2018 End-of-year Summary
Culled 38% of our adult goats from beginning of 2018.
Sold our herd sire Diego, and brought in two new bucklings: Ozarks Iron Ore and Apache.
Exposed a majority of our nannies to Apache, and sold Apache to Simple Life Ranch
Purchased several replacement does/ doelings
Kept 3 NZ and 3 PB doelings from 2018: JCP Diego offspring
Placed another 20 acres of pasture into rotation with our cattle/ goats
59% of offspring this year were males - hope 2019 brings more females
Started vaccinating against CL
This is the 3rd consecutive year of heavy culling. This was our lowest input year (least amount of handling goats – feeding, worming, trimming hooves etc) since starting with Kikos. We culled 60% of nannies in 2016, 50% in 2017, and 38% in 2018. Some of these nannies were purchased one year and sold the following year. It’s a tough decision to let a goat go sometimes. That doesn’t mean they are “bad” goats, it just means we are moving in another direction. Productivity and low input are important. We developed our previous Spanish goat herd to that point, and plan to get our Kiko herd to that point. If we continue to keep the best performers year after year, we should get there. We will try to occasionally, bring in new female goats. The new goats serve to gauge/ gap where the existing herd ranks each year. The new goats will either find their rank in our herd or find their way to another farm for another opportunity. We are a small farm. Unfortunately, we may cull a goat prematurely, but I’m getting old and need to make quicker moves.
Our 12 year old PB nanny (Granny) had twins this year. We sold the buckling and kept the doeling. I hope the doeling carries the same hardiness and mothering skills as her mother. She is a survivor, and will turn 13 yrs old in March. I’m not sure if we will get another breeding from her or not.
Our 11 year old nanny (Big Momma) had twins and we kept one of the doelings. She is our largest female Kiko, and is a proven good mom, so we will keep some her future doelings and give them a chance to make our cuts each year. I’m also trying to move the herd towards a more meaty, big boned/ framed herd. I’m not there yet.
We purchased a buckling from Wayne Simms of S&S Kikos in Beggs, OK. Wayne is a great guy. He has some great goats and has something that could improve anyone’s herd. In addition, Wayne has an unusual percentage of triplets born on his place year after year. The buckling is out of AVG Ozark Bounty (Dale and Nick grandson) and GHK D 12 (Iron Horse and Sky Bird Salsa P6 daughter). I hope this buckling lives up to his genetics. There is certainly a lot of potential here. I’m very pleased so far, as he is putting on weight quickly.We also purchased three NZ doelings from S&S Kikos. The first doeling is out of Pirate King and a Cherokee Fiddler/ GHK D 12 daughter. The other two doelings are out of War Horse (Cherokee Fiddler/ GHK D 12) and a Cecil Cyclone daughter.
We purchased JCP Apache, a NZ buckling from John Patton of J&A Ranch in San Angelo area. The buckling was sired by Triple G. We jumped at the opportunity to buy a Triple G buckling. This is Triple G’s last year of natural offspring. We have several females with JCP genetics and have always been pleased with them. John Patton carries good stock. We exposed a majority of our nannies to Apache in Fall 2018. We are not at the point of wanting to maintain two bucks, so Apache was sold to Lori and Stan Lee of Simple Life Ranch in San Antonio.
We purchased a 3 yr old nanny from the Severn farm (Dan and Haylee) in Caldwell, Texas. LOO Aces Moon was exposed to LOO Patches Ranch Cash. There are a lot of ‘Speckles’ genetics here. Thanks to the Severn family for making her available.
We started vaccinating our goats for CL this year. We hear horror stories of CL outbreaks on the web. We have a number of visitors each year looking at goats to purchase. Someone could inadvertently track CL onto our place. Likewise, we could purchase a goat that has CL. With so much to lose, we decided to vaccinate. CL vaccination has resulted in a high percentage of injection site reactions, but these are slowly fading. I hope as the vaccine is further developed, these injection site reactions are minimized. As we understand it, researchers are often times hesitant to develop new vaccines specific for goats because of economics. We are thrilled that Texas Vet Labs invested in developing the vaccine and I hope enough goat farms use it that they will continue to manufacture it. It can be purchased online from Jeffers. Overall, the injection site reactions are nothing compared to experiencing a CL outbreak. This doesn’t fall in-line with our minimal input goal, but we want to minimize the risks.
Culled 38% of our adult goats from beginning of 2018.
Sold our herd sire Diego, and brought in two new bucklings: Ozarks Iron Ore and Apache.
Exposed a majority of our nannies to Apache, and sold Apache to Simple Life Ranch
Purchased several replacement does/ doelings
Kept 3 NZ and 3 PB doelings from 2018: JCP Diego offspring
Placed another 20 acres of pasture into rotation with our cattle/ goats
59% of offspring this year were males - hope 2019 brings more females
Started vaccinating against CL
This is the 3rd consecutive year of heavy culling. This was our lowest input year (least amount of handling goats – feeding, worming, trimming hooves etc) since starting with Kikos. We culled 60% of nannies in 2016, 50% in 2017, and 38% in 2018. Some of these nannies were purchased one year and sold the following year. It’s a tough decision to let a goat go sometimes. That doesn’t mean they are “bad” goats, it just means we are moving in another direction. Productivity and low input are important. We developed our previous Spanish goat herd to that point, and plan to get our Kiko herd to that point. If we continue to keep the best performers year after year, we should get there. We will try to occasionally, bring in new female goats. The new goats serve to gauge/ gap where the existing herd ranks each year. The new goats will either find their rank in our herd or find their way to another farm for another opportunity. We are a small farm. Unfortunately, we may cull a goat prematurely, but I’m getting old and need to make quicker moves.
Our 12 year old PB nanny (Granny) had twins this year. We sold the buckling and kept the doeling. I hope the doeling carries the same hardiness and mothering skills as her mother. She is a survivor, and will turn 13 yrs old in March. I’m not sure if we will get another breeding from her or not.
Our 11 year old nanny (Big Momma) had twins and we kept one of the doelings. She is our largest female Kiko, and is a proven good mom, so we will keep some her future doelings and give them a chance to make our cuts each year. I’m also trying to move the herd towards a more meaty, big boned/ framed herd. I’m not there yet.
We purchased a buckling from Wayne Simms of S&S Kikos in Beggs, OK. Wayne is a great guy. He has some great goats and has something that could improve anyone’s herd. In addition, Wayne has an unusual percentage of triplets born on his place year after year. The buckling is out of AVG Ozark Bounty (Dale and Nick grandson) and GHK D 12 (Iron Horse and Sky Bird Salsa P6 daughter). I hope this buckling lives up to his genetics. There is certainly a lot of potential here. I’m very pleased so far, as he is putting on weight quickly.We also purchased three NZ doelings from S&S Kikos. The first doeling is out of Pirate King and a Cherokee Fiddler/ GHK D 12 daughter. The other two doelings are out of War Horse (Cherokee Fiddler/ GHK D 12) and a Cecil Cyclone daughter.
We purchased JCP Apache, a NZ buckling from John Patton of J&A Ranch in San Angelo area. The buckling was sired by Triple G. We jumped at the opportunity to buy a Triple G buckling. This is Triple G’s last year of natural offspring. We have several females with JCP genetics and have always been pleased with them. John Patton carries good stock. We exposed a majority of our nannies to Apache in Fall 2018. We are not at the point of wanting to maintain two bucks, so Apache was sold to Lori and Stan Lee of Simple Life Ranch in San Antonio.
We purchased a 3 yr old nanny from the Severn farm (Dan and Haylee) in Caldwell, Texas. LOO Aces Moon was exposed to LOO Patches Ranch Cash. There are a lot of ‘Speckles’ genetics here. Thanks to the Severn family for making her available.
We started vaccinating our goats for CL this year. We hear horror stories of CL outbreaks on the web. We have a number of visitors each year looking at goats to purchase. Someone could inadvertently track CL onto our place. Likewise, we could purchase a goat that has CL. With so much to lose, we decided to vaccinate. CL vaccination has resulted in a high percentage of injection site reactions, but these are slowly fading. I hope as the vaccine is further developed, these injection site reactions are minimized. As we understand it, researchers are often times hesitant to develop new vaccines specific for goats because of economics. We are thrilled that Texas Vet Labs invested in developing the vaccine and I hope enough goat farms use it that they will continue to manufacture it. It can be purchased online from Jeffers. Overall, the injection site reactions are nothing compared to experiencing a CL outbreak. This doesn’t fall in-line with our minimal input goal, but we want to minimize the risks.