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Moon Ridge Farm is a 20 acre plus farm that has been in
our family for 60 years. It is located in beautiful Blount County, Tennessee
in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. We are a small farming
operation with two purposes - raising genetically superior and healthy goats
for breeding stock and providing commercial meat goats for slaughter.
Out our back door we are blessed with a magnificent,
breath-taking view of the Chilhowee Mountains and then the Great Smoky Mountain range
beyond. With the views, we appropriately call our place Moon Ridge Farm. My
parents moved here when I was less than a year old. That was over 60 years
ago! We have now been back on the family farm for about 15 years.
My wife and I are engineers who have off-farm jobs to support our farming
habit. We began the challenge of raising meat goats about 10 years ago. We
derive about 5 percent of our income from goats which more than pays the
feed and vet bills. Even though we have anywhere from 30 to 70 goats at any
given time, we would probably be classified goat hobbyists by serious
goat farmers. Whatever the label, it’s fun and it keeps us active.
An even greater challenge is the raising of 2 grandkids that are in our
custody. They are now 15 and 16, a boy and girl respectively, and have been
living with us 11 years. I suppose it was the grandchildren that prompted us
to consider goats. We tried cattle and horses before goats, but really
didn’t have the land to support large animals plus their size frightened the
grandkids and damaged our hilly land. Goats are the perfect
farm animals for children to handle and manage. On many occasions, the
grandkids have taken care of the feeding chore all by themselves.
Our primary focus is on the Kiko goat that originated form New Zealand. This
is a genetically superior meat goat with excellent maternal instincts,
parasite resistance and hardiness. Additional information on the Kiko goat
can be found at
www.kikogoats.com
Feel free to call email us to discuss anything about goats or
a future order.
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