Red Boer Goats are more than a novelty
By Louw Pretorius

Mr. Ben Vorster of Xmas Tshipise's Boer Goats are red, without as much as a hint of white. The only hint of another color is the gleaming gold-red of the older ram's beards.
Mr. Vorster has known Boer Goats since childhood. He was born and raised behind the Soutpansberg and raised in a time game fencing was still unknown. Then already more than one farmer realized that goats could be incorporated meaningfully, as they didn’t compete with cattle for food. Cattle used the grass and goats prefer the bush.
In the early eighties, one of the ewes lambed twins two years in a row, where one was completely red. The lambs developed into beautiful goats and had the advantage, that at least, in the extremely hot Bushveld, they would not experience the issue of to little pigment. Then there was the story that eagles could not easily catch red lambs. It was the beginning of his red herd.

Looking for new blood

Since then the farmer has been incessantly looking for red goats, primarily to acquire new blood. Just now a young male from another herd arrived at the farm. Large and small, there are already 90 goats in the red herd.

With drought being a general phenomenon in the field, the whole farming style on Xmas changed. Where previously the focal point was a commercial Drakensberger herd, Mr. Vorster is now focused on citrus exports. In 1984 the cattle were reduced and he switched to Drakensberger Stud farming.

Just kept on field

The available land on the farm consists of 2070 ha which is used by 15 ha / LSU. It also provides for the wildlife on the farm. This means the field can contribute 138 LSU of which approximately 17% of the goat farming is allocated. The goats thrived because of the rooibos, rooibospods and hardebos, berry trees like rosyntjiebos (white karee),  kanniedoodshrub and herbbushes. There is actually a lot of mopaneveld  available for winter grazing for the goats.
The goats are only kept on the field - even without a lick. Due to problems with jackal during lambing season, they are kept in small camps and given a supplement of ground lucerne. Once the lambs are a week old, the ewes are taken to the field during the day. When the lambs are 3 months old, they are taken out with the ewes. At night, the goats are kraaled.

In average years, a lambing percentage of 200 is the norm. Over the past 3 years of drought, it has dropped to about 140. 54 Lambs were obtained from 38 red ewes over the last lambing season.
All the offspring are raised to slaughter or breeding age. About 30 ewe lambs are used yearly as replacement. The rest are marketed with the kapaters.

Beef Properties

An interesting phenomenon is that not one of the red ewes on the farm have had a white lamb, meaning that the red color is very dominant. Even a white spot on the red ewes is an exception. Only red rams are used with the red ewes.
A far as meat quality is concerned; the red goat is in no way inferior to their white counterparts, says Mr. Vorster.

article from Landbouweekblad.

AANSLUITING

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