FAST FACTS
Divan Maritz, owner of Koati Boer Goat Stud, strives for a lower interkidding period to optimise profitability.
The parasite load is very high due to the Lowveld climate, necessitating regular preventative treatment.
Maritz feeds the goats pellets every day to improve their condition and aid their growth.
The goats of Koati Boer Goat Stud graze in areas lush with grass, alongside verdant nut orchards. It's a far cry indeed from the arid farms in South Africa's western regions, where goat production thrives. While nut farming on its own has been enormously profitable over the past few years, a wise farmer will always seek to utilise every square metre on his or her farm to its optimum. In this case, the goats serve to kill several birds with one stone.
“We have a lot of unused land on the farm that's not suited to nut orchards, but where the veld and weeds grow rampant,” explains Divan Maritz, owner of Koati Boer Goat Stud in Schagen, near Mbombela in Mpumalanga.
“Monkeys would breed there, creating a problem for the nuts when they descend into the orchards to feed. The goats can now feed on those unused pieces of veld, earning us
