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New Beginner to Raising Boer Goats |
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New Beginner to Raising Boer Goats |
BOER GOATS FOR BEGINNERS
By: Gary Cutrer, Associate Editor, Ranch & Rural Living Magazine
As Published In The November 1995 Issue (Vol. 77 No. 2)
Q: What is a Boer goat?
The Boer goat was developed in South Africa as a breed meant solely
for meat production. The term "Boer" refers to the descendants of the Dutch
immigrants, or Boers, most of them farmers, who settled the country; thus,
"Boer" goat simply means "farmer's" goat. Because of the intense
selective breeding over the past 50 years or more by South African goat breeders, the Boer
goat is considered far superior to any other goat for meat production. It is known for
rapid weight gain and heavy muscling and has high fertility. Boer does typically give
birth to twins.
Q: What's a Boer goat good for?
Because the Boer was selectively improved for its meat production
ability and its ability to pass on that trait to its offspring, along with other traits
including pasture hardiness, the addition of a Boer buck
to a commercial meat goat herd can improve the meat characteristics of the offspring
without making them too "soft" to be pasture goats.
Q: Aren't Boer goats from South Africa? Why did many
come from New Zealand?
Although they were first developed in South Africa, for a couple of
years nearly all Boer goats in the United States came from New Zealand. In the late 1980's
several frozen Angora and Boer embryos were smuggled out of South Africa via Zimbabwe by
New Zealand and Australian companies. The smugglers were primarily after the Angora
embryos because of the high quality mohair producing Angoras bred in South Africa; the
Boer embryos were just an afterthought. The companies implanted the embryos into recipient
does in New Zealand. One Australian company got into financial problems and ownership of
many of its embryos and offspring went to the quarantine station operator, Rob Moodie of
New Zealand, who named his herd African Goat Flocks. The other major holder of African
Boer and Angora goats in New Zealand was Landcorp Farming Limited, a government-owned
entity. Still
another Australian firm, Australian Breeding Management, had thousands of African Boer and
Angora goats, and those goats were recently released from quarantine.
Q: Can I import a Boer goat directly from Africa?
You can, although if you're just after a few head of breeding stock
and you think you must have an "African" goat, you ought to consider buying
stock from a breeder who already has brought in goats directly from Africa; it will be
less expensive and much less work. Until this year, the USDA required importers bringing
sheep and goats from South Africa to put them in a strict quarantine for five years. But
in mid 1995 the USDA changed the rules for sheep and goats imported from South Africa. Now
live animals brought directly from Africa only have to be put into a herd that conforms
with the USDA's Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program, or VSFCP. That program is a
means the USDA is using to try and detect and control sheep and goat flocks that might
contain the scrapie disease, which has no known cure and the cause of which is not really
understood. Offspring from the goats in those flocks,
however, may be sold and moved freely. Goats originally importedfrom New Zealand face no
requirement to be put in a VSFCP herd. The USDA plans to relax other import rules to allow
free collection of embryos and their importation from South Africa to the United States.
Q: I hear Boer goats originally sold for
astronomically high
prices. Why?
It was due a little bit to supply and demand and a little bit to
psychology. When a new (to the U.S.) animal species is introduced into this country,
especially a species that has commercial potential,
often an artificially high "breeder's" or "exotics" market develops
for the animal. This happened with the ostrich and emu, even with the potbellied pig and
hedgehog. The Boer goat is a bit different,
however. When ostriches were imported into the U.S. there were few if any existing flocks
of ostrich. It took years for the breeder's market to be satisfied. But when the Boer goat
was introduced, there were already millions of goats in the United States. With embryo
transfer technology and artificial insemination, we have gone from a few dozen Boer goats
to thousands of full-blood goats in a
couple of years. And people are still importing live goats.
The psychology part of an "exotics market": People think they can make lots of
money selling high-priced exotic animals, especially when the animals can reproduce and
make more high-priced
animals. The catch: To make money, you have to know what you are doing, know the
particular breed, and you have to get in the market very early-on. Timing is everything;
early bidding for a
limited number of sought-after animals can go very high.
Q: What do Boer goats cost? Are prices still high?
Boer goat prices are still relatively high but are approaching what
you'd pay for a quality registered Angora or registered dairy goat. They are nowhere near
the steep amounts paid during the winter
and spring of 1994, when a bit of buying "frenzy" took hold of some goat
breeders and exotics traders. Before the frenzy hit, back in August 1993, the cost of
buying a goat at an auction in New Zealand and transporting it to the United States was
about $8,000 to $10,000. At the time, people suggested that buyers who spent $10,000
bringing in a Boer goat might ought to spend some time in the loony bin. But those early
buyers saw the potential worth of the breed. By March 1994, newborn Boer kids were selling
for $7,000 to $10,000 each. In one 1994 auction, $80,000 was reportedly paid for a
full-blood adult buck. Except for an unanswered private treaty offer of more than $100,000
for a stud, $80,000 was about
the highest price paid in this country for a Boer goat. About mid summer of 1994, the Boer
market declined to "only" about $25,000 to $35,000 per animal and settled there.
In an auction during early
1995, full-blood Boer goat bucks sold for an average of about $9,000 per head, while does
brought about $11,000 per head.
Prices continued to decline during 1995. As more and more kids reached breeding age and
were put on the market, going prices went lower. Then, too, demand for breeding stock was
being satisfied, so finding a buyer for purebred Boers was sometimes hard to do. That has
changed a little now. It seems like more farmers andranchers in sections of the country
not normally thought of as goat country are hearing about Boer goats and the meat goat
industry. At a Boer goat auction in early October 1995 Boer prices stoppedtheir decline
and actually improved. At that sale, breeding age does sold for $800 to $1,500 per head.
Adult bucks went for around $2,000 per head.
Q: Will Boer goat prices go even lower, and should I
wait for that to happen?
Ever hear the old adage, "You get what you pay for."?
Well, that saying applies here. After the buying frenzy in early 1994, people began to
wise up and be more selective about how much they paid
for what type of goat. Buyers no longer paid high prices just because the goat was white
with a red head and was called a Boer goat. Quality became important. You could probably
buy a so-so full-blood Boer buck these days for as little as a few hundred dollars.
Quality Boer goats, both bucks and does with outstanding conformation and muscle mass and
the ability to pass on those traits, still sell for fairly high prices and will continue
to do so.
Q: Do I need Boer influence in my herd to be a
successful meat goat producer?
Nope. Not at all. Right now you could probably do well raising and
selling meat goats (providing demand holds at present levels and imports don't absolutely
flood the country) even if you raised wild,
skinny, tough, unimproved meat goats. But as the industry develops and grows, you'll
probably want to add at least a Boer buck to your flock to compete with the meaty animals
sure to hit the market in the
near future.
Reprinted With The Permission Of:
Ranch & Rural Living Magazine
301 W. 1st Street, Suite B
P. O. Box 2678
San Angelo, TX 76902 USA
Phone: (915) 655-4434, Fax: (915) 658-8250
e-mail ranchmag@webstar.net
WWW URL: http://www.webstar.net/ranchmag/