Kinder Goat

The fall of 1985 found the Showalters of Zederkamm Farm, Snohomish, Washington in a bind. Their old Nubian buck had died and left their two Nubian does without a mate. Thankfully, their Pygmy buck was eager to be of assistance. So they bred the Nubians to the little fellow and in the spring of 1986 three little doe kids were born, the first Kinders. One, called Liberty, stayed at Zederkamm Farm, one was placed with a 4-H girl and the other went to live with Teresa Hill, a nearby goat enthusiast.

Liberty turned into a delightful goat with a charming personality, delightfully rich, sweet milk and the ability to produce three to six kids every year. More crosses were made, this time in a deliberate attempt to produce more of these moderate sized, highly efficient diary goats. Teresa Hill saw the potential of these goats with their smaller size, high feed conversion efficiency, rich milk and easy fleshing.

The Kinder goat, as it has evolved, is a joy to milk and an ideal small homestead milk producer. With a base production of 1,500 pounds of milk and/or 52.5 pounds of butterfat in 305 days or less, freshening at 2 years or less in age, these hard working little animals stand up well in comparison to their larger counterparts. The original, Zederkamm Liberty, has a 305-day record starting at 3 years and 6 months of age of 1,730 pounds of milk and 115 pounds of butterfat.

Since the breed was developed as a dual purpose breed, it is also important to note that they make extremely desirable meat animals. Usually born weighing 4 or 5 pounds, they grow rapidly at a rate of about 7 pounds per month. Recently some 6-month-old goats weighing about 50 pounds, dressed out at 30 pounds. This makes the dressing percentage a very favorable 60 percent. Older goats have an even higher dressing percentage with some 14-month-old goats having a live weight of 80 pounds and dressing out at 50 pounds - a dressing percentage of nearly 63 percent. It is easily possible for a Kinder doe weighing about 115 pounds to produce five kids who in 14 months can weigh 80 pounds each and dress out at 50 pounds thereby producing 250 pounds of meat each year.