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The First Kikos in America
By Terry Hankins America's Kiko industry had its roots in 1990 when Dr. An Peischel of Goats Unlimited, then located in Hawaii, visited with Garrick Batten in New Zealand and purchased four Kiko bucks to cross with her herd of 1,500 Spanish meat goat nannies. The Kiko bucks arrived in Honolulu in January 1991 and were released from quarantine on March 5. The bucks were shipped to Dr. An's ranch on the Big Island of Hilo and began breeding on March 7. Approximately 800 does were bred over the next few months, with the first kids arriving in late August. This was the beginning of the Goats Unlimited Kiko flock, which has been moved intact over the years from Hawaii to northern California then to Tennessee, where Dr. An now works as an extension goat specialist. Because Dr. An was focusing on her commercial meat goat operation, the Goats Unlimited flock has been bred up over the years with careful selection for milk production, good udders, good feet and fast growth while foraging on Hilo's dormant volcanoes, California's forest lands and now Tennessee's humid brushland. Because she was the only U.S. producer with purebred Kikos, many of her animals were used as donor does when breeders began embryo transfers following the 1994 arrival of Kikos in Texas. Her hand-picked does were bred to many of those first Kiko bucks for embryo harvests. If you look, you'll see the GUL designation deep in the pedigrees of many of today's top animals. In recent years, Dr. An has traveled back to New Zealand to purchase Kiko semen from Batten. |