Adaptation to various environments and resistance to disease of the Improved Boer goat

The Improved Boer Goat is a remarkable small-stock ruminant that possesses distinctive qualities enabling it to excel as an efficient red meat producer. It is early maturing, reaching a mean maximum weight of approximate to 62 kg at 3.5 years of age on natural pasture under extensive grazing conditions. It boasts high fecundity, with approximate to 2.09 kids born per doe kidded. A relatively large proportion of does (approximate to 33%) have triplets, whilst the occurrence of kids born as quadruplets and quintuplets have also been documented. The Beer goat is predominantly a browser, enabling it to convert shrub and bush into red meat, thereby playing a supplementary role to other farm stock in increasing meat production per unit area, rather than being in competition with them. As a browser, the goat is also extremely useful and effective in combatting undesirable bush encroachment. In addition, it appears to be fairly resistant towards certain diseases which are normally contracted by other small stock, such as sheep. Lastly, Boer goats produce red meat of high quality which is hardly distinguishable from that of mutton or lamb as far as flavour is concerned, provided animals are slaughtered at a relatively young age. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.