News and Announcements

Do you have a great product idea that will highlight your Kinders? We love to spread the word about Kinder goats, and hope you will, too! Products with our sweet goats and the Kinder name on them promote our breed while making you money. They are conversation starters, too!

The name Kinder is a registered trademark. Because of this, there are certain rules and regulations that the association and anyone using the name in commerce must follow. If you are considering selling products with the Kinder name on them, here is what you need to know:

If you are interested in using the name on goods and products, you must first obtain a license from the KGBA. In the license grant procedure, you must complete a form with your contact details, and a description of the intended use of the Kinder trademark. All items bearing the Kinder name must also bear the trademark (circle r) symbol.
The fee for applying for a license is $25, and covers a portion of the cost incurred in processing the application. It may take a month or more for your application to be evaluated, and applications may be rejected for any reason (you may, however, reapply as often as you like). If your application is accepted, you will be granted a license to sell your product, with the provision that you agree to pay the KGBA a 5% royalty on the product you are selling. Applications for licenses can be found in the “forms” section of our website.

By imposing these simple rules, we aim to protect the Kinder name from misuse, and create a level playing field for everyone interested in using it in the marketplace.

This June, I had the pleasure of meeting with Tom and Elaine Considine to discuss the reintroduction of a KGBA herd evaluation service for our members.

In the past, herd evaluations were done by Harvey Considine, with his wife Elaine recording the evaluations. Harvey worked closely with KGBA members for many years, developing a Kinder scorecard used by Kinder goat breeders and as a guide for those judging Kinder goats in the show ring. The herd evaluations and scorecard were invaluable in improving Kinder goats as a breed, helping to judge them fairly in the show ring, and helping individuals choose and breed goats more responsibly.

We hope to continue the tradition with Harvey’s son, Tom, and really get back on track with improving our herds and ensuring that they are the high quality, dual purpose goats that we all strive for. As Harvey and Elaine’s son, Tom has been involved with goats for his entire life. He has been an ADGA licensed judge for 25 years, operates a commercial goat dairy and is a member of the ADGA board of directors. Currently, Tom is a Director for District 4, and is chair of the Breed Standards Committee. He has a phenomenal reputation – not just for his knowledge of goats, but for his willingness to help goat owners succeed, and this has been no exception. He is excited to help us improve our herds, and is committed to doing anything for the KGBA.
As I said, he and his mom came to my house, and Tom evaluated my herd. I will be posting pictures of the good and the bad in the days to come, but for now, I will just say that he did a wonderful job. He took his time evaluating each goat and explaining very clearly the decisions that he made. Elaine was a great help, as she had seen more Kinders than almost anyone in the world, and she is also excited to be helping us again. Here are the specifics on what they think they can do for us:

As it becomes set, Tom will be sending me his show schedule for next summer. He has offered to travel and do herd evaluations anywhere within an hour or so from the shows that he will be judging, and will charge us only the cost of the evaluations. That cost will be around $10-15 per goat. He has also agreed to judge any shows that he can fit into his schedule for a VERY reasonable rate, and will happily do evaluations at the site of these shows after the show itself is done. That means that we can bring our entire herds to a show, spend the morning showing, get our herd evaluated in the afternoon and go home with ribbons, scorecards and a plan for herd improvement!

Because he is pretty busy, I will be the contact person for KGBA members wanting evals, or wanting to plan shows. If you are interested in doing either, just send me an email at sue@jabeck.com, and I will work with you and Tom to arrange a convenient time for evaluations. If we have enough people in one area to warrant it, he might be willing to come just to evaluate herds, but we’ll have to see how much interest there is, and where the interested members are located.

I really hope that people take advantage of this opportunity. I knew that evaluations would be valuable, but had no idea just how beneficial they would be until I had the scorecards spread out on my table. Looking at them, it made it easy to decide who to keep, who to cull, and who to breed to whom. So please – contact me if you are interest in getting your herd (or just one or two goats) evaluated. Let’s all work together to make our Kinders the best goats in the world!

~Sue Beck

How we began and why the need of a trademark:

A group of breeders in the State of Washington convened on May 30, 1988 to form a committee for the organization and promotion of the Kinder goat. These same breeders gave this specific cross, Registered Nubian and a Registered Pygmy, the name Kinder. With the guidance of Harvey Considine a Kinder® Breeder Standard was set up. Harvey Considine also made a Score Card specifically for the Kinder® goat. The other crosses of these same breeds done before 1988 did not have a name and were not bred according to the Kinder® Breed Standard, Score Card and not registered with the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association. The crossing of Nubian and Pygmy lines before 1988 had no specific name, being known only as cross bred. This same statement holds true for other crosses done today. The Kinder®goat is a goat that is bred according to the Kinder® Breed Standard and Score card and that can be registered with the  Kinder®Goat Breeders Association. The crosses done in the past and those done today that do not follow the Kinder® Breed Standard and Score Card and cannot be registered with the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association are not Kinder® goats and should not carry the name or be recognized as a Kinder® goat.

Trademark: Kinder® Goat

A trademark offers protection somewhat similar to a copyright. A copyright helps to protect a thought or an idea, while a trademark protects more business specific such as names, symbols and etc. In our case we are talking about a name, Kinder® goat. By trade marking this name we have separated ourselves from other competitors in the market.

You ask why this is needed. There are lots of people that are breeding a Nubian and a Pygmy but not according to our breed standards and score card. They may be breeding an experimental Nubian to a non-registered Pygmy for instance. In this case there would be no way to trace ancestry lines of either breed. Those doing this breeding are calling the off-spring goats and they are not truly Kinder goats. A true Kinder® goat is one that is bred according to our standards and Kinder® score card and registered with the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association.

Many problems have surfaced since the breeding of the Kinder goat in the 1980’s. Animals of unknown origins have been sold to unexpected buyers then that buyer is unable to register those animals with the KGBA because of the unknown origin. Now the buyer is out all the money spent and has no animals that can be registered with the Kinder® Goat Breeders Association. This is a sad situation but nothing the  Kinder®Goat Breeders Association can do.

In order to start your own lines of Kinder goats you must use a Nubian that is either registered with American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA), American Goat Society (AGS), or the Canadian Goat Society (CGS). This Nubian must be a Purebred or full American Nubian. The Pygmy must be registered with National Pygmy Goat Association (NPGA), American Goat Society (AGS), or the Canadian Goat Society (CGS). The crossing of these two registered breeds results in a first generation Kinder. After this initial breeding the Kinder is bred within their own breed. All Kinder® goats are registered with the Kinder®Goat Breeders Association.

Copies of the Nubian registration papers and the Pygmy registration papers are sent along with the application of this first generation animal where they are recorded and kept on file. In this way the breeder and the buyer can trace the ancestry of those animals. All registration applications, pictures, transfers and etc. are kept on file in the KGBA data base.

It is because of unscrupulous sellers just looking to make a dollar that it was felt we must protect our name as well as buyers, by trade marking the Kinder goat name. Now these people can no longer legally use the name Kinder goat to sell their animals.

It should be understood that by trade marking the name, Kinder® goat, that the Kinder®Goat Breeders Association has no legal right of ownership to your Kinder® goats. It is not the commodity (the goat) that is trademarked but the name only.

KINDER BREEDERS: When registration applications, transfer and original registrations are sent in they will be returned to the sender which is usually the seller. It will be up to you the seller to see that the papers are correct then it is your responsibility to send them on to the new owner.