Oamaru farmer Owen Booth believes goat meat has a big future.
Mr Booth, who won supreme champion standard Boer goat for the third year in a row at the Canterbury A&P Show two weeks ago, said the goat-meat industry was growing in New Zealand. ''We are working to grow the industry.
I believe there's a huge future in Boer goats - we just need to get more animals,'' the New Zealand Boer Goat Breeders Association and Meat Goat NZ board member said.
''We need to get farmers to understand the advantage of goats for weed control and pasture enhancement. You can farm them on second-class country and they perform very well where other stock struggle. ''They are very intelligent and easily managed and they integrate well with other stock. You always put the goats ahead of cattle and deer. They prefer to eat the grass and not the clover.''
At this year's Canterbury show, Mr Booth's 5-year-old buck Viking beat more than 80 Boer goats to win supreme champion standard Boer goat for the second year in a row. Mr Booth also won the title with a doe in 2012. ''Last year Viking was called out in the top four in the judging for the supreme animal of the show, so I was really rapt about that.''
Viking was imported from Australia three years ago and his progeny had already had some success, placing first and second in the buck and doe kid classes, with one of them going on to win junior buck champion, Mr Booth said.
He runs 100 goats in his Whitestone Boers Stud on a 21ha property at Enfield in North Otago.