At the end of the summer, we sat and evaluated all our kids from spring 2011, based on how they did on our pasture-based management.  These kids have not had any grain and have had to manage on pasture by day and supplemental hay in the barn at night since weaning. They have all been weighed about every two weeks and records have been kept as to weight gains and Famacha scores, as well as how many times any have needed to be dewormed since birth.  Looking at all of the above, we have made the decision to move to all kiko herd sires, and to start to phase out some of our Boer does as well.  Most of the doelings we sold this year were to people who also want to have forage-based herds and were looking for kiko and kiko/cross animals.  The remainder of our kids were sold for the ever-growing goat meat market.  These two areas will become our main focus.  At least in our experience, the Boers don't seem to be able to manage nearly as well without supplemental grain, and have had much more problems fighting off the parasites.

ECR Donkey Odie, a purebred kiko buck, was purchased in 2009 and used with our crossbred does as we started to experiment with adding kiko goats to our herd.  He has since become one of our main herd sires.  His offspring grow extremely well, and have shown good resistance to parasites.

October 2010 we purchased a 100% New Zealand Kiko buckling to bring some new kiko blood into our herd.  He has an impressive pedigree and we were very pleased with the kids he sired from a group of yearling doelings.  This year he is covering a larger group of does and we look forward to seeing what they produce. The first photo below of PJM Survivor was taken when he first arrived as a seven month old.  The second shows him as he looks now, a big more rugged!   

Donkey Odie

PJM Survivor, Fall 2010

PJM Survivor, Fall 2011