04/17/2026
This month, we're going to start spotlighting our consignors.
First up is Michael Whedbee & family.
Hello, We are Joyful Oaks Farm, Michael, Beth, Caden and Ava Whedbee. We are a 40 acre farm in Kingston, TN maintaining 35-40 New Zealand and Purebred Kiko does each year. We have been raising Kikos since 2019 and have focused on improving our herd and kid crop each year We started small with 5 does, and have slowly grown over the years. Our primary herd sire since 2021 has been GFI RM Keeper II 827, a son of WAYSU Goliath’s Keeper and a Rolling Meadows doe that is Confederate, Zorro, and Line bred Terminator XX. We also owned and utilized LFK Blue Wild Cat, a Blue’s Son buck, for two breeding seasons and retained several of his daughters to grow and improve our herd.
We have performed annual health testing since 2021 for CAE, and Johne's, and more recently have added CL testing since stopping the CL vaccinations in 2023. We vaccinate CD&T as well as Pneumonia annually for all animals.
We focus on several traits for determining what female animals make the cut (both doelings and mature does) and we cull every year. Number one is parasite resistance followed by maternal instincts and abilities. Dead goats are worth $0. I include teat and udder structure and size, in with maternal abilities. A mother must birth successfully unassisted, have all kids cleaned and dried quickly, and nursed successfully. Teat and bag structure have a lot to do with the last one. Does are evaluated annually for kidding %, weaning weights and %, udder, maternal instincts, de-worming or other health issues and the bottom of the barrel is culled. The percentage of does in our herd that sport a JOF ear tag increases every year.
More recently we have also been working to maintain the above while improving ADG and USDA grade of our kids at market age. We kid in January (thus the necessity for good maternal does) to attempt to hit the highest market price for market kids. This market peak is normally in May thus our kids need to be between 50-70 lbs and grade #1 at 4 months of age to get top dollar from market buyers. We have improved our consistency to hit this goal each year we have been raising Kikos. It’s a process…
Only the approximate top 20% or less of our buck kids get kept for further evaluation. Most of these get set to University buck tests to get evaluated against their peers from across the country in a common setting. We spend $1000’s of dollars each year on these tests to evaluate how we are improving in relation to our previous results as well as other farms. After the buck tests these normally get culled down to two or three bucks to keep for future herd sire evaluation. We do not have a huge buck area, thus you must be awesome for us to keep through the winter and be given a shot at our farm or sold as a potential herd sire. . Buck testing results: 2023 WVU tied for 1st, 2nd, and 4th Low FEC; 2024 MSU #2 low FEC, #6 REA; 2025 WVU #7 ADG, #21 FEC, #15 Overall buck.
Doelings are weaned in a small 2 acre lot and pushed hard to evaluate parasite resistance early. They are normally evaluated for the next 9 – 12 months to determine who gets the honor of being sold as a JOF registered doe or retained into the JOF herd. Anyone not making the cut will get sold as commercial or at market.
Lastly, We feed a balanced diet based on the time of year, nutritional needs, forage/browse availability. We provide fescue hay free choice year-round. We feed a 16% COOP branded goat feed at approximate ½ lb per head for nine months of the year. We increase this to 1lb per head for our does 1 month before kidding through weaning at 90 days. We also add a limited amount of alfalfa hay daily during kidding to help all of the does to get some of the increased protein required to raise #1 kids and retain their body condition. Our kids get fed a limited amount of pelleted feed with a coccidiostat added from 2 months to 4/5 months of age. Free choice minerals (currently Sweetlix Meat Maker) and salt are provided always to all goats.
Check out their lots 20, 49, & 78
