they all originated from South African bloodlines.  This percentage of SA now started to confuse the new people because they think these animals are some percentage of Spanish, Nubian or something else instead of being fullbloods..

We have people come out to buy an animal and they will look over our herd. Many times they will see one they really like. The love the structure, the muscle, the markings until we say that one is fullblood but 7/8 South African. That is when they start looking only at our 100% SA animals. The quality was great until they heard the terrible words --- NOT 100% SA --.  There are buyers today that understand the quality of the animal is the most important thing and they do not mind buying animals that are 3/4, or 7/8 SA does and breeding them to 100% SA bucks.

When we first started into boers, we would go to a local goat sale in our area. There were no registered animals coming thru that sale but when an animal would enter the ring and have a red head and generally white body, the auctioneer  would start to talk about it looking like it was part boer and the prices would jump. A year later, the unregistered red head meant nothing.  A few years later we would go to a fullblood consignment sale and when someone said "100% SA" the prices would jump also. Now that is the norm. The price doesn't jump for the 100% SA animal but it drops for the words 50% or 75% SA. These will also be changing shortly to where 100% is no longer the requirement. There are two reasons that it will change and I don't know which one will be the driving force for "100% SA" being dropped from the normal criteria in buying or selling.

New Zealand & Australian bloodlines will be pushed off the pedigrees.

I don't know of any boers that have been imported from NZ or Australia for a long time. As each new breeding season passes, the older bloodlines are moved more and more to the right on the pedigree. There are pedigrees now that don't show any signs of the bloodlines coming from NZ because they are 15/16 or 31/32 or greater. It doesn't matter any more. If there are no *Ks, *Ws or *As around on the pedigree any more, there will be no reason to question if it is 100% SA.

100% SA animals a Commodity

The more animals in the US that are 100% SA, the more it becomes a commodity and doesn't bring a premium price and we are starting to get there now. If it doesn't bring a premium price, there will be no need for the requirement of 100% SA. The next stage will be a very important one in the industry because people will have to start looking at the animals for the quality they have and the history of the bloodline in producing quality meat goat kids. That is what it is all about. There is no real boer goat industry. The only industry is the meat goat industry and the boer goat was and will continue to be the catalyst to make it be a major growing industry. Potential buyers will start to ask for animals coming from well-known US breeders that are breeding animals that are better than the average boer goat and have better than the average growth, productivity, etc. We see a few big breeders out there today that are focusing on the longer range strategy. T4 Ranch seems to have that vision and we have started to seriously consider their stock when we are looking for new animals. They are also pushing the meat goat products because they know they are in the meat goat business and not the boer goat business. Some of those  US breeders are not breeding just for the "hot trends" of today but will be creating the "hot trends for tomorrow". At that time, the animal will be more important than just being labeled "100% SA."