About Kalahari Red Goats
I have decided to get into Kalahari Red Goats, to both breed and run them as part of our commercial meat goat herd, which is at present all Boer goats. The image below shows my two fine bucks. I have bred Kalahari goats and did some cross breeding with Boer goats to increase hybrid vigour. It has been worthwhile and I have found the Kalahari goats more resilient and tougher, with much higher kid survival rates. I also found does to be better with kidding with fewer losses and what is more important very good mothering instincts, as mismothering in Boer goats I have found to be an issue. This results in less kid losses and less kids requiring hand rearing when abandoned, something we have found quite rare with the Kalahari goats.
The Kalahari Red goat is an indigenous goat breed originating from Southern Africa. The history is that the goats have been selected from lop-eared goats that migrated with various tribes to Southern Africa around 2000 years ago.
Various goat breeders from the Northern Cape Province in South Africa and the southern regions of Namibia, in particular the Kalahari Desert area.
About Kalahari Red Goats
The goats were selected a little smaller than the improved red and white pigmented Boer goat, but with a uniform red pigmentation.
The prime meat goat breeds in South Africa are the Boer Goat, the Savanna goat and now the Kalahari Red.
The Kalahari Red is a very new breed in terms of recognition and it has now become a very important meat-producing breed in South Africa.
South African and Namibian farmers have acquired and kept red Boer and Savanna goats for some 25 to 30 years specifically selected for the red colouration. Once some uniformity was established this has lead to the new breed status
KALAHARI RED GOAT TRAITS
It’s desirable traits are that it is very adaptable to arid and semi arid savannah; they have very good foraging abilities and are reputed to have excellent mothering abilities. The latter is very desirable when compared with Boer goats whose mothering abilities are not always very good. One very desirable trait is they are regarded as a minimum care and maximum profit goat breed. Kalahari Reds have an even pigmentation and so they have a natural resistance to both sun and heat. The red coloration also acts as a much better camouflage to predators such as foxes and birds of prey. Kalahari red goats, drought resilient, low maintenance
