Sarah Williams
Beaver Staff
Newburgh’s own Anthony Kerr was recently featured in the CBC Documentary Year of the Goat. The documentary features families such as Kerr’s, who have taken an interest in raising and showing goats at county fairs across the province.
As stated on CBC, the families involved often have to juggle “goat duties with school, work and home life.”
Anthony’s mother, Anne Kerr, attributes her son’s success showing goats with his experience in the local 4-H Club and praised the efforts of father-daughter 4-H leaders Keith and Sarah Coleman.
“When I was younger, my siblings, myself and my father were all in 4-H,” she explained. “Part of the final project was always to show in the county fair. In 4-H, he’s learned a lot. I don’t think he’d have gotten to this point with showing or even been involved in this film if it weren’t for them.”
Kerr explained that within 4-H, there are a number of specific animal clubs, such as the dairy club and the cattle club.
“You train the animal and learn how to manoeuvre them so as to show their best qualities,” she said.
There is also a showmanship aspect involved in competitions. This is judged on how well people present themselves, how they treat their animals and how they make them look their best.
“If you’re a good show person, you can bring out the good qualities and sort of hide the faults. The way you clip and position the animal helps with that,” noted Kerr.
As Kerr pointed out, 4-H has become a lot more detailed over the years.
“You need to tell the background, genetics, age etc. The questions they ask now are a lot more detailed than when I was in 4-H, so he actually had to know a lot more, for example technical parts of the animal,” said Kerr.
Anthony Kerr shows a goat to a judge at the Royal Winter Fair. Submitted photo.
As it turns out, Anthony has carried on a family legacy, with his grandfather also having raised them.
It’s been over a year since Aaron Hancox of Markham Street Films contacted Anthony and his family about appearing in the documentary. Kerr noted someone in the Canadian Dairy Goat Association had passed along Anthony’s name to the producer.
Though, for the most part, filming ended before the pandemic began, Kerr emphasized that showing has been completely disrupted, as has 4-H.
“The pandemic has affected the showing…all our fairs have been cancelled and there’s no 4-H,” she said.
When asked what Anthony loves most about raising goats, the proud parent stated he is intrigued with goat genetics and how to obtain the most desired qualities via breeding.
“He loves studying the genetics behind the animals,” she said “He loves studying breeding in order to get some faults fixed or bring in two different animals that can have the optimal genetics,” added Kerr.
Anthony noted his interest in raising goats was piqued when he observed a neighbour raising registered goats.
“One of our neighbours had registered goats and, when I saw them, I wanted to see what it was like to raise them, so I got goats and ended up really liking them,” said Anthony.
Of course, the question remains, why goats? What makes these animals so special? For Anthony, it’s all about their personalities.
As an example of dedication, the 12-year-old spends about one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening taking care of his animals. He’s had his herd of 13 for three years now.
Each year, Anthony stated he competes in about five different shows, including the Royal Winter Fair.
“Last year at the Royal, I came in third place of 27 people in showmanship and then I came third place for confirmation with one of my goats,” he said proudly.
Last year, one of his goats named Calpernia even became grand champion and, as Anthony explained, gained status as permanent champion.
Though the future is always uncertain, Anthony’s enthusiasm for raising and showing goats is clear and when asked whether or not he wanted to carry this tradition into the future, he replied, simply “Yes”.
To stream Year of the Goat, visit CBC Gem here: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/cbc-docs-pov/season-4/episode-9/38e815a-013482ff9fc.