The Boer Goat Looks, Personality And Great Meat!

At the start of her own Boer goat enterprise, Jack Smellie talks to several existing producers and explains why Boers and their meat have so much to offer, as well as gaining valuable advice for newbies such as herself……

- Jack Smellie

After seven years of dairy goat keeping and making cheese, we decided to add a couple of Boer goats to our mix and start to raise our own goat meat. In the May/June edition, we described the heartache that occurred when we had to cull/sell on our dairy goats but also the success of our first year of Boer breeding when each of our two nannies had triplets!!!

Going from three to nine goats in the space of 48 hours was rather humbling. Our first set of triplets gave us a 2:1 ratio in favour of girls and then the next set were all boys, but as we were starting a mini goat meat enterprise, maybe this was not such a bad thing. Whatever the numbers though, having kids around again after a gap of two years (we had not bred in 2016 due to our move), was a fabulous reminder,should one be needed, as to how much we love our goats!

Our Boers are seriously chilled animals and generally very biddable, most other producers we have spoken to, many with much larger numbers, say the same.

Did you know that goats were one of the first animals to be domesticated and that in the wild, the top goat is a female but she will have a male ‘deputy’ who will often go on ahead to find places to eat and sleep or rest? Did you also know that goat meat is the most widely eaten meat in the world, but then with a population of over 850 million goats, this is perhaps no wonder? The Boer goat has its origins in South Africa where it has been bred specifically for meat. The name is derived from the Afrikaans (Dutch) word ‘Boer’ meaning farmer. The Boer goat has a shorter lactation period than the dairy breeds and a faster growth rate, reaching 40-50kgs or more in as little as five months, although most producers like to see their animals get to at least six months before slaughter.

The rise of goat meat…