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| Precious and her newborn twins |
Our Goats
We have a vision of what meat goats should be, and
this can vary greatly from farm to farm, person to person, day to day, year to year... At SteelMeadow Farm it means:
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Low maintenence; good foragers
* Good feet; resistance to hoof rot/scald
* Super kidding ease and mothering
ability
* Excellent milkers; fast gain
* Year-round reproductive ability
* Market quality; long back
and decent muscling
These qualities are hard to find within a single breed and that is why we choose to raise goats
from a "broader" gene-pool. Our large Vallera-line does and buck "Pedro" are from Eastern Virginia. For Spanish goats they
are larger than average Spanish with nice long backbones. They breed year-round and have excellent mothering ability. Their
kids grow fast.
With our recent addition of Pape Spanish does from south-central Texas, we hope to add a rounder/
thicker frame to our goats, as well as even tougher feet. (The Texas does have hooves of iron!) These does are smaller than
the Vallera, but we will "breed up" their kids with a Vallera buck and the Kiko. In the winter, their fluffy cashmere coats
keep them warm.
Adding more genetic diversity along the lines of what we are trying to develop, we have our commercial
Kiko buck "James." "Stout" best describes James as a kid. James is hardy, of good temperment and has the "body style" we would
like to pass along to our Spanish.
We continue to pick and choose our goats carefully as we develop our herds. What
works, stays- and what doesn't- goes. Goats multiply almost like rabbits- a small herd can increase quickly. We soon hope
to be able to offer replacement does in addition to our market goats.
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| Airkids! They never stop moving! |
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