A Boer goat stud on the rise

Joubert Horn, owner of the Joubert Horn Boer Goat Stud, has high hopes for the future of the breed in South Africa and abroad. He spoke to Janine Ryan.

- Janine Ryan

Joubert Horn, owner of the Joubert Horn Boer Goat Stud, didn't initially plan on becoming a farmer.

"I don't come from a farming background," he says. "My father, a lawyer, had a small piece of land on which some Boer goats roamed when I was growing up, but he wasn't a farmer."

Horn was born and raised in Burgersdorp in the Eastern Cape, and it was only at university that his interest in farming was piqued.

"Many of my friends came from farming backgrounds, and as I interacted with them, I began to grow an interest in farming."

It was this influence that eventually led Horn to approach his father in 2010 about farming the Boer goats on his land.

"When my interest in farming began, I started self-studying farming and learning as much as I could about the Boer goat. I had developed a real passion for the breed," says Horn. "There is nothing more beautiful than a Boer goat ram walking in the veld between the trees."

His father agreed to his proposition.

"He told me that I could buy half the flock, and then we would farm the goats together."

At the time, Horn was playing rugby abroad. He used the money he earned from this to pay off his father for his share of the flock.

In 2015, Kobus Lötter, a well-known name in the Boer goat fraternity in South Africa, came to the farm and helped the Horns select the best ewes of the flock. At the time, there were between 200 and 300 ewes on the farm; under Lötter’s guidance, this was whittled down to around 50 ewes.

"From then on, I selected goats every year for breeding," says Horn.