Holly Spring Farm
Ramseur, NC
Goats
Boer/Nubian cross Billy goat
Twin bucklings $250 each
available first week of June 2023
Female goat kid $200
Boer goat history
The development of the Boer goat in the early 1900’s can be traced to the Dutch farmers of South Africa. Boer is a Dutch word meaning farmer. With meat production setting the selection criteria, the Dutch farmers developed the Boer goat as a unique breed of livestock. The Boer goat has a rapid growth rate, excellent carcass qualities and is highly adapted to different environments.
Through the subsequent decades of selective breeding, the Boer goat gained its genetic superiority and nobility, laying the foundation for what is today’s American Boer goat.
The first full-blood Boers were brought into the United States in 1993, the same year the American Boer Goat Association was formed. Since that time a tremendous amount of interest in breeding Boer and Boer influence goats has exploded in the United States.
The Boer goat is commonly a goat with a white body and a red head. Docile, high fertility and a fast growth rate are some of the traits that set the Boer goat apart in the purebred and commercial segments of the American meat goat industry. Mature Does can weigh between 190- 230 lb and mature Boer bucks can weigh between 200 – 340 lb.
The demand for high quality, lean, healthy red meat is the one of the underlining forces behind the development of the American meat goat industry. With an eager base of ethnic consumers, the demand for goat meat continues to grow in the United States each year. The importation of goat meat into the United States is estimated over 30 million dollars annually.
Why You Should Eat Goat Meat
By: Melissa Pasanen | Tuesday, September 1, 2015
This sustainable meat source often gets overlooked. Here’s why you should give goat a place at your table.
Thirty years ago, few Americans were familiar with goat cheese, but today the fresh creamy cheese is everywhere. Now sustainable-farming advocates hope we’ll also fall in love with goat meat. Shirley Richardson, a small-scale Vermont farmer, is one of those advocates. She saw that the goat dairy industry generates a significant number of kids (baby goats) each year to keep their mothers producing milk. Dairy farms have no need for males and keep only some females, resulting in a lot of extra young goats. Explains Richardson, “Farmers welcomed help figuring out a way to put these surplus animals to productive use in the food chain.”
Richardson co-founded Vermont Chevon and has been working to develop a sustainable and humane model for raising dairy goats for the meat market. While goat meat is popular worldwide, in America it has typically been limited to smaller ethnic markets and restaurants (Indian, Caribbean, Mexican). But that’s changing as some upscale restaurants, including Chicago’s Girl & the Goat, as well as Whole Foods Market and specialty butchers are adding it to their mix. Adam Danforth, butcher and James Beard Award-winning author, notes it’s a challenge for retailers to carry goat meat: “There’s slow progress, but I see it happening.”
Another important task, Richardson says, is “educating chefs and consumers about this healthy and flavorful meat.” Goat meat has about the same amount of protein as chicken breast and more iron than beef. “Goat is a good example of a meat that is ignored, based on ignorance,” says Danforth. “It’s delicious. Sweet, mild and not gamy at all. People are pleasantly surprised when they try goat—everyone from foodie laymen to really experienced chefs.”
Try Goat at Home
Try our recipe for Indian-spiced Goat Curry or check out Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, a cookbook with recipes for Jamaican jerk goat, kebabs and more.