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Duffy Livestock is a 50-acre farm located outside of Cottonwood Alabama.  We raise Boer and Kiko/Boer cross goats that thrive in the harsh parasitic environment (wet, hot & humid) of the Southeastern United States of America.  If you are an experienced goat producer, then you might have laughed at that last sentence when you read the word “thrive”. But it is true, through strict culling practices and farm management we have developed parasite resistant genetics in our herd that in our opinion exceed that of most Spanish and Kiko goats.

Herd Management Practices

We continuously strive to develop a hands-off herd that will thrive in the hot, wet, humid environment of the Southeastern United States.  To achieve this goal, we pasture raise our goats while providing a free choice mineral supplementation.  Our goats seek shelter in the woods from sun, wind and rain just as nature intended.  We generally plant rye and oats for winter forage and over seed with ryegrass and Clemson clover for the spring.  For the summer and fall we plant sunn hemp, millet and cow peas to complement the native grasses in our pastures.   Our next steps in forage development is to plant Sericea Lespedeza for a natural dewormer and experiment with its efficacy. 

Culling Criteria

• Primary criteria
  • Poor reproductive efficiency – having single births more than once
  • Lack of parasite resistance – We use both fecal counts and FAMCHA scoring to track parasite resistance
  • Bad hooves – We’ve developed a scoring system similar to the FAMCHA system to track hoof conditions and determine when to trim and when to cull because of frequent trimming and hoof issues
• Secondary criteria
  • Unthrifty kids – producing kids that are not alert and immediately struggling to get up and nurse
  • Poor mothering ability – nursing, protecting, nurturing etc.
  • Low weaning weights – having kids with the lowest weaning weights in their breeding group and herd for the year
  • Miscellaneous – kids with birth defects, low milk, pregnant late in breeding season, doesn’t maintain body condition, sickly etc.

Breeding Program

Throughout the year we evaluate our does and bucks and take notes as to which matches, we believe will take us closer to our herd goals based on our replacements and cull criteria.  We set down in the first week of September, compare notes and put together the years breeding plan.  We separate the does by breeding group and move them to their designated pasture, introduce their groups buck and let nature takes its course.