Pricing patterns of an indigenous goat in rural and urban communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Agro-pastoralism plays an important role in the livelihoods of rural communities in many parts of the world. In southern Africa, small-scale rural farmers keep various kinds of livestock like goats for additional income and to meet their household needs. The objective of the study was to determine whether small-scale goat farmers obtained better prices for their animals at auctions as opposed to sales taking place at their homesteads. We quantified sales of indigenous goats that took place at homesteads and auctions, and determined the number, colour, sex, age, and the prices at which the goats were sold. We did this by collecting data on sales from 27 homesteads in the Msinga area of KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa during 2017 and 2018. Similarly, we collected data on sales at three goat auctions that took place at a rural and peri-urban centre located near Msinga and at another auction located at an urban centre distant from Msinga. All four auctions occurred between 2019 and 2022. The data were analysed using generalised linear models with a gamma distribution and log-link function. Results showed that male and female goats were sold in about equal numbers among all sales while subadult goats were more represented (55%) in the sales than adult goats (45%). At a mean price of ZAR1484.22 +/- 30.23, a male goat was substantially cheaper than a female goat (R1911.81 +/- 65.71) among all sales. Overall, the urban auction provided the best price, followed by homestead sales and the rural auction, and lastly the periurban site. Most of the animals that were not sold were returned from the peri-urban site. Adult goats fetched a significantly higher price than subadult goats, but at the auctions, this was also influenced by site, i.e. significant site x age interaction. Brown-coloured goats fetched the highest price at homesteads (R2287.50 +/- 493.15) and auctions (R1965.10 +/- 81.74) while black goats fetched similarly low prices of R1239.58 +/- 147.37 and R1237.50 +/- 519.82, respectively. Taken together, these results suggest that prices of indigenous goats sold at homesteads compare favourably or better than those obtained at local level auctions. Auctions at major urban centres may fetch higher prices but this may be offset by transport costs. Farmers may benefit from auctions when they need to sell many animals in a short time.