When we first started raising Kiko Goats in 2005 several people asked us "Why?" That is actually a very loaded question.
While
in Southeast Georgia we began in the goat business during the winter of 2001 with a herd of "brush" goats. Those were some tough
goats, of course, they had to be as we did not have a clue what we were doing. All we have left of that herd is Fancy - she
is our son's pet goat. After reading about goats in books and the internet, we decided that we wanted to make raising goats part
of our retirement plans. From all the information we found, the Boer goat seemed the way to go. So we bought some registered
Boer goats - then we proceeded to bury Boer goats - alot of them. No one had told us that raising Boer goats in Southeast Georgia
was like trying to "swim up river." Parisites were killing our Boers off, and with full time jobs, we just did not have
the time or money to be worming them just about every week. We recently sold two of the original Boer goats - Comet a 7/8
Boer and Milkey Way a 15/16 Boer, who was born at the ranch. These two are as tough as our Kikos.
So it was back to more
research to find a goat that we could keep alive. We had heard about the Kiko goat, which comes from New Zealand. So, we decided
to try the Kiko, but we were not going to spend a lot of money for registered ones - we had already buried enough money. In
2005, we purchased a 100% buck and some percentage does and put them with the few goats that we had left. We had to worm
the does, but not as much as we wormed the Boers. They were good goats, but sure weren't as "pretty" as the Boers and the buck
had a very "skinny" butt. We figured that we would deal with the ones we had and when we moved back to Texas we would sell
all the goats and raise cows.
In the Spring of 2006, while on the internet, we found a picture of a Kiko buck whose butt would
rival a Boer's. We had found "Big Boy". After seeing Big Boy and talking with Jerry Hancock for hours, we decided that
we would give the Kikos another "real" chance. We bought HKF Conan when he was seven months old and he was breeding at nine
months. Those Kiko kids were impressive. Not so much their size when born, but the way they acted once they hit the
ground - within a couple of minutes they are "squirming" on the ground looking for the "milk fountain." That freaked our
Boer does out - they kept looking at us like they were saying "this kid isn't suppose to move for at least an hour." The kids
grew quick and had Conan's muscle, even the doe kids had muscle (but were still lady-like.)
John 14:6
Why Kiko Goats?