Welcome to Randy's Kunes home on the web. I have been raising various types of livestock off and on for over 40 years, starting way back in high school with my cow, Ashley, who I used for my FFA market steer project.
Later, in 1990, my wife, at the time, and I purchased 5 acres just outside of Vancouver, WA. We purchased some mixed breed dairy goats, mostly Alpine and Nubian, to keep the grass under control. I heard about Boer goats and invested in a few full-bloods. I spent time raising and showing them from 1995-2006.
Due to my divorce, I had to sell off most of my Boer goats. I kept the special older ones until the last one passed on in 2012. I did get to stay on the 5 acre property and I kept a couple of horses to help with the pasture. Eventually, I rehomed the horses as they were wasted at my place.
I still needed something to help keep the pastures down. I started researching various breeds of animals that might work for me. I settled on the Kunekune pig and purchased my first pigs in January 2018.
Every farm should have goals. That can be just one, or many. Here at Randy's Kunes I have several. First and foremost, I try to breed my Kunekunes as close to breed standards as possible. Do I personally agree with everything in the standard? No, not necessarily. But, to most items, yes indeed. I find some of the standards are way more important in my breeding stock then others. Is there a perfect Kunekune pig? No.
Here at Randy's Kunes my goals are:
1. To raise and sell healthy productive breeding stock focusing on feet, legs, ears and over all uniform body structure.
2. Raise pigs that will mature at a processing weight of 200 plus pounds by 15 months of age.
3. Produce pigs with average snouts. I am not a big fan of the really smashed faced pigs. But, I do get a few in my litters
Those are just a few notable goals. Currently I am working on pigs that are closely related to the original imports and/or have rare bloodlines. The direct offspring of the original imported Kunekunes will soon be a thing of the past. I believe these genetics still need to be preserved.
Everyone has their likes and dislikes and favorites. Probably the least important is color. With that being said, I do breed for color. My favorites are belted, tri-colored, ginger, and the ginger/blacks.
