Aren Boer goats from South Africa? Why did many come from New Zealand?
Although they were first developed in South Africa, for a couple of years nearly all Boer goats in the United States came from New Zealand. In the late 1980’s several frozen Angora and Boer embryos were smuggled out of South Africa via Zimbabwe by New Zealand and Australian companies. The smugglers were primarily after the Angora embryos because of the high quality mohair producing Angoras bred in South Africa; the Boer embryos were just an afterthought. The companies implanted the embryos into recipient does in New Zealand. One Australian company got into financial problems and ownership of many of its embryos and offspring went to the quarantine station operator, Rob Moodie of New Zealand, who named his herd African Goat Flocks. The other major holder of African Boer and Angora goats in New Zealand was Landcorp Farming Limited, a government-owned entity. Still another Australian firm, Australian Breeding Management, had thousands of African Boer and Angora goats, and those goats were
