Where do Boer goats come from?
The Boer goat was developed by South Africian ranchers whose goal was to breed the worlds finest meat goat. South Africian Boer goats were exported to New Zealand and Australia in the 1980’s where they were placed into a 5 year quarantine. North America saw its first Boer goats in 1993 which were imported from New Zealand. These goats were the offspring from the quarantine station which had extensively used embryo transfer to increase their numbers. In addition to live imports, frozen embryos were also imported. The first direct South Africian imports arrived in 1994 when 2 shipments of live goats arrived on US soil. Frozen embryos from South Africia were imported into Canada in 1994. Many of the resulting Boer goats were imported into the US.
