Remember the initial selection criteria for your farm/ranch as you commence on your mission to find the highest quality and most conformation perfect individuals. Breed: KIKO The KIKO was chosen purely on the basis of its capacity to survive and develop on steep terrain. mountainous highland terrain (on New Zealand's south island), where nutritional circumstances are difficult to come by No supplemental feeding is offered since it is considered demanding. In order to achieve this, The KIKO breed is made up of does mated to bucks who have been screened from a huge wild population. Anglo Nubian, British Toggenburg, and Saanen breeds are used in this cross. The underlying issue Through population genetics, the goal of generating a new breed capable of high performance in order to improve meat output under adverse environmental and nutritional conditions has been achieved — As a breed, the KIKO has arrived.

Using strict production criteria and rigorous culling techniques, Goats Unlimited has been choosing female and male replacement breeding stock for our purebred KIKO mob.

The young doelings are originally picked at weaning (3 months of age) for the prospect of being kept in the breeding mob in the future. They must be twins with a birth weight of average or above, two teats, a perfect bite, a working third eyelid, structurally sound feet and legs, and correct/consistent body conformation. They are reevaluated after eight months, and the ultimate decision is made at one year of age.

A yearling's final selection requirements include structurally acceptable feet, pasterns, and robust legs, a shoulder angle of 46-52 degrees, breadth across the withers and rump, and a heart girth depth of at or below the elbow. With length and breadth across the back and loin, both the top line and the underline are level. The depth and width of the chest floor, as well as the spring of the ribs, are essential. A 5 to 7 degree tilt of the pelvic cradle is sought to make kidding (parturition) easier and to eliminate dystocia. During this era of growth, the body weight should be between 90 and 100 pounds, and the body condition score should be between 5 and 6.

Individuals that have difficulty keeping that score are culled. These doelings must be athletic, active browsers (always on the lookout for the next bush), and pleasant to be around.

These doelings are anticipated to walk vast distances through harsh terrain while browsing and grazing local flora, having been reared as yearlings. They'll require enough body capacity for the rumen and twin fetuses, as well as physically sound legs and feet for peregrination and chest capacity for increased intake volume. The fullness of the hindquarters, inner rear leg muscling, and twist depth are all evaluated. By waiting to breed as yearlings, the doelings are better able to cope with a 36-day breeding season, have more calcium and phosphorus deposition in their long bones, have a more effective immune system, and have a longer lifespan within the breeding mob.

Yearling does are culled if they have broken feet and legs, aren't twinning or aren't rearing twins, have poor motherability and/or milkability, have unsound udder conformation, and have a quickly deteriorating, difficult-to-recover body condition score. The udder of KIKO meat goats grazing in tough conditions requires a tight fore and rear connection, internal residual milk capacity, and two teats spaced and formed appropriately. To avoid harm from thick vegetation, the udder should become compact and tight against the abdominal wall when the yearlings dry off after weaning the youngsters.

Our young bucklings are examined at weaning (3 months), eight months, yearlings, and two years of age when they are chosen as a significant herd sire.

Bucks are chosen based on the same strict conformation standards as females: structure of feet, legs, and pasterns, width across the withers and rump, length and width of back and loin, depth of heart girth and chest floor, shoulder and pelvic angles, and hindquarter and inside hindleg expressed muscle definition. A crucial criterion is a pear-shaped scrotum that is not divided and contains firm testicles of similar size.

Herdsire potentials are bred to a limited number of does as yearlings. Progeny profiles are thoroughly checked and analyzed before the final'seed stock' selection is made.

Environmental effects, health status, carcass data analysis, pedigree and progeny profile data, breeding values and performance, heritability and repeatability of genotypic and phenotypic traits, genetic prediction(s), and the use of sire summaries are some of the other criteria used to help make major KIKO breeding stock replacement selection decisions.

Culling is merciless at Goats Unlimited, with females going to our specialized meat market sales and males (castrated) going to our land enhancement programs.