Indigenous Goats Flourish In Free State

Indigenous Veld Goat breeder Erik de Witt is following his dream of preserving indigenous livestock breeds. Sabrina Dean visited him and learnt that with innovative marketing, it is also possible to make handsome returns on these unique animals.

- Sabrina Dean

It is late afternoon at Erik de Witt’s farm, Leeuwkop, near Koffiefontein in the Free State. Most of the family are present and everyone, down to six-year-old Widru, is involved in the daily chores. These include matching lost kids with their mothers, making sure a group of recently born kids get enough milk from surrogate nannies, and transporting lick to the cattle.

Today, one more task has been added to the list: selecting the finest of their Indigenous Veld Goats (IVGs) for a photo shoot.

DAPPLED COATS

Erik has a deep-rooted love for indigenous goats that was fostered by his mother, Paulina Myburgh (formerly De Witt).

As Erik’s wife, Welmari, tells it, Paulina started farming goats, Kalahari Reds initially, because she wanted something she could call her own. She later fell in love with the dappled IVGs she saw on a visit to the farm of a prominent breeder.

“She started with indigenous goats because she thought they were beautiful,” says Welmari.

IVGs comprise several separate ecotypes and Erik runs three of these on his farm. He breeds the Xhosa Lob Ear and Northern Cape Speckled, while his eldest son Dian, 12, has invested in the smaller Mbuzi ecotype.

Erik has been farming with IVGs for about 11 years. He is also interested in other indigenous livestock types and his breeding operation, Madiru Small Stock, extends to Damara and Meat master sheep and PinZ2yl cattle. He has about 250 sheep, 100 “stud-quality” goats (reduced from more than 200), and approximately 60 cattle.

The livestock live mostly off the veld of the 1 164ha farm, which is a mix of grassland and shrub. Erik provides lick or supplemental feed only as needed.