Hybrid Vigor

One year Kiko/Boer 50/50 Cross Commercial Bucks ready for breeding.

Phone # Update: (304)677-3239.  I have had the wrong phone number on here for weeks!

50/50 Kiko Boer Commercial Sire
– DOB April 2011

These bucks were born in April 2011 and have been growing rapidly ever since.

50/50 Kiko Boer Commercial Sire
– DOB April 2011

A friend of mine has two nice Sire prospects ready to go for you breeding needs. These guys were born in April 2011 and are very nice, well built bucks. Their Sire is a Kiko buck and their Dam is a Boer Doe. He is asking $400.00 each for these bucks but will take offers or discount if both are purchased together. His name is Chuck and he can be reached on his cell at (304)677-3239.  I have had the wrong phone number on here for weeks!

 Hybrid Vigor which can be defined as an increase in the performance of “hybrids” over that of purebreds, most noticeably in traits related to fertility and survivability. From our personal experience, we’ve been very impressed in our breed up program when we’ve mated our NZ Kiko Buck to Fullblood Boer does. Those kids tend to get the best of both breeds. The kids always seem to chase down the dams for milk much quicker than the contemporary Boers. They also grow faster than the Kikos and have been much hardier and healthier than the Boers.

I’ve been to Chuck’s farm on many occasions and can attest that he has a very healthy herd of goats. I actually saw these 2 bucks last week and thought they were much older than a year based on their sheer size alone. They were in the pasture with their Sire, who is a very good representative of the Kiko breed himself, and they were 2/3rds his size already. These goats are on pasture and have never been pushed with grain. They simply got this big this fast because they were bred right. They can help out your herd by bringing the parasite resistance and feet of the Kiko breed along with the higher weight gains from their Boer influence.

King Titan, PB Kiko Sire of these bucks

Their Sire pictured above is also available for sale. He is an unregistered PB Kiko Buck. Bottom line, if you’re looking for a good Commercial Buck (or two) and aren’t concerned about papers then you should give these guys a shot.

Cull Until It Hurts!

Last month we sold 2 NZ Kiko Bucks for $1,500 and $1,450 each. This month we sold 2 of their half brothers (also NZ Kiko Bucks) for $100 each. Yes, you read that correctly, $100 each. Actually they sold for $106 and $108 respectively for a total of $214 for the pair. You see, these bucks were culls. Yes, they were 100% New Zealand Kiko Bucks out of the same Sire as their twin brothers who brought nearly $3,000, but they did not grow out as well and one of them even had an ongoing issue with his hoof that wouldn’t clear up with treatment. To add to the pain, this set of twins were the ones that Lorie and I picked at birth as the most beautiful out of the contemporary group due to their unusual coloring.

One of them was chocolate colored and the other one had a perfect silver coat. We even had a customer who had called us earlier in the year and specifically asked for a chocolate colored buck which we had never raised before this year. What a bummer! We just could not sell these bucks as breeding stock when we lined them up next to their half brothers. They were at the bottom of the pack, even being outperformed by a doeling in the group.

3 Week old Chocolate and Silver NZ Kiko Bucks

We are very fortunate to have a continuous market for off the farm meat goat sales and our customers are happy to pay the $2 per pound live weight price that we have always asked for our meat goats. These 2 particular NZ bucks were purchased by customers from Africa that do things a little bit different than you or I may do.

*Warning! These photos may be disturbing to children or those of you, who hug, kiss, name your goats, and sell every one of them for breeding stock regardless of their performance.

First the goats are killed by slitting of the throat. This is the most disturbing part of the entire process due to the amount of blood that is shed, however it makes for a quick and humane death. The first time we ever witnessed this act, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. That left a lasting impression, to say the least.

Throat Slit for quick and humane kill

Next a separate fire is built for each goat to be roasted. We supplied the firewood for the fires and they assembled them to their liking. Once the lighter fluid had all burnt away and the fires were burning nicely, the whole goats were lifted unto the tops of the fires.

Goat Roasting on an open fire

The goats were turned on top of the fires until all of the hair had burned away and the skin started to cook. Knives were used to scrap off the burnt up hair while on top of the fires. This is the second time I have witnessed this method of slaughter and roasting and I must say, there is significantly less hair to deal with when they are done than when I skin them like I would a deer and spend the rest of the day picking hair off of the meat.

Removing burnt hair with a knife

After the goats have been roasted, they are removed from the fire. At this point in the process the bowels are removed from the roasted goat. Several of the organs are retained for consumption and only a small plastic grocery bag of entrails are left over from each of the goats.

Almost Done!

Finally, the goats are quartered and cut into smaller workable pieces and placed in a cooler to be transported home for further cooking later that day or the next. The entire process takes less than an hour, which is very efficient I must add.