Boer goat

The Boer or Boerbok is a South African breed of meat goat. It was selectively bred in the Eastern Cape from about 1920 for meat qualities and for the ability to survive by grazing on the thorn veldt of that region. It has been exported to many countries, and has been used to improve the meat qualities of other breeds.

Europeans arriving in the Cape in the seventeenth century found an established population of goats kept by Khoikhoi peoples. These were small, with short speckled coats; it was thought that they had been brought to the area by peoples migrating southwards down the eastern coast of Africa. In following centuries, goats kept by Boer farmers in the Eastern Cape derived from stock acquired from Khoikhoi and Bantu peoples, possibly with some influence from the Angora or from European or Indian stock. A variety of types and colours was described in the 1830s; by the end of the century the Boer was a large and powerful goat with a convex profile and lop ears, bearing some resemblance to the Anglo-Nubian. A census in the Cape Colony in 1891 found 3444019 head.

Selective breeding for specific qualities began in about 1930, initially for foraging ability and for meat quantity and quality, later also for coat colour – specifically for the white body with red-brown head that now characterises the breed.

A breed society, the Boer Goat Breeders' Association or Boerbok Telersvereniging, was started in Somerset East in 1959.

The Boer has been exported to many countries of the world, in all five inhabited continents. In 2025 it was reported to DAD-IS by 72 countries, of which 30 reported population data; populations of 5000 or more were reported by Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Namibia and South Africa; the total population world-wide was estimated at 182863.

The Boer is a large goat: the average weight of an adult male is some 115 kg, with a mean height reported in 1984 at over 94 cm. The coat is glossy and short; the recommended colouring is white with a reddish-brown head with a white blaze, and pigmented skin. The ears and horns are of medium size; the ears are broad, pendulous and smooth, the horns dark in colour, backward-curving, round and solid.

It is well adapted to grazing on a wide variety of local biomes, including sourveld, coastal veld, mixed veld and thornveld. It has a fast growth rate and good carcass qualities, good resistance to disease and good adaptation to hot, dry semi-desert conditions.^{[citation needed]}

The ewes are polyoestrous and are capable of breeding at any time of year; the natural breeding season is in April and May (i.e., in autumn in the Southern Hemisphere), and breeding activity is at its lowest in late spring and early summer, or approximately November to January. The oestrous cycle lasts approximately 21 days, the oestrus some 30–45 hours. The average gestation period is approximately 148 days, and the anoestrous post-partum period varies from some 30 to 80 days; conception is usually confirmed between 42 and 82 days after parturition.