World War I coastal fortification becomes a home to hardy goats (Top Story, July 2010)

Top Story (July 2010)

By SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

SLAUGHTER BEACH, Del. — After plans fell through to build a campground on property once used as an army costal fort, Sam Burke turned to raising goats and has settled on the Kiko breed, developed in New Zealand, for its hardy qualities.
Burke bought the 160-acre property along Cedar Creek in 2003. The fort was constructed in 1917 by the U.S. Army as a coastal defense fortification for World War I. The fort was essentially two concrete bunkers each in control of two 12-inch guns intended — but never used — to hit enemy ships attacking the East Coast and protect the oil reserves in Philadelphia.
The fort was used again during World War II as a prisoner-of-war camp holding up to 300 prisoners at one time. During their captivity, many prisoners worked on farms near the fort. It was sold to private ownership in 1948, changing hands a few times before coming to Burke.
Burke said when he bought the property, the vegetation was overgrown and masked the bunkers and the six-foot tall berm around the property. Goats were chosen as a way to start clearing the brush and that eventually gave way to Cedar Creek Farm specializing in purebred and crossbred Kikos.
He said they went to a livestock sale barn in the area and bought a bunch of Boer goats but many soon became sick and died. 
“When you buy goats from a meat market, that’s what you should expect,” he said. “We were looking for a hardy goat that wasn’t going to get sick on us.”
In 2005, they purchased a yearling Kiko buck, TSF Goliath, and a couple of purebred does.
Now, there’s about 100 goats on the farm along with some Katahdin sheep, Scottish Highland cattle and a few turkeys.
The goats have cleaned up a lot of the brush, small trees and phragmites around the farm as Burke moves them around in fenced-off paddocks.
The goats proved to be good graziers and required little maintenance and handling. The goats kid outdoors, no matter the weather conditions and Burke said breeding is geared toward increasing worm resistance. Only culled goats are sent to market, Burke said, keeping the goats with strongest traits in the herd or available for sale to other breeding operations. 
“Being that it’s a very wet property, parasites like wet, and the Kiko works well in that situation,” said Burke’s son, Laurence, who is in partnership with Burke on the farm.
According to Susan Schoenian, the Kiko breed is better adapted to the moist climate in the Mid-Atlantic region than the Boer goat, which was developed in South Africa’s hot, dry climate and first raised in the United States in the hot, dry climate of West Texas.
“Kiko breeders tend to be more performance-oriented, while Boer breeders tend to be more show-oriented,” Schoenian said. “The majority of goats in our pasture-based meat goat performance test are Kiko and percentage Kikos.”
Burke’s goats have done well in the Western Maryland Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance test in recent years, with one of his bucks ranking first overall in average daily gain last year.
Still, Boers seem to get preference in the sale barn, Schoenian said, and many producers are reluctant to use Kiko bucks in their herd.
“When we look at Boers (live or on the rail), we visually appraise them higher than Kikos, but when the measurements are objective (e.g weight of cuts), Boers are not a superior meat animal.  In fact, Kiko-influenced kids have better carcass traits, according to research at Tennessee State University,” Schoenian said. “There doesn’t appear to be huge differences in growth and carcass traits among the meat goat breeds.  However, there are significant differences with regards to fitness and reproduction favoring the Kiko and Spanish.”
The Burkes said they want to promote the breed for its hardiness and continue to sell animals to other Kiko operations or to use in breeding in parasite resistance into other breeds for better herd health. Burke said some of the first Boers are still on the farm and their offspring from Goliath are some of the best in his herd.
“Our experience is that the crossbreed makes the best goat,” he said.