FODDER FOR THOUGHT
Agreement will allow U.S. goats into South African Stud Book
A group of goat breeders in the U.S. with support from South Africa, is ready to return to classic Boer goat breeding again. Since their arrival in the U.S. more than two decades ago, the
South African Boer and Savanna breeds have been tracked and registered by a variety of competing registry services — some non-profit and some for- profit. The common denominator for all of them was tracking pedigree information from genera- tion to generation. Oftentimes, a higher price was paid for a pedigree than what the goat was worth. Gradually this practice changed in the wether market as breeders began looking more at the ani- mal and less at the pedigree. In other areas however, pedigree purity has been enhanced by sometimes mandatory DNA- testing. This has resulted in an animal having a spotless, traceable pedigree but not necessarily meeting the breed standard.
This is not how it is done in South Africa, where the Boer and Savanna breeds originated. There, trained judges select the very best
BY TERRY HANKINS Goat Rancher editor
animals in a herd and those are the ones that are bred and go into the Stud Book.
Last year the US-SA Boer Goat Breeders Alliance was estab- lished to bring this selection concept to the United States. In April of this year the Alliance was for- mally acknowledged by the South African Boer Goat Breeders Association (SABGA) as the offi- cial South African Boer Goat, Kalahari Red and Savanna goat representative in the U.S. However, and more importantly, the Alliance is now formally registered with Stud Book South Africa as a bona-fide association and therefore the only body recognized by them, according to Con- rad Herbst, the current US-SA Boer Goat Breeders Alliance president. Conrad, of South Africa, but currently relo-
cating to the U.S., is a longtime member of the South African Boer Goat Breeders Association and at one time was the Chairman of the Bosveldt Boer Goat Breeders Club, the largest club of the nine re- Please see FODDER, PAGE 19
4 Goat Rancher | November 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44