VN May 2023

Vetnuus | May 2023 18 Article In those days, rural areas, compared to today, were densely populated and farming practices were moulded on a more self-sufficient foundation. The Boer goat was an important role player on the farm as a provider of meat and milk. Farms were relatively small – larger farms often accommodated sub-farmers – and the farmer and his family, his workers and sub-farmers depended on the Boer goat as a food source. Everyone with a small herd of goats tried to breed a goat that met his specific needs. Consequently, some farmers selected greater meat or milk quality depending on circumstances. The farmer retained his own ram that was, in his opinion, the best for his needs, or he exchanged or bought a ram from a neighbour or fellow farmer. Furthermore, at that time, erf holders in rural towns were entitled to grazing rights for small stock and/or cattle on the town common according to a permit system and depending on conditions! The small stock component usually consisted of goats as they easily adapted to a kraal and herding system. It was common to see a flock of goats coming along the street when the communal goatherd took them home. An old-world atmosphere permeated the air, reflecting the lifestyle and needs of the residents. In the mornings, the goatherd took the goats to the veld, watched over them by day and saw them to their owners’ properties in the evening. When we mention the founding of the South African Boer Goat Breeders’ Association in 1959 and the preceding era, we immediately commemorate three persons. They coincidentally had the same first name, Theunis. The first was the late Mr Theunis Jordaan, or TB Jordaan of Buffelsfontein, Somerset East; a man who gained renown as a breeder and judge of Friesians, Merinos and his beloved Boer goats. One morning we visited the farm Karkotskraal, south of Somerset East, where a flock of Boer goat ewes were grazing. The old man who looked after the goats, Mr Antoon Fourie, was a veteran of the Anglo-Boer War. The goats were on their way to the kraal when we drove into the yard. They stopped about 50 metres away from us, sniffed the air with their heads alert and inquisitively approached us in their creaking boots, as only a Boer goat can. What a sight! It was a flock of about 400 ewes – all of them white with red heads and good conformation –and one looked exactly like the other. That day I realised this man owned something that could rock the world. It was about nine years before the SA Boer Goat Breeders’ Association was established. This stud of TB Jordaan, whose stud master he was from 1930 to 1960, was the first Boer goat stud in the country that was registered as such. This is the information he chronicled himself: “This stud of ennobled Boer goats was founded in the year 1931, with the purchase of one ram from the late Mr Jeremias Triegaardt of the farm Van Wyksvlei, Bedford, and half of the Boer goat ewes that belonged to the partnershipWG Jordaan and Sons, of which I was a partner. Around 1918 my father, the lateWG Jordaan, bought about fifteen goat ewes from Mrs Van de Venter of the farm Slot, district Somerset East. They were white smooth-coated goat ewes with light-red heads. Then he bought a ram from the late Mr IB van Heerden of Kaalplaas, Cradock. It was a particularly large red-dappled ram with a strong constitution. Therefore, this ram and ewes were the foundation of the existing stud. Many farmers had a few Boer goats more or less sixty years ago. In those days, however, they were all the colours of the rainbow, and many were long-haired. The only feature people then considered was their constitution. The colour, evenness, uniformity and pigmentation did not matter at all. In 1925, while I was in Australia, my father and brother, who was also a partner in the business, bought one ram fromMr Triegaardt and later another from the same Mr Triegaardt of Bedford.” TB Jordaan was the first chairperson of the Boer Goat Breeders’ Association – an office he managed with dignity and competence from 1950 to 1968. It was not an easy road, and he had to hold a tight reign at some meetings because some members had strong personalities and sometimes wanted to impose their own views of what the Boer goat should look like. A reconnoitre of the minutes of the annual general meetings of that time relates the story of sturm und drang around the Boer goat. I attended some of the meetings in those days and remembered the vehement discussions on the colour of the goat! v