Why the Boer prevailed and the Kiko floundered

By Terry Hankins
Reprinted from Goat Rancher, May 2004

    The Kiko goat has traveled a rocky road since it was first imported into the United States from New Zealand nine years ago. The first Kikos that came into this country were snatched up by speculators and exotic animal breeders for as much as $50,000 a piece. After recouping - or attempting to recoup - their investment in this new goat breed, all of these original breeders have long since fled the Kiko scene.
    This first group of investors was followed by several dedicated breeders who attempted to spread the word of the Kiko's traits of hardiness, motherability, milk production, fast growth,  strong hooves and - to a degree - parasite tolerance. They created the American Kiko Goat Association to bring unity and focus to this young industry. Their hopes were high that this new breed would spread across the U.S. and boost meat goat production for thousands.
 Trouble was, there was another new kid on the block that had arrived in America from South Africa just a couple years earlier - the Boer goat. This breed also had a unified group of breeders that formed the American Boer Goat Association.
    Both breeds came into the United States with similar ambitions, but somewhere along the line the Kiko stumbled. Today, the American Boer Goat Association has nearly 5,000 members. The American Kiko Goat Association has less than 100.
    If you check around, most goat producers in the United States have never seen a Kiko outside the pages of a goat magazine. What happened and why did the Kiko fall so far behind?
    The first major problem that the Kiko faced was the introduction of much greater numbers of Boer goats into the United States, and prolific embryo programs quickly swelled the Boer goat population.     Also, the Boer goat was pretty and flashy. In short order, there were Boer goat shows where breeders were able to further spread the word about this new animal. Everybody wanted one of those beautiful white goats with the red head.
    Beauty overwhelmed the beast! Kikos weren't flashy. They weren't dressed up and taken to goat shows. The big breeders with deep pockets were putting their money into Boer goats - that's where the profit was to be made. And the Boer is the breed that has instead inspired the meat goat industry - not the Kiko.
    It didn't hurt that the Boer goat had nearly a century of history behind it and the South African breeders had formed their association by 1959. Associations also existed in New Zealand, Australia and Canada to nurture the new American breeders and provide a somewhat steady supply of new genetics.
    The Kiko, on the other hand, had no large support group from its home country. Through Internet searches, I still can find only one Kiko breeder in New Zealand - and that is Garrick Batten, the originator of the breed. There is no other                                organized association of Kiko producers outside of the United States that I can find.
    The only new Kiko genetics that have been imported into the United States from New Zealand since 1995 has been by Dr. An Peischel of Goats Unlimited, formerly of Rackerby, Calif., and now located near Nashville, Tenn.
    Through the years, however, there has remained a core following of devoted Kiko producers, especially in the Southeast, where the breed tends to flourish with minimal management. Notably, more than a third of AKGA's members live in Georgia and Tennessee alone, and Kiko-influence goats can be seen regularly at meat goat sales in the region.
    From its Southern stronghold, the Kiko has slowly expanded into the Midwest and up the East Coast. Virginia, for instance, has had a surge of new Kiko breeders.
    Still, the growth of the Kiko industry has been hampered somewhat by infighting. For instance, there are now two separate Kiko registries in the U.S. - the AKGA with 88 members and the new International Kiko Goat Association with 20 members - and a private registry, Pedigree International with 15 Kiko breeder clients. (These are the numbers listed on the groups' websites as of April 25.) That's an awful lot of diversity for such a small group of breeders.
    Also, because the number of Kiko producers has been small and the availability of breeding stock limited, there has been little incentive for some breeders to cull their herds as closely as they should. Many fullblood Kikos sold as breeding stock in recent years did not meet the standards set forth by the breed's originators.
    Still, Kiko producers are slowly winning more respect for their New Zealand imports, regardless of the logo on their particular registration papers. Many inquiries to Kiko breeders come from Boer producers who are looking to add more hardiness to their herds. It is only natural that they turn to the Kiko, which was developed in New Zealand, where the climate is much more in tune with the Eastern United States.
    It is not surprising that the Boer goat, developed in arid and rocky South Africa, would have problems in the humid, mushy Southeast. Boers grow and thrive in this area, but it does take more management than some producers are willing - or able - to provide.
    Now, the Kiko's popularity is going beyond the commercial producer. The Kiko has caught the attention of some of the big breeders who overlooked it earlier during the Boer Gold Rush. They, too, now recognize the hardiness, the growing popularity and the scarcity of quality Kiko breeding stock.
    In just the last few months, there has been a scramble by several Boer breeders in Texas and Oklahoma to snatch up every available Kiko fullblood and percentage. Go to any Kiko breeder directory, call any producer, and try to find a fullblood Kiko doe for sale. Good Luck!
    Producers who have had trouble selling their good Kiko bucks for $500 are now commanding - and receiving - up to $2,500. That price can only go up in the months to come.
    These new people who are purchasing top Kiko goats are longtime goat producers who have come up through the ranks with the Boer goat. They know genetics, they know production, they know marketing and promotion - and they don't mind investing money in a proven product.
    Even as you read this column, embryo flush programs are under way to quickly multiply the numbers of top quality Kiko breeding stock in the United States.
    I predict that this new wave of breeders will give the Kiko a boost in popularity that it has not had since it stepped off the boat in 1995. I also predict that many longtime Kiko breeders may question the marketing tactics these new breeders will employ. Remember, these are Boer breeders we are talking about.
    One of them told me recently while looking over my kid-weary Kiko nannies: "You know as well as I do that Boer folks aren't going to pay a lot of money for a thin nanny. You're going to have to put the feed to them to get top dollar."
    So expect to see more "over conditioned" Kikos in the future.
    And no one has mentioned it, but I bet within a very few years there will be the first Kiko Goat Show - a project that has long been vehemently opposed by organized Kiko breeders because, they say, "the Kiko is a production goat - not a show goat!"
    I'm only half joking about a Kiko goat show - it could happen. Before it does, this might be a good time for one or both of the Kiko breed organizations to set up a process for recognizing the top animals in the industry. Instead of accumulating show points, bucks and does could be graded on conformation and breed characteristics by a qualified judge - much like today's Boer goat Ennoblement inspection. Points could be earned by performance of offspring in feed and/or forage tests.
    The bottom line is, there needs to be some official mechanism to recognize superior Kiko genetics other than saying "My Kiko won First Place in a beauty contest!"
    Kiko breeders that can produce animals good enough to attain "Ennoblement" or some other designation will be the industry leaders.
    New people looking at Kikos for the first time can look at these Kikos and will know a quality animal from an inferior one.
    The Kiko has left the rocky road of its past and is preparing to enter the fast lane. The industry needs to make sure it is ready for the future growth that lies ahead.
   
    (Terry Hankins, editor & publisher of Goat Rancher magazine, raises Boers and Kikos on Egypt Creek Ranch in Sarah, Miss.)