Welcome to our family farm
We are fourth generation Kansas farmers. Our family has roots deep in the soil of northwest Kansas. This corner of our state averages about 17 inches of annual rainfall and much of our pastures are warm season native buffalo grass. Management of this highly nutritious range land is critical in dry years. To encourage grass health and clean up unwanted weeds we explored using goats in a portion of our pastures. We have been pleased with the results and have increased our herd size since we began in 2015.
As our knowledge has grown with our herd size, we are finding the direction we want to follow to improve herd quality as well. We have over 40 years of experience in the beef cattle industry and have chosen to raise composite cattle to attain a more predictable offspring with the F3 cross.
Our long term goal is to utilize this composite theory with our commercial goat herd and reach that F3 offspring that are 5/8 Kiko, 3/8 TexMaster; or 5/8 Kiko, 1/4 TexMaster, and 1/8 Boer. Currently we have a crossbred goat herd with the does high percentage Kiko or Spanish. Both breeds bring a strong natural parasite tolerance and good maternal traits. Although we sold the last of our TexMaster breeding bucks in 2020, those sires brought double muscling and added depth to our replacement doelings for three years. These doelings have grown up to be the core of our present herd.
The Kiko breeding bucks, which we now utilize, continue to add those traits for which the Kiko breed is known and respected... hardiness, mothering instincts and low maintenance. We are also beginning to select our top females for a small registered herd through the AKGA breed-up program. By the time we are ready to slow down and cut down on our herd numbers, we plan to have a solid registered herd established, through purchases and selection.
Steve & Kathy Launchbaugh, Owners & Operators
Milliron L
Land
& Livestock
Home of Registered & Commercial Meat Goats
HERD SIRES
rEGISTERED KIKO BUCKS Foundation kENSING sPANISH Bucks COMMERCIAL KIKO bucks
After being in dry-lot since grazing ran out in the fall, the does were more-than-ready to be turned out of their pens. This was able to be accomplished in May as our dry weather pattern broke long enough to bring us some much-needed rain. The pastures are growing but have a lot of catching up to do, so we are using rotational grazing under pivot irrigation where the does are having to hustle for themselves. They just finished off a wheat field and are now on some re-growth on a triticale field. We will soon be planting cane for later in the summer.
Last fall we divided the does into their breeding groups and utilized two registered Kiko sires on some proven does as well as some first-timers. We had one 100% New Zealand Kiko, a blue, BWP Tough’s 921 Boy, son of PJM Copyright Tough over a daughter of Mr. Speckles. For a second year we used a Purebred Kiko SJH Sanja Axle, son of MWF Valentino over a daughter of Mr. Speckles. We had high expectations for these matings and weren’t disappointed in the results.
In addition, our Kensing Spanish Foundation buck once again got penned with our Kensing does to keep a pure bloodline for possible future certification with the Spanish Registry. He’s also servicing a group of high percentage Spanish does.
Our fourth group was strictly commercial but we used a proven non-registered percentage Kiko buck that yielded some of our highest gaining kids in the herd.
The final does ran in two separate groups with outstanding home-raised bucks that carried the genetics of SANJA Axle and SAN Mingo Starr, both bucks that have moved our herds in the direction we want.
Scroll through the pictures of some of this year’s kids and be your own judge, but we think we have a selection that favorably represents our herd and the meat goat industry.
BWP Tough’s 921 Boy
We added some B Bar W stock in 2022 when we purchased BWP Tough’s 921 Boy from Linda Holloway at Ponca City, Oklahoma. He is a double registered New Zealand and comes from the Copyright Tough line on top and a Mr. Speckle’s daughter maternally. He has the genetics and many of his kids this year carried his blue coloring and stout build.
Houdoo
Houdoo came to us in our earliest years of goat ranching. He is 3/4 Kiko, but unregistered. That hasn’t kept him from bringing some great genetics to his offspring. His track record is well-tested as we have been utilizing him for six years. His showy colors are very inheritable as well as his parasite tolerance. He was raised by the Sikes family near Anselmo, Nebraska. They run a Hemp’s Golden Boy line-bred program, so his genetics likely follow from there.
SJH Sanja Axle
When you get a chance to buy a buck like Axle, you don’t pass it up. Going on six years old, he is an aggressive breeder. He is a son of Valentino over a Mr. Speckle’s daughter and very large framed for a triplet. He was raised on Sanja Ranch in Oklahoma and is a parentage verified American Purebred registered with the NKR. This was his second breeding season on our farm. Unfortunately, this was also his last as he suddenly died about a month after the completion of the season and failed to breed more than a handful of his does. That’s why we use clean-up bucks. In this case, it was two of his sons that we had retained that covered for him.
SAN Sam Elliot
With JTV Klondike on one side of his pedigree and MGR Titan’s Hammer on the other, SAN Sam Elliott has parasite resistance in his genetics. He is also co-owned and has been serving our herd well since his purchase in 2018. He is registered with the AKGA as an American Purebred. He was born a twin in January 2017. Several of his daughters have also been added to our breed-up program. He is currently running with some yearling doelings for November kidding.
Foundation Kensing Spanish
When we purchased our Kensing Spanish does from Whitworth Ranch’s foundation herd, we also purchased an unrelated buck. We have used him exclusively on the foundation does to keep a pure bloodline. He is also servicing some high percentage Spanish does this year. He has the Spanish goat lankiness, but in the last couple years has begun to add some muscling to his frame.
Our 2 newest bucks from Colorado City, Texas……
SLS Buster
SLS Buster is a 100% New Zealand buck registered with the NKR. He is the son of SLS Katmandu and grandson of GHK Cherokee Fiddler and LAA General Custard. We purchased him from David Brewster of Midland, Texas. He is currently servicing a group of yearling doelings for fall kidding.
BREW Eclipse
Raised by David Brewster, this tri-color NKR registered New Zealand buck is the son of SLS Buster and SLS Chloe. Cherokee Fiddler and Blue’s Son are his great-grandsires. He will be introduced to our breeding program this fall and we expect his contributions to be sizeable.