The KGBA is thrilled to announce the reintroduction of a KGBA herd evaluation service for our members!
Many years ago, the KGBA was lucky enough to have renowned judge, author, and goat evaluator Harvey Considine agree to help us create an evaluation program for the Kinder breed. 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.
Unfortunately, Harvey did all evaluations himself and the service was lost to us when he passed away. Over the last few years, the association has been working tirelessly to reintroduce the evaluation program, and we are excited to begin the year with two qualified evaluators ready to visit your farms!
In order to make evaluations more cost effective and therefore more attainable to our members, the association will be subsidizing the cost of travel for our evaluators, meaning that the cost to our members will only be $10 per goat with a 5 head minimum. Priority will be based in part on the number of goats signed up to be evaluated in each area, so consider working with others in surrounding areas to sign up for multiple farms or to plan a large group evaluation at a single location. Our evaluators will also happily do evaluations on site before, during, or after shows, so please contact us as soon as possible if you are planning on holding shows in the future. Traveling longer distances becomes much more valuable to many if they can bring their entire herds to a show, spend the morning showing, get their herd evaluated in the afternoon, and go home with ribbons, scorecards, and a plan for herd improvement!
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 my own goats evaluated and 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.
If you are interested, just send us an email at kindergoatbreeder@gmail.com, and we will work with you to arrange a convenient time for evaluations. Contact us even if you only have two goats and don’t know anyone else nearby with Kinders; we will happily do whatever we can to help you get your goats evaluated. You never know… you may have Kinders or an evaluator living just down the road!