Preserving New Zealand Genetics

 Editorial Comment
Reprinted from Goat Rancher, May 2007


Elsewhere in this section is an article entitled “Reversing the Kiko” — one producer’s hypothesis that the demand and high prices being paid for 100% New Zealand Kikos is prompting some producers to sell what should be cull animals as breeding stock. His argument is that by selling inferior animals as breeding stock, the traits that make the Kiko unique will be diluted.

To a degree, I am sure this is happening. If one looks at some of the Kiko bucks and does that breeders advertise on their websites as their “main herdsire” or “foundation stock”, it is obvious that some Kiko breeders know little about livestock and that many inferior animals definitely are muddying the genetic pool.

But lately I have noticed several breeders who, while studying pedigrees closely, also are looking for that extra length or extra meat or extra hardiness in their animals. They are using the descendents of the original New Zealand imports — the 100% NZ Kikos — to, what I call, “Recreate the Kiko.”

Only a limited number of Kikos were imported into the United States in 1994. These animals were the result of a lengthy selection and culling process in New Zealand. Theoretically, these imports were the pinnacle of the Kiko breed up to that time.

In the ensuing 13 years, however, those original animals were dispersed across the country and were used in a variety of breeding strategies, mostly crossbreeding and breed-up programs. A few producers did cross New Zealand imports to New Zealand imports.

What we have today are numerous purebred (greater than 94% New Zealand) Kiko bucks and does but a real scarcity of Kikos that trace their maternal and paternal lineage directly back to the original imports.

Today’s Kiko producers could argue all day about which is better — a purebred or a 100% New Zealand — but the reality is that a certain market segment wants only a 100% New Zealand Kiko. Since that is the case, it is the industry’s responsibility to provide the best 100% NZ buck or doe possible.

And this is where some producers already are recreating the Kiko, going out and finding the best of those original New Zealand genetics to produce a new generation of 100% NZ Kikos. These producers are tracking down sons and daughters of some of those original imports or discovering long-forgotten semen and embryos in some veterinarian’s storage facility.

Through line breeding of certain rare family lines, the industry is beginning to get a truer representation of the original Kikos. They are big, meaty, fast-growing animals. They do not have the lanky, narrow-chested, skinny-butted look that many people, unfortunately, associate with Kikos.

While some Kiko purists argue that breeding 100% NZ to 100% NZ is simply rehashing 20-year-old genetics, this exercise may be necessary to recapture all those traits that were bred into the Kiko in the 1980s and then diluted somewhat in the 1990s. Because of the small number of goats in the early U.S. Kiko breeding programs, it can be assumed that offspring were not culled as severely as were their ancestors in New Zealand.

Hopefully, today’s breeders will be able to concentrate, duplicate and then preserve the original New Zealand genetics so that they once again will be available for all types of new breeding strategies in the future.