Q&A with the Editor by Shon Callahan
The American Boer Goat Association celebrated its 20th year in business recently, and as all organizations, there have some growing pains! Change isn’t always easy and most of us don’t like it. Unfortunately, for us to grow, we inevitably need some changes. One recent change is in the editor of The Boer Goat magazine. Let me take a few minutes of your time to introduce you all to Mrs. Karla Blackstock! We’ll ask her a few questions and it’ll help explain why she’s on staff now.
Tell us about your background. Where do you live, family, education?
How long have you been involved in the Boer goat industry?
First off, it is a real pleasure to be able to combine two of my passions. I love marketing communications, and I love my Boer goats. I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1997 with an agricultural journalism degree and in 2005 with a Master of Science in Science, Technology Journalism. Since then, I’ve worked in both writing and design/ graphics capacities in a number of industries, including agriculture. My husband, John, spent 15 years in the U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance and the U.S. Army Rangers. We raise our family in Poth, Texas where Parker (son) and Peyton (daughter) show goats and cattle.
Like many others, we started out when Parker started showing. We knew nothing about raising goats, and Jessie wasn’t a great mother and so it took a few years for us to catch the goat fever. Soon after, my mother’s day gift was a blonde traditional doe. Now, it seems as though I only get new collars, goats, feeders, etc. Most girls want diamonds – I’ll guess I’ll just name mine Diamond!
Tell us about your livestock experience? I grew up raising hogs and cattle, but in the 1980s my father decided to concentrate on the Angus cattle. After showing production animals in high school, I went to college and started showing Australian Cattle Dogs in American Kennel Club (AKC) shows. Now, I love to get in the ring with one of my does. I guess you can say that raising and showing livestock is in my blood.
12 - The Boer Goat
The last few years it seem the “special-ness” of the Boer goat has been forgotten from a commercial standpoint. How will our Boer Goat magazine help us “rebrand” Boers as the mother meat breed in America? It is easier for people to get attached to goats because they have personalities that are not as immediately apparent in cattle or other meat species. The fact is that each of my show heifers had a unique personality, and at the end of the day raising meat goats is no different than raising animals for pork or beef. To brand or rebrand the Boer
