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Jumping into the weekly garden thread from a news thread because I have a long reply about meat goats that fits here better.

curdogmen said: also live in southern missouri..also raise meat goats ( we have kiko bucks )..we raise them because I'm afraid of working with big animals. all my neighbors think im crazy for breeding goats in cattle county. Never any problem selling buckling’s to eat. Be a bunch pissed off men, if he cuts off their meat supply around these hills and hollars.

I've got a 15/16 Boer, 1/16 Kiko buck and two full blooded Kiko does, one of them has straight New Zealand lines and one is USA so the papers I could get for another $100 would be different registries. I'm not worries about papers though.

Got them all last year as yearlings. The woman I got the 15/16 Boer from is a spoiled little thing. Every kind of farm animal you could think of and all very nice looking, including the dozen or so mini Scottish Highland cattle she had which run around $10-15K each.

I'm with you and her. I've always been afraid of huge animals.

Got the mostly Boer buck because they tend to add weight/thickness to the kids. Each doe only had one kid and the NZ doe is small so that wasn't too surprising. The USA doe is plenty big so I expected twins. We'll see what happens next year.

Little NZ Kiko doe had a buck, New Years baby and that little thing is chunky and pretty and will be bigger than her in a few months. I don't think I can put him in the freezer. Pretty sure he would be grade #1 at the sale barn but you can't just bring one to the sale barn. I think I can get 350-400 from a private sale.

Gotta do something with him before he impregnates momma or the other doe. With his fast growth and chunkiness, I'm half tempted to get rid of the original buck and let him have at momma and the other doe. One kid per doe makes me wonder if the big buck doesn't have slow swimmers or low sperm count. On the other hand, one doe was small and it was the first kidding for both.

The USA Kiko doe had a doe kid 10 days ago. Black, brown and white with markings on the head that make it look like a Spanish meat goat. Odd.

This is the buckling a couple of months ago? My conundrum. Keep him and breed him back to momma and the other doe or sell him.

Here he is with mom and dad.

Dad has the markings of a Boer but in black instead of red. This is a couple of weeks ago.

I'm using a High Tensile electric fence, of New Zealand design, so to keep with the unintended NZ theme, I'm wanting a breeding pair of Kunekune pig. The only true pasture pig breed. Minimal land damage with Kunekune due to their small size and short snouts.

How are you liking the dogwoods this year? Just going gangbusters here. Bright white and long lasting. Love it when they're still white while other things are turning green.

wow the dogwoods are unreal this year...i just sit in a chair near a hollar and day dream and nap and talk to goats and dogs and stare at them trees.

wish i understood how to post a picture. we always keep at least 2 bucks or more so we can breed the offspring back and forth without to much inter breeding. have no problem breeding a son to a mom. I get very attached to the bucks we keep

Went to sales barn in buffalo and got 4 dollars a pound for bucklings a few months ago.

Have one all black nz buck and a all black with a few brown marking american kiko buck and too many does.

we also run electric fence. we run 4 hot wires. Have to use another type of wire having to sometimes pasture horses with the goats, love my 9 joules charger thinking of upgrading to the 27 joules.

This fence also keeps my hunting dogs from crossing over into neighboring farms. But most of all it keeps coyotes and such off the pastures. Been knocked to the ground by the fence so many times my hair turned blonde.

old joke “ only way to test a goat fence is...splash water against it and if any water crosses to the other side of the fence ... fence its NOT goat proof “

i understand about not wanting to register your goats but we do ours. Last time i looked at nz kiko does they ran around 2000 dollars which i will not pay .

we are at 140 days since first goat was bred. am a very very excited old man we run only one buck with our does after does are bred we throw the other buck back in with the herd along with his wether playmates. when babies drop well pull the bucks out.

We're considering those Kunekune pigs, too. I'll keep bugging Beau!

In Wisconsin there is a 'Pagoda Dogwood' tree that's quite pretty, but not as gorgeous as the Florida strains of Dogwood.

Pagoda Dogwood Tree:

However, we can grow really nice Magnolia Trees, which seems odd. They were absolutely GORGEOUS this spring, but are pretty much done, now. I have a small one my BFFs gave me last year to plant in memory of Dad. It's doing well.