Producers of Empire Goats       “Goats that work for you

We aim to produce high quality market kids while breeding and selecting for herd productivity improvement. By carefully selecting and crossing the best, we intend to produce a line of females with great mothering ability, easy care, and outstanding kid growth and performance.
 
Detailed Data Collection
Our cross-breeding plan is based on the use of the best available South African, New Zealand, and American genetics. Detailed records of individual and litter weaning weights, fertility, and Average Daily Gain (ADG) are logged into the farm computer. This data is used to measure both individual and group performance. It is a critical factor in doe selection and culling decisions.  Overall litter weaning weight is the most important indicator for GBF.
 
Consistent Herd Management Practices
GBF usually carries 10 groups of approximately 40-60 does, all managed with the same management, feed and housing practices. We will be looking for the best performing cross groups and individuals.
 
Informed Breed Selection
When we began our search for our starting genetics we looked at five key factors:

• Mothering ability: unassisted kidding, vigorous and viable kids, multiple births
• Fertility
• Easy keeping: pasture hustle, minimal hoof trimming, parasite resistance
• Average Daily Gain and total litter weaning weight.
• Conformation and carcass quality are also essential.

Conformation and carcass quality are essential to a successful breed standard, but not as critical as the Four Key Factors, since the price differential between #1kids and #2 kids is slight.
 
Our Choices for Three Genetic Sources
 
The Empire Goat Breeding program is founded on Kiko, Savanna and Spanish genetics.

1. Kikos:
   We are using excellent Fullblood registered bucks  from Dr. An Pieschel’s Goats Unlimited herd near Nashville Tennessee.  The Goats Unlimited herd of purebred Kikos has not been dewormed (since 1998), and do not have a parasite problem.  These Kikos are large framed, with excellent conformation, and tremendous mothering/kidding ability.   Another great part of the Kiko factor is greatly reduced need for hoof trimming.   Kikos are a breed created in New Zealand.  Intensively selected, they will make an excellent contribution to the Empire Goat program.  We recently acquired some does from the Goats Unlimited herd.
   
   
2. Savannas:
   A relatively new breed to the US with very limited availability.  We were lucky enough to purchase excellent Registered, Fullblood Savanna bucks in Connecticut, from Brian Payne and Chris Glynos.  Brian is one of the original importers of the first embryos, only a few years ago. This South African breed was developed in the harshest possible conditions, where the goats were, for many years, deliberately left unattended for the month preceding kidding and for two months after.  These are definitely NOT white Boers. They may resemble Boers in carcass quality, but they are a different breed.  Great kidding and mothering capability is the key.  They exhibit pasture hustle and the easy keeping durability that we believe will have a major impact on profitability.
    
   
3. Spanish:
   We chose  Pape  Spanish   They have been selecting for over 25 years for frame size and conformation. All goats there kid unassisted on the range. Natural selection has resulted in an easy kidding set of goats, with strong mothering capability.  They are great milkers, and  easy keepers.

The Empire Goat Program?

The Meat Goat Industry is a growing and profitable farming business.  Because New York State has an excellent climate and forage situation, good farmers, and is in the heart of the northeastern goat meat market, we are in an ideal position to support national industry leaders. This trend will accelerate as fuel and transportation costs continue to increase, and Northeastern Urban consumers come to appreciate the quality of NY goat meat and products.
 
For New York goat farming enterprises, labor is usually the highest input cost, whether it is hired or family (if it is accurately costed) A high performance doe herd is critical to controlling the amount of work (and labor cost) required to produce meat animals. Walk- away does, bottle babies, births requiring assistance and veterinary bills all hit the bottom line.
 
The other major element of profitability is feed cost. We in the Northeast generally have good forage and hay. The lowest cost per pound is made on hay and grazing, with a little mineral supplement. We want our Empire Goats to produce the maximum pounds of gain per doe with minimum amounts of grain supplementation.
 
The Goat Bridge Farm Goal is to produce the most consistently profitable females for working farm environment: Goats that work for you.
 
Performance data will tell us which way to go, but we anticipate that we are likely to move toward a Savanna x Kiko blend, with some smaller  percentage of Spanish, but this is entirely dependent upon the performance data.
 
All goat performance records are kept in our computer.  We measure first and foremost pounds of live market kid weaned per doe.

We select for unassisted kidding and bonding.  Color is not critical, although genetics are tending toward a white colored goat.
 
We are using accurate production records, run on identified crosses, in a real production environment, all managed in the same pens and pastures, with the same feed and same management practices.  We look forward to learning what does best on our farm.
 
Stay tuned as we take this journey!