|
In the
fall of 1998 while working with Dr. Stuart Southwell at N&K Ranches, Inc.
in Eldorado Texas a conversation led to a vision. The vision became a
strategy and the strategy became reality. Here’s the story.
Dr.
Stuart Southwell, a well-known embryo transfer practitioner from New
Zealand, contributed greatly to what we all have today of South African
Boer Goat genetics. Stuart facilitated the movement of genetics of this
breed from Africa to New Zealand, New Zealand to Canada, New Zealand to
Canada to America, Africa to Australia, New Zealand to Australia,
Australia to New Zealand, and also Australia to America. The discussion
that day centered on access to breeders and breed combinations that were
not available in the US. We discussed the movement of embryos from the
Republic of South America to Canada and then the movement of pregnant
implanted females to Texas. Each shipment that came through this route had
good individuals in it but the “top end” seemed smaller than it should
have been. Many reputable breeders were not represented in those
shipments. The first goats that came to Canada as embryos were collected
by Canadian teams and the teams were looking for numbers. The quantity was
obtained but the cream would have to find a way to the top somehow…later.
Later
that year we were informed of the economic conditions in South Africa and
we learned that several breeders were moving genetics and family to
Australia and New Zealand. We learned of two such South Africans that had
immigrated to Australia. These men had previously searched the records of
national shows, researched pedigrees and then purchased great does from a
handful of successful breeders and mated and flushed them to well known
bucks and sent over 680 frozen embryos to Australia.
In
1999, these embryos were then placed with approximately 18-20 ranches. The
reports were that a high percentage of embryos resulted in successful
pregnancies and that the kids were to be born in August of 1999.
Some
of the people present on that serendipitous day were Tommy Morriss of
Morriss Ranch, Sonora, Texas, Norman Kohls of N& K Ranches, Inc. of
Eldorado, Texas and Dr. Greg Stewart of Georgia. We became interested in
seeing these animals, as many as we could, in a reasonable period of time.
We contacted many of the ranches where these embryos were placed. We then
constructed a timetable. It was decided that if the animals were truly
elite animals that we would form a partnership and attempt to move frozen
embryos from selected matings back to America for infusion into our own
stocks and for providing these genetics to discriminating breeders here.
We
took the ride down under to the land of OZ. Two sunrises in one twenty
four hour period was an interesting phenomenon. What we found there was a
beautiful country, amazing scenery, and friendly hard working ranchers
interested in goat production. We visited 15 sites from West Australia all
the way across the country to New South Wales. The hospitality was
gracious, the language was all “sort of” English but the blokes drive on
the incorrect side of the road, the toilets flushed counterclockwise and
if you are in the shoelace business forget Australia as a new market. And
ohhh yes, the bush flies!!!!! Pesky little devils that bite like Yankee
flesh is sweet meat and will absolutely fog you at certain times of the
year. It was that certain time of the year. Odds are they are pesky
all year long but the implication was that there was a time when they
weren’t . The good news is that if you , no correct that, when
you swallow one they are 68% protein.
We
checked fence at 180 kilometers per hour in a 4-wheel drive SUV in the
outback. We had plenty of good fresh meat on the “barby”, We went to
places where there’s no way you can pronounce it, toured the harbor then
got lost in Sydney after dark, and were also instructed that the Foster’s
brewed in Toronto, Canada bears no real kinship to the homegrown stuff in
OZ and should be judged accordingly. For some of us, it took several
“lessons” for this really to sink in.
The
Australians were left a legacy from the detail oriented Captain Cook. As
he discovered and mapped the islands of Oceania, he left goats on some of
the islands so that later expeditions would have protein sources upon
their return. Many years later these goats left by the good captain had
swelled their number to over 20 million and were destroying “the bush”.
They shot them for a while and then discovered that if they caught them
live they would bring a good price in the Islamic world. Traps were built
near watering holes and then the Jacarus began to muster them into the
traps with airplanes and horses and dogs. The airplanes and horses soon
gave way to helicopters /airplanes/motorcycles and dogs. Huge numbers of
feral goats were taken this way and shipped out of Australia. When we
arrived in the fall of 1999, the census numbers were down to 2-3 million
left. A new strategy began. Remove the males. Infuse the South African
Boer lines through males. Construct new traps and pens to begin a
renewable resource enterprise. The first year the feral males broke in and
challenged the young Boer bucks. The result was many more feral goats.
Next smaller flocks of females were infused with mature Boer bucks and
this time Boer crosses began to emerge. Several properties we visited had
large pens. How about a 23,000 acre paddock? Can you imagine 30,000 goats
on 800,000 acres? These animals are now being ranched and then mustered at
certain times and the young animals brought to a yard where they are
acclimatized to a feed that would be fed to them on the boat to the Middle
East. Some boats of goats are destined to arrive alive for Halal slaughter
at the destination and others are now being processed en route. Even the
byproducts are processed after slaughter for sale at the destination. The
ferals proved it. Much of the dry outback land in Australia is capable of
supporting goat production. Now the Australians are shipping 3000 metric
tons of boxed frozen goat meat to the USA for sale. Boer goats are playing
a role in this production system today. They were also interested in what
was happening on the “Yank” ranches.
This
partnership was formed as Certified Boer CaprasÔ
LLC. The image and the name Certified Boer Capras became a trademark with
the United States Trademark Office. It is currently a breeder member of
the American Boer Goat Association located in Georgia.
East
Coast Sale History -
Click to View |
