Raising Meat Goats - Can Feral Goats Be Used to Improve Hardiness For US Producers?

During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries sea traveling explorers and merchants deliberately released goats and hogs on off shore islands along their routes to establish feral populations that could be used as sources of fresh meat on future trips. These animals thrived on these islands because the islands did not have predators.

Trying to develop a meat goat adapted to the warm, humid climate of New Zealand, Garrick Batten developed the Kiko breed by crossing feral goats found in New Zealand, with dairy goats (Toggenberg, Saanen, Nubian, and Alpine.) He began selecting feral goats from all districts of New Zealand. He selected for rapid growth, hardiness under range conditions, resistance to hoof rot, and resistance to internal parasites. He worked with a herd of about 1,000 head from 1978 till the early 1990's. The herd was reduced to about 50 head by 1994. In 1994 the entire herd along with the GOATEX Group Ltd. shares were sold to new shareholders who exported most of the animals to the United States. The Kiko breed is very popular in the southeastern United States where warm humid weather makes it difficult to raise meat goats because of internal parasites, but Kikos are still scarce and very expensive.

The feral goats of New Zealand were descendants of Old English Milche goats brought to New Zealand by Captain James Cook. The same breed of to goats was brought to James Town, Virginia, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, by early English settlers and later into Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri by early settlers from the eastern United States. The breeds of dairy goats brought into Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri in later years are the same ones used to develop the Kiko breed. These breeds are the ancestors of brush goats in northern Arkansas that are used by cattle ranchers to control weeds and brush in pastures. These brush goats are treated like feral goats except guardian animals are used to protect them from predators. They are equal to Kikos for hardiness, mothering ability, and resistance to internal parasites, and they are inexpensive. Crossing these brush goats with Kiko bucks might even produce meat goats that are better than either breed because of hybrid vigor.

Two of the meat goat breeds found in the United States (San Clemente Island goats and Arapawa goats) are feral breeds. All of the other breeds (except Pygmy) are composite breeds developed by crossing several breeds of goats. The San Clemente Island goats and Arapawa goats will play a very important role in developing new composite meat goat breeds in the United States. DNA testing of these breeds done by Amparo Martinez Martinez and Juan Vicente Delgado Bermejo at the University of Cordoba in Spain in 2007 and reported by Dr. D. Phillip Sponenberg shows that these two breeds are highly inbred and are not related to each other or to Spanish goats found in the United States or to Saanens, Alpines, Nubians, Boers, to ten breeds of goats found in Spain or to breeds of goats found in Cuba, Brazil, and Bolivia. The Spanish goats in the United States were found to be related to the breeds of goats found in Spain and Latin America. Additional testing done at Cordoba in 2009 showed the San Clemente Island and Arapawa goats to be unrelated to feral Rawhiti goats from North Island, New Zealand, feral goats from Galapagos Island, Old English Milche goats, Golden Guernsey goats, and Damascus goats