Rolling Meadows is located in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Gainesville, Ga approximately 60 miles NE of Atlanta, Ga. We're only 8 miles off I-985 very easy to find.

 Our prime goal is to improve the Kiko with each breeding to be able to offer our genetics to our customers as the " the best of the best."

We feel we have the best of the best and our goals are to improve and preserve the Kiko with each breeding. Each kidding season being better than the last. We do this by culling heavy and striving to produce an animal that the kids can be "cookie cutter" and predictable.

We got our first goats in the early 90’s, which were 6 of undetermined breed solely for weed control. Then we purchased some Cashmere and crossed them with a fullblood Boer buck and used this as a learning experience. Later we sold those and purchased 45 fullblood Boers using an Eggsfile buck and a son of Tobias for our breeding continuously adding other sires and bloodlines.

Upon reading an article we discovered there was this goat called a "KIKO" and if this information was true of the unheard breed I wanted to try it. I called the American Kiko Association and asked for material on the breed. 3 months later after calling near and far from the breeders list the AKGA supplied me with, I finally found someone that would even let me look at his Kikos. J T Farms and was able to purchase 6 does and 1 buck. I would have been happy to have purchased more but at that time that is all they would sell.

These were breeding age doelings and we were on our way in the Kiko business. Our first Kiko kids came in February. All 6 of the does had kids at one time exactly 5 month from the day they were put with the Buck.
As time went on and we observed our "New found breed" we discovered that all we had heard about these animals was true. Back then all Kikos were pure bred. Later on the 100%NZ designation came about and we were lucky enough to have already had some in our original purchase. We added a NZ buck to our herd Zorro 11 son of the original imported Zorro. Later I went with another breeder and purchased Nick (son of Moneymaker).

By this time a goal had been set to own a QUALITY Herdsire of each of the Bloodlines that were imported in 1994, back then Kiko goats were hard to find and NZ Kikos even more so. We added to our Herd Loverboy Sunboy 117 (son of Moneymaker) and Keeper (son of the original Goliath). We also found a few quality doelings from 3 other breeders. When JT Farms had to retire because of health problems we purchased the top of their herd that being the main herdsire, Moose (son of Original Generator) who had won the first forage test at Fort Valley hands down, Herk (son of the original Hercules) and Terminator XX a big black buck and another son of the Original Terminator. Only 3 bucks were ever registered out of the original Terminator. One died at Egypt Creek and other no one has any idea where he is and the third Rolling Meadows is very fortunate to have in our pasture. We added Klondike bloodlines from Cody and Confederate "Elvis" JTV Stacy who spent his last day here. We also added the Aristocrat bloodline from a double bred son of Tasman and Aurora Aristocrat Carpe Diem better known as "Crush" Later we added Nugget from Goldmine bloodline to the herd. Kids from him will be on ground this fall.

We have tried to get as close to the originals as possible and have crossed these bloodline to try to improve and preserve the kilos as much as possible.

We believe very strongly in ALL Natural breeding as Nature intended, and the kids to have the advantage of being reared by their own kind. Thus passing on the motherability, that the Kiko does do so well in rearing her off spring. We believe you cannot fool Mother Nature for long and get by with it... so we do natural breeding only.

We do have does from the originals Sires that do a great job. Someone once asked me "why the older ones” well my feeling is this they have to be good in order to have got this old in the first place and still producing the quality they do...

We still have Boers. Bucks and Does and have all crosses in between including the Tex Genemaster and Bo-Ki. The crosses of these two breeds give you the best of both worlds.

Boer bloodlines used original to only name a few were from Del Rio, Shaka Zulu, Buck Shot, Tabu, Kaptain, Eggsfile, and Tobias. All ennobled from the offspring they produced. We were fortunate to have the Dam of Tobias (Ram H Jemima Brew) and her sister (Ram H Ronata Brew) produce, retire, and live there last days at Rolling Meadows.

In our breeding program we are still using those older bloodlines to cross with our Kikos to produce outstanding Gen-master/Boki and Tex Genmasters. We have strived to have the best foundation herd possible in both the Boer and the Kiko thus producing superior animals when crossing these genetics.

We breed our doelings at 16 to 18 months giving them a chance to reach their full potential and produce the best offspring possible. When a decision is made early on that a particular doe will remain here we wait until she is 2 years old to breed. Since we feel does do not produce their best kidding until the third year, we feel by waiting a little longer on the first kidding we get far better offspring, less kidding problems and better longer lasting does. Breeding doelings too young we have found that the offspring are not as good. More kids will go to the meat trailer and the potential of the dam is greatly decreased. Better does, better kids, less problems, sure makes life easier on all.

Weather permitting we kid outside, but try to use common sense and realize that the kid on the ground leaving a nice warm environment of 104 degrees to hit the frozen ground is not good. Even a roast will freeze if left out. So why should a newborn be expected not to freeze the same as a roast? We have also found kids are not born with the ability to swim either as last January was a prime example.

In our breeding program we have bred all the different bloodlines to see which were the best and cannot truthfully say one bloodline is any better than the other. But we try to match the trait we want from each bloodline together to produce the best possible offspring.

Little bucklings are weaned close to 90 days, if there is one that is sure he is destined to be a herdsire then he is removed to the little buckling pasture earlier. We prefer our doelings to remain with their dams until they are at least 4 months old. Dams do the weaning and we feel this helps the motherability of the doeling when it is her turn.

On our bucks we try to keep them until they are near 1 year old but a lot are culled before then. But by the time bucklings are one year old it gives buyer/breeder a better look at what the buck will be when he matures. (Ever have a little buckling that looks great at six months and then at a year has totally changed?) That kids traits is only for a short while the grown up traits last for a lifetime.
 

Rolling Meadows is an IKGA and AKGA member.