A & K Farms, L.L.C. Route 1, Box 1570 Hermitage, MO 65668 417-722-1244 or 816-739-2236 Owners/Operators: Keith and Anita Mertz
We are a small working farm rasing meat goats, cattle and Anatolian Shepherd livestock guardian dogs. Our farm was established in 1998. We were located in Oak Grove Missouri until the Summer of 2005. At that time we relocated to Hermitage Missouri. Here we were able to find 160 acres that we fell in love with and we started building from the ground up.
We started raising Boer Goats in the fall of 2005. We got our feet wet with 10 commercial does and 1 full blooded ABGA billy. The first few years were a learning experience. We spent a lot of time visiting with our veternarian and searching the internet. We found it is very diffucult to raise boer goats in this climate due to the number of parasites. Boer goats are very susceptible to parasites and it is a constant battle during the warm humid months. We have made the decision this year to slowly switch our herd over to spanish and kiko bred does. We currently own about 40 head of goats. We still have a few full blooded boer Nannies. We breed all of our nannies with the 100% full blooded ABGA billy to produce thicker offspring. One of the most important things that we have learned is the key factor to producing thick meat goats is your herd sires genetics. We are currently using a paint buck with Bingo and classic warrior in his blood lines. We always have goats for sale to butcher or for breeding so give use a call if you would like more information on our goats.
With the start of the goat business, we soon realized that we needed a way to protect them from the coyotes that hunted in our area. After researching our options of llamas, donkey's, Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd, we decided the Anatolian Shepherd was for us. They have short coats that are easy to maintain. They are very hardy, rugged and strong dogs. We purchased our first dog in 2007 from a working farm in Tennessee. Since then we have purchased 2 more and have started a selective breeding program. You can read more about them on our Anatolian web pages. I think you will see why we fell in love with the breed.
