The Goats

Goats are wonderful animals who have individual personalities and who can be very bossy with other goats, and us.
The Boer Goat

The development of the Boer goat in the early 1900's can be traced to Dutch farmers who had migrated to South Africa. "Boer" is a Dutch term meaning farmer. Through decades of careful breeding, these farmers selected goats with rapid growth rate, excellent carcass qualities and yield, and that are docile and highly adaptable to different environments. In addition, if allowed to be goats they are good mothers. The South African traditional Boer goat with the tan head and white body cannot be confused with any other breed. Around the same time period Dutch farmers were also selecting for the same characteristics in goats that exhibited a solid red color, naming that breed Kalahari Reds, and a solid white color, naming that breed Savanna(h)s There are also grade goats that may be solid reds, white or brown, or paints or dapples. While most of these can be registered with the Boer breed associations in the USA, in South Africa only the traditional colored Goats can be registered with their respective breed registries.

The first full-blood Boers were brought to the United States in 1993. Interest in breeding Boer and Boer influence goats exploded in the U.S., and these goats brought high prices. Docile, high fertility and a fast growth rate are some of the traits that set the Boer goat apart in the purebred and commercial segments of the American meat goat industry. Mature Does can weigh between 190- 230 lb and mature Boer bucks can weigh between 200 – 340 lb.

Percentage and Purebred does make up the majority of our Boer Goat program. Our does are balanced without too wide a front end, but still with adequate bone and muscle. Many of the fullblood does tend to be wider at the shoulder than at the hips. While this is desirable for bucks, it can cause birthing problems for does. We want some of that Boer bulk, but also want balance and style. In fact, most of our full blood show winners have been Purebreds.  With purebreds, you still have some of that hybrid vigor and avoid many of the problems the fullblood Boer goats presen

2010 was a Great Year for our Program and a long time goal was achieved.

Twins, Minnie and Pearl two of our best show does did well at 2011 NAILE. Their dam was Charisma, a great doe we got from Gary and Sandy Duncan (Able Acres).

163, Sport was a 7yr old frozen embryo we bought from Ewing Downen. He was grand overall several times, including NAILE.

Tessa, one of the first does we bought from Sisters2 never placed lower than 1st in the show ring and was Grand Champion several times, including the 2002 NAILE.

The Spanish Goat

When the Spanish explorers came to North America, they brought goats with them as a meat source. During following years, many of these goats either escaped or were released when alternate meat sources were discovered. Goats that remained with ranchers were often crossed with one of the European dairy goat breeds that were brought to the USA in the 1800's and 1900's.

The feral goats as well as many of the Spanish/dairy goat crosses were called “Spanish” or “brush goats.” Although not of a specific breed ancestry, the ferel goats through natural selection. They survived well with minimal management, and those that became feral survived with no human management at all. They also adapted well to their regions, and natural selection was the norm, producing a breed of goat that was an exceptionally well-adapted survivor.

These goats never received much documented attention, so the history is hard to verify, but Spanish goats in this country show their DNA to be of Iberian origin. Most are wild or at least semi-wild. Size varies greatly due to climate, terrain and available breeding stock. Body shape, ear shape, horns, hair and color are non consistent.

Goats were pretty much ignored by large-scale livestock breeders and commercial markets. Cows and sheep had all of the attention, and next to that were pigs and chickens. The Spanish goats escaped the intensive and industrialized livestock management practices that became so popular in the 19th and 20th century. In this country, in the 1840’s, a goat was still just a goat.

When the Boer goats hit the USA in the early 1990's this changed and a true meat goat market began to develop. Boers were very expensive and ranchers began crossing them on the feral Spanish goats. As time went on interest in redeveloping a true Spanish boat breed grew and groups of producers formed associations, dev4eloped a registry and began to organize the goats by breed standards.

This is Jake, the first Kensing breeding buck we purchased.

Whether it's Boer or Spanish, we strive to produce goats that are balanced, consistent, healthy and productive, that exhibit good breed character and phenotype. With the exception of really old does and first timers, our does must kid on their own and raise their kids without a lot of assistance. Every once in a while there may be a problem, but in our opinion having to spend time assisting births is a sign of selection problems.  Spanish does are beyond a doubt excellent mothers, but we've found that with our selection process, our Boers are good mothers also.
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We sell breeding stock, commercial stock and recips. Everything we sell is breed standard correct, and we don't keep any does that are not willing and able to kid and raise kids on their own. We no longer sell Boer show stock or wethers.

In addition to giving some of our Boer stock to our grandkids, we recently sold all but a few of our Boer does and our Executive Decision buck to Jill Morehouse. We have a few Boer does left, but not enough to put on any sales.

We sell our Spanish stock direct off the farm as well as at the American Spanish Goat Association sale in the fall and the Spanish Goat Gathering, each September. We sell recips directly off the farm. If you want to talk to us or perhaps visit the farm, please feel free to give us a jingle.