Generation Farm   

Welcome to Generation Farm. 

Please visit our "Broodstock" page.  We have worked long and hard to amass the group of breeding does we currently have, and are constantly looking for outstanding individuals from our desired bloodlines to add to the mix. 

www.generationfarmkikos.blogspot.com

Please visit my blog to see what we're up to on the farm... we try to pass along anything helpful we have learned along the way.

And here is our new buck, safely within the fence! 

Southwest Shaw is double bred Southwest Cisco (son of Goatex Terminator).  We are keeping our fingers crossed for a good crop of Shaw kids come 2013!   Please excuse the blurry picture - it reminds me a bit of that Bigfoot video, but we are going back to the original Terminator lines through SW Cisco to take back on our Turbo and Wild Bill genetics (which go back to Terminator through Terminator XX).

Kidding season is complete. I'm already scheming for next season and the season after! 

Raising goats in the humid, parasite ridden Southeast, we experienced first hand the troubles so many goatkeepers in this area face.  We decided we wanted to work smarter, not harder, and invested in our first Kiko goats.  After seeing the difference in hardiness, mothering skills, and willingness to forage between the Kikos and the other breeds popular in our area, we've never looked back. 

We have had several people comment on the grown size of Boers vs Kikos - we have to ask - if you are going to raise slaughter kids, what size goat do you sell?  How many people want to eat a full grown buck?  The smaller bone structure of the Kiko is not a bad thing.  Check out Dr. Browning of TSU's research.  Kikos can dress out more meat and Kiko does wean more kid weight.  Do you want to have to feed that big heavy doe all year round, or do you want a thrifty doe with good capacity who can get more kids grown to weaning weight with less feed and input?  If you want the latter, then you want Kiko does.

Our goal is to breed goats specifically suited for our area and others like it, with a focus on parasite resistance, motherability, and overall toughness without sacrificing fast growth and a meaty build.  We are Animal Welfare Approved and believe the indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemicals isn't healthy for any of us - human nor animal - in the long run.  We focus strongly on the does we use.  We are using  pedigree, outward appearance, and when it is available, performance records to purchase herd does. 

Genetic potential is important, but how that kid is raised is where the money can be made or lost.  A good mothering doe will get those kids to weaning weight without you having to do it for her.

We want to have and produce does that will kid easily, get the kids up and full of colostrum, and produce plenty of milk so those kids grow fast.  Intangibles are important to us, too.  We want our does to be protective of their kids and teach the kids to forage.  These traits have some heritability (and of course milk production and parasite resistance are definitely heritable traits). Pictured above is a 9 year old Kiko doe.  She's no show goat, but pretty is as pretty does.  She raised many sets of triplets before we got her, and in the three kidding seasons we've had her, she has raised a set of triplets, a set of twins, and now another set of triplets and only now at age nine with triplets is starting to show her age.  Watching her take care of these kids is a thing of beauty.

Please visit our blog for the most recent happenings on the farm.  http://generationfarmkikos.blogspot.com

What We Do

We raise goats with the new goat keeper in mind.  All goats have basic needs that must be met, but why make it any harder than it needs to be?  Our Kikos actively forage, and our does have their kids on pasture.  Check out this video from the AKGA about the Kiko Advantage!

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