CEO's Messge

While reflecting on my beginning with the Boer Goat breed the other day, the first thing I realized for me was that it happened a long time ago. In fact, I realized that I have now been involved with Boer Goats for half of my adult life. My son was maybe eight years old when he started and will celebrate his 26th birthday this summer.

One thing that continues to amaze me is the demand for good quality animals and the prices those good goats consistently bring. I won’t lie. When my son began with his project, I simply assumed it was a fad, a breeder’s market, and thought the high prices goats were bringing might last another two or three years at best. I figured we would be lucky if we ever got our money back. For the record, I was wrong!

Breeders have seen strong demand and good prices for top-quality animals over the last 18 years. At this point, I believe if we continue to support our youth who are the driving force for much of what makes all this a reality, then there is no reason it will not continue another 20+ years. I have been amazed at the number of breeders, vendors, and enthusiasts who have stepped up to the plate over the last nine months and generously given in support of our new JABGA regional show program. My hats off to all of you.

In addition to keeping our youth thriving in agriculture, we also need top-quality judges to help steer our industry in the right direction. And, if the judge’s certification class applications continue to keep coming in at the current pace we will host a class in June. Eddie Holland will return as an instructor. He will be joined by Kurt Henry and Shelby Armstrong for this summer session.

This is a prime opportunity to enhance your knowledge and/or prove that you have what is takes to lead this breed into the future by becoming a fully sanctioned Boer Goat

show judge. We are offering this class in the summer to accommodate those of you who had scheduling difficulties with the last Messagefrom the CEO ... two spring classes. If you’re looking to advance your game and have a little Wether does showing in the JABGA Region 5 Show in Sweetwater, TX. fun doing i, then I suggest you not miss this year’s class. I want to remind those of you who are utilizing an embryo transfer program this summer to get those donor does DNA tested. This will help avoid registration problems later. Donor does have been added to the mandatory list for DNA to protect those of you that do flush. We have encountered a few cases when owners are working in joint flush programs and someone ends up surprised to find out they are raising a kid that is not really theirs. Though not a common issue, it is certainly one of the toughest for us to solve with only sire reference DNA to work with. This new rule should eliminate this issue altogether. It seems that I've talked about summer dates for DNA donor does and a summer course for judging school, but there is at least one more event this summer that supersedes all those. Oh yes, it is the 2018 Nationals in Grand Island, Nebraska. We want to see as many of you attend and bring some extra kiddos for the wether and commercial doe shows that normally would not get to experience a National Breeding Show. We want to show these kids how to have a good time, learn about the Boer Goat breed and maybe even convert a few kids into breeding show kids and keep them in the industry longer.