Hardy Boer Meat Goats

About Ken and Candy Ziemer and Critter Ridge

1656 MC 5040 Yellville,Arkansas 72687

(870) 449-6789 kencandy@critterridge.net

Ken(center) with (left to right) daughter, Kristine; granddaughter, Angela; and grandsons, Dean and Brandon; setting up a live

Nativity Scene at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Ken and Candy in next picture with their Lama.

Pictured at left are our grand children Daen and Angela Johnson showing Boer goats at the Northwest Arkansas District Fair.

Our Experience in Raising Boer Goats

Ken Ziemer and his wife Candy love to farm and work with animals, especially goats. They have also raised cattle, but currently only have goats, a lama and an Anatolian shepherd dog, and several cats, turkeys, and chickens. Ken has always been interested in genetics and livestock breeding. His goal is to breed a Boer goat that is very hardy and resistant to internal parasites. Internal parasites are a major problem with goats, especially in warm humid climates.

Ken has a bachelor's degree in agriculture from theUniversity of Wisconsin with majors in Dairy Husbandry, Dairy and Food Industries, and Genetics. He also has spent four years working in agricultural and medical research at the University of Wisconsin and the VA Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. While attending the University of Wisconsin during the late 1950's and early 1960's, Ken had studied the scientific literature pertaining to goats and has kept up with this information since then. Ken has 48 years of experience raising goats having purchased his first registered dairy goats in 1962 while still a graduate student.

Candy's parents raised goats when she was growing up, so she has worked with goats all of her life. Ken and Candy were married in 1966 and purchased their farm near Yellville, Arkansas, in 1967, where they still live.They brought 80 head of dairy goats with them when they moved to Arkansas from Wisconsin. Thus they have 43 years of experience raising goats in the Ozark Mountains of North Central Arkansas. At one time they had over 200 head of dairy goats.

They started breeding full blood Boer meat goats in 1999. they currently have 37 head of full blood Boer Goats. They sold 20 head of full blood Boers in September, 2009, reducing the size of their herd.

Beginning in 2000, Ken worked diligently with The North Central Arkansas Goat Association, the Northwest Arkansas District Fair, the Arkansas Goat Producers Association, The Arkansas State Fair, The Arkansas Meat Goat Association, and the North Arkansas Meat Goat Association, in starting and running ABGA sanctioned open Boer goat shows and junior market meat goat shows. He worked with the Arkansas State Fair to design, purchase, and set up a goat center with new pens, and show ring for goats. He has also worked with the North Arkansas Meat Association to set up educational seminars for meat goat producers.

Ken is 72 years old and because of his age has to do less farming and working on meat goat events than he had in the past. Thus he spends more time writing articles on meat goats and publishes them on the internet.

Come Visit Us and See Our Herd

We are located in north central Arkansas, twenty miles south of Missouri.

Ralph is four miles south of Yellville, Arkansas, on Highway 14.
We are two miles west of Ralph on County Road 5040.