Welcome to our family farm
We are fourth generation Kansas farmers. Our family has roots deep in the soil of northwest Kansas. This corner of our state averages about 17 inches of annual rainfall and much of our pastures are warm season native buffalo grass. Management of this highly nutritious range land is critical in dry years. To encourage grass health and clean up unwanted weeds we explored using goats in a portion of our pastures. We have been pleased with the results and have increased our herd size since we began in 2015.
As our knowledge has grown with our herd size, we are finding the direction we want to follow to improve herd quality as well. We have over 40 years of experience in the beef cattle industry and have chosen to raise composite cattle to attain a more predictable offspring with the F3 cross.
Our long term goal is to utilize this composite theory with our commercial goat herd and reach that F3 offspring that are 5/8 Kiko, 3/8 TexMaster; or 5/8 Kiko, 1/4 TexMaster, and 1/8 Boer. Currently we have a crossbred goat herd with the does high percentage Kiko or Spanish. Both breeds bring a strong natural parasite tolerance and good maternal traits. Although we sold the last of our TexMaster breeding bucks in 2020, those sires brought double muscling and added depth to our replacement doelings for three years. These doelings have grown up to be the core of our present herd.
The Kiko breeding bucks, which we now utilize, continue to add those traits for which the Kiko breed is known and respected... hardiness, mothering instincts and low maintenance. We are also beginning to select our top females for a small registered herd through the AKGA breed-up program. By the time we are ready to slow down and cut down on our herd numbers, we plan to have a solid registered herd established, through purchases and selection.
Steve & Kathy Launchbaugh, Owners & Operators
Milliron L
Land
& Livestock
Home of Registered & Commercial Meat Goats
HERD SIRES
rEGISTERED KIKO BUCKS Foundation kENSING sPANISH Bucks COMMERCIAL KIKO bucks
After being in dry-lot since grazing ran out in the fall, the does were more-than-ready to be turned out of their pens. This was able to be accomplished in May as our dry weather pattern broke long enough to bring us some much-needed rain. The pastures are growing but have a lot of catching up to do, so we are using rotational grazing under pivot irrigation where the does are having to hustle for themselves. They just finished off a wheat field and are now on some re-growth on a triticale field. We will soon be planting cane for later in the summer.
Last fall we divided the does into their breeding groups and utilized two registered Kiko sires on some proven does as well as some first-timers. We had one 100% New Zealand Kiko, a blue, BWP Tough’s 921 Boy, son of PJM Copyright Tough over a daughter of Mr. Speckles. For a second year we used a Purebred Kiko SJH Sanja Axle, son of MWF Valentino over a daughter of Mr. Speckles. We had high expectations for these matings and weren’t disappointed in the results.
In addition, our Kensing Spanish Foundation buck once again got penned with our Kensing does to keep a pure bloodline for possible future certification with the Spanish Registry. He’s also servicing a group of high percentage Spanish does.
Our fourth group was strictly commercial but we used a proven non-registered percentage Kiko buck that yielded some of our highest gaining kids in the herd.
The final does ran in two separate groups with outstanding home-raised bucks that carried the genetics of SANJA Axle and SAN Mingo Starr, both bucks that have moved our herds in the direction we want.
Scroll through the pictures of some of this year’s kids and be your own judge, but we think we have a selection that favorably represents our herd and the meat goat industry.
BWP Tough’s 921 Boy
We added some B Bar W stock in 2022 when we purchased BWP Tough’s 921 Boy from Linda Holloway at Ponca City, Oklahoma. He is a double registered New Zealand and comes from the Copyright Tough line on top and a Mr. Speckle’s daughter maternally. He has the genetics and many of his kids this year carried his blue coloring and stout build.
BREW Eclipse
A son of SLS Buster and an SLS doe, Eclipse has many of the same traits of his sire. Registered with the NKR as a New Zealand, Eclipse was born in 2021. Eclipse also came to our farm from David Brewster and was raised by him.
Those who provided service and enhanced our herd genetics…
SLS Sanja Axle
Axle was an aggressive breeder. We kept or sold for breeding, a significant number of his daughters during the years we used him. Unfortunately, about a month after the completion of his third breeding season, he suddenly died and failed to have bred more than a handful of his does. That’s why we use clean-up bucks. He is a son of Valentino over a Mr. Speckle’s daughter and very large framed for a triplet. He was raised on Sanja Ranch in Oklahoma and is a parentage verified American Purebred registered with the NKR.
SAN Sam Elliot
With JTV Klondike on one side of his pedigree and MGR Titan’s Hammer on the other, SAN Sam Elliott had excellent parasite resistance in his genetics. He is registered with the AKGA as an American Purebred. He was born a twin in January 2017. Several of his daughters have also been added to our breed-up program.
Foundation Kensing Spanish
When we purchased our Kensing Spanish does from Whitworth Ranch’s foundation herd, we also purchased an unrelated buck. We used him exclusively on the foundation does to keep a pure bloodline, but was sold in 2024. Plans are to replace him with a Rocking X Ranch sire so we can continue to keep 500’s daughters in our herd. He had the Spanish goat lankiness, but in the last couple years added some muscling to his frame.
Houdoo came to us in our earliest years of goat ranching. He was 3/4 Kiko, but never registered. That didn’t keep him from brining some great genetics to his offspring. His showy colors were very inheritable. He was raised by the Sikes family near Anselmo, Nebraska. They run a Hemp’s Golden Boy line-bred program.