Industry

Warning about the Boer Goat associations in the US
US associations are focusd on Registering and Showing rather than on the Meat Goat Industry

I was deeply troubled recently when I was reviewing some research on the meat goat industry. The findings did not paint a pretty picture of how well the Boer Goat breed was doing on the commercial side compared to other meat goat breeds. This was especially troubling because we love the Boer goat breed and have been raising them for over 13 years as of 2010. However the findings of the reports only confirmed what we have been hearing throughout the industry for many years. Although the Boer goat breed came into the US as a premiere meat goat breed in the world, we believe it has lost that standing under the guidance of the associations in the US that are related to Boer goats.

The focus of the US associations have been on getting registration fees and putting on shows to award ribbons and titles such as "Ennobled", as marketing tools about the Boer breed for a small number of breeders to greatly benefit financially. While the original South African breeders that developed the breed had a major focus on the breed as a superior meat goat, that focus has been lost in the US and the research I was studying showed the boer breed in last place compared to other meat goat in the commercial environment of actually producing goat meat in a profitable manner for commercial breeders. To make matters worse, it is very hard to dispute the facts of the research.

One simple thing you can do to help understand the problem is look at other Boer associations outside of the US to see if they continue to have a focus on the commercial side like the South African breeders did. Look at the breeder associations of other types of meat animals and see if they have a commercial focus vs just showing. Then look at all three of the Boer associations in the US and notice you don't see anything about the meat goat industry and how they are helping to produce a better meat goat to benefit the commercial breeders, which should be the core interest of breeding any meat goat breed. It is especially sad to see that IBGA has a piece of their mission statement that states

"is committed to seeing the meat goat industry in general, and the Boer goat breed in particular, established as a respected and profitable component of mainstream North American agriculture".

Following that statement, I don't find anything else on the web site related to "meat goat industry as a profitable component" and I have not seen any activities from them related to improving the breed for better commercial production. Those are just catchy words in the mission statement but the association shows nothing else on the web site to show they really have any serious focus on it.

Non US Boer Goat Associations	Other Meat Breed Associations	American Boer Associations
Australia www.australianboergoat.com.au/ New Zealand www.nzbgba.co.nz/	Angus Cattle www.angus.org/ Berkshire Hog www.americanberkshire.com/ Kiko Goat www.kikogoats.com Spanish Goat www.spanishgoats.org Dorper Sheep www.dorperamerica.org	American Boer Goat Association www.abga.org US Boer Goat Association www.usbga.org/ International Boer Goat Association www.intlboergoat.org/

Lets look at our IDEAL world of focusing on Commercial meat goats
Show winning animals are the premiere animals and they supply the Breeding herds with superior animals to improve meat producers	Show Winners
Breeding herds are a focus on producing better animals for commercial herds. The breeding herds draw some of the best genetics from the Show winners to pass those genetics on.	Breeding Herd
The commercial herds supply the quality meat goats to the true customers. The commercial herds look to the breeding herds to provide them improved animals to help them be more profitable and provide better meat.	Commercial Herd
Ribbons and award titles are not the end result. Goat meat is.

This issue will be covered in multiples articles in order to fully cover what we are seeing, our concerns, and our planned actions that we will be taking to stop following the guidance of the Boer associations in the US and target a different path that we believe will put our breeding program in line to have the meat goat industry the key focus of our breeding efforts. We certainly don't expect to have any impact on changing the way the Boer associations in the US do business or what they focus on. A small handful of breeders are making too much money by having the focus be on showing, titles and ribbons. However, we will feel much better about justifying our breeding program in the bigger picture of the meat goat industry.

We had already started changing several years ago regarding how we breed and what we focus on but I can see from the research I read, there is much more we can do to be satisfied we are raising Boer goats that will have a positive impact for commercial breeders as our genetics are added to their herds. We will try to add new sections to our web site to show readers where we are heading, why we are heading in that direction and measurable results that readers can determine if they are getting more than just a goat that is pretty, may have won awards/titles and has an impressive pedigree according to other breeders show records.

Watch this page in the future as we share the research we are seeing and specifics about how we think the Boer associations are guiding you in the wrong direction.