With more people considering farming as a profitable business, knowledge on management should be considered a necessity to ensure profits and prosperity on the industry. Faheem Kala of Bushra Stud Kalahari Reds gave Farmers’ Magazine an insightful guide on how to produce meaty animals that are good for the market.
What does a farmer need to do in order to produce meaty animals?
With great care and careful planning, any farmer can ensure great returns in the form of high quality and calibre meaty Kalahari Reds. Key to this is selecting the correct buck, for a buck coming out of a good mother line with high positive traits including growth rate, masculinity, good muscling, and having good length and depth of body can make all the difference. One must also select females with deep body structures and mothering abilities that produce a lot of milk. We essentially want to ensure a good management programme is strictly planned, executed and adhered to. This is especially in terms of parasite control (internal and external), good veldt management and a customised nutrition (feed) programme. The more one invests in making a success of their efforts, the more positive results you will see.
What professional care should be considered in animal health in order to ensure profits?
As the saying goes, “Do it with passion or not at all.” One cannot over-emphasise the importance of ensuring due professional care. This comprises a number of key elements, including ensuring you have a good relationship with a reputable and qualified vet, preferably in close proximity to the farm, as well as with an animal nutritionist. Try to develop a good feeding regimen, ensure a strong de-worming and tick control programme in addition to this. Never let your guard drop in this regard, and stay on top of your care plan at all times.
What makes Kalahari Red breed one of the good meat producers?
Kalahari Reds without a doubt make for excellent meat and carcass potential. They are good meat producers by virtue of their good growth rate, strong genes, prolific kidding, depth of body and diet.
Growth rate:
- fast growth rate and strong bone structure allow for increased muscling and higher carcass weight.
- their deep pigment and dark coat allows for longer browsing / grazing even in the hottest of conditions, and this also contributes to their speedy growth rate. 1
Strong genes:
- As they are excellent cross breeders (including with indigenous goats) with very dominant genes and traits that are passed over to the offspring, this improves carcass quality, fat distribution and ensuring of tender meat.
- Commercial goat farmers can cross-breed Kalahari Reds to improve the carcass mass of indigenous goats; this is successfully being done all across Southern Africa. The benefits of cross-breeding with a Kalahari Red buck are plentiful and always produce astounding results. It allows for a heightened improvement in hybrid vigour (heterosis), which results in the offspring having enhanced genetic traits as a result of mixing the superior genetic contributions of its parents (the best of both breeds). This ensures commercial farmers have the opportunity to benefit from faster growth, stronger quality of meat, and increased carcass mass.
Prolific kidding:
- They often kid twins (multiple births) and hence provide a faster return on investment, i.e. more ready and plentiful meat supply.
Depth of body and diet:
- Their long, deep bodies give them excellent mobility and make them functionally efficient. The fact that they feed on a vast variety of different species of shrubs, trees and plants is also advantageous.
This is in large part what makes Kalahari Reds amongst the best meat producers, a healthy and popular red meat choice.
Is there any significant quality that makes it outstanding as a meat producer, as compared to other breeds?
The biggest advantage of the Kalahari Red over other breeds is their colour, which may come as. surprise. Their deep, earthy red pigment makes for excellent camouflage when the animals have to fend themselves in the veldt from predators. Kalahari Reds are in fact fully pigmented; this means they can endure extreme heat and strong sunshine for hours, which is paramount in our arid climate. In addition to this, their long ears provide good heat resistance. Both in turn allow for longer and more extensive grazing, hence ensuring a faster growth rate and increased milk production. This makes for an excellent meat and milk producer, and thus the breed becomes even more popular.
At what age/ stage should a farmer sell their goat normally?
The sooner a farmer sells his product, the more profit he/she stands to make in terms of less feeding and holding expenses. However, this also largely depends on what the market demand is in your area. For example, 6-12 months is ideal in a more intensive farming operation. Targeting certain religious or cultural festivals like the annual Islamic qurbani / udhiyyah wherein goats be over 12 months old is also a factor, and allows the farmer to plan accordingly towards this.
How would you advise someone who has just started goat production and wants to prosper in that industry?
There is no single secret weapon. However, I believe that patience, perseverance, and hard work are important. Keep things simple, but consistent.
