The controversial topic of colouring in goats and whether one offers more value than the other, could soon be settled.
Antap, a Sydney-based company that's the largest exporter of Australian chicken, lamb and mutton in the South Pacific, is planning to collect data that will compare weights and dressing percentages, which could finally show how various claims stack up.
Company consultant Graham Reimers outlined the plan while speaking at workshops in south west Queensland in February aimed at gauging producer interest in Antap's plan to supply a prime lamb-style product for the domestic goat meat market.
Describing the recent surge in interest for Kalahari Red goats as likely down to good marketing, Mr Reimers said the lack of hard physical data to back up claims would be addressed once supply began flowing to Antap.
"Antap will get suppliers to electronically tag their animals - they'll weigh them before they leave home, then we'll get a live weight on curfew, and a carcase weight," he said.
Red and standard Boers will be drafted up and live weights and dressing percentages compared, plus the appearance of carcases, in a never-before attempted experiment.
"Antap carcases will be the only ones killed that day so people will get paid for what they produce and receive performance data," Mr Reimers said.
He agreed the experiment may show there was no difference between varieties and people should choose whatever they want, but said it needed to be done once and for all.
Kalahari Red origins
After much questioning from the audience at the Roma workshop trying to stay abreast of claims being made, Mr Reimers said there was no doubt Kalahari Reds had originally come from standard Boers.
He told participants that in South Africa in the early 2000s, red kids were a cull from Boer herds, partly because of their numerous teats and partly because of the shorter, steeper rump the gene bred.
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One stud he worked with gave red animals to its head stockman to kill for food or sell for cash, with the latter almost always happening.
Mr Reimers said two enterprising breeders paid good money, with the aim of creating a new breed.
He went on to say that a few years ago, Australia was lucky to have 150 red goats in the country.
"Now there are thousands," he said. "Even the greatest embryo transfer in the world couldn't have bred that many, unless some were upgraded from ferals."
That's not necessarily a bad thing in Mr Reimer's mind - he has high regard for the genetic ancestry of Australia's rangeland goat herd - but claims of breed purity irk him.
"People are paying a lot of money for something that's not going to deliver on what they were sold," he said. "A lot of things sold to you as Kalahari Red are probably 25 per cent feral, and you can see it in their horns."
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
