General Info

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 Boer goat.

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 meat goat industry. Mature Does can weigh between 190- 230 lb and mature Boer bucks can weigh between 200 – 340 lb.

Boer: South African breed of goat, the most productive meat goat in the world. Millions of Boer goats are raised across southern Africa as well as in Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. They are prized for their size, rapid weight gain, carcass quality, hardiness, and docility. These qualities can be passed on even when Boer bucks are bred to does of other breeds. Boer does are renowned for kidding as often as two times in three years, frequently bearing twins and sometimes triplets.

Culinary names for goat meat

Goat meat or goat’s meat is the meat of the domestic goat (Capra aegagrus hircus).

“Goat” is usually the name for the meat found in common parlance, but many North Americans have an aversion to saying goat meat.

Goat meat from adults is often called chevon: producers and marketers may prefer to use the French-derived word chevon (from chèvre)

Cabrito, capretto, or kid is meat from young animals.  Cabrito refers specifically to young, milk-fed goat.

In some parts of Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the word “mutton” is sometimes used to describe both goat and sheep meat, in North America mutton would only refer to sheep.