A downside of an anti-mating apron for goats is that the apron can move around and sometimes the buck may be able to get around it and still breed. Often, two herd owners will even agree to meet somewhere (like in a driveway) so they can let their buck and doe meet, breed and then leave a few minutes later and go their separate ways. With this, you measure the goat's "heart girth", wrapping the tape around your goat's chest just behind the front legs. You can breed your nanny twice per year, but that doesn't mean it is healthy to breed too close together. Some diseases can be serious and can wipe out an entire herd quickly. Some Nubians will breed year-round. Even though they may make you laugh, be cautious. But, with larger numbers of kids, it's harder to tell exactly. If you make a homemade buck apron, be sure that the bottom of the apron is weighted to keep it hanging down at all times. Their weight should pick up over time. Yearling kids may be bred in the first year at 7-10 months of age, depending on breed, if they have grown well to about 80 lb. Usually about 6-12 inches tall is ideal. So, ironically, if you try to speed up your doe's birthing process, it actually lowers the rate of producing new kids. A breeding or marking harness is a nylon or leather harness that straps around your buck's chest, and it has a big colored "crayon" that sits in the middle of his chest. The buck is super-fast when it happens. If given earlier than 3 months, animals should be re-vaccinated at 4-6 months of age). Later, when you see this, you can know exactly which does have been mounted by a particular buck. This squirts the supplements directly into her throat so she can't spit them back out. Retire your does at a proper age. Goats can generate milk from about 18 months throughout adulthood and far into their senior years. (source), Goat kids need to have plenty of forage, or roughage, in their diets. Nanny goats stand approximately 30 inches tall and Billy goats (or bucks) generally stand 35 inches tall. While some goats breed only during a certain season, some breeds of goats will breed constantly and breed year-round if you let them. Not only that, people have found that if you retire your doe after she reaches about 10 years of age, it can increase her lifespan to 20 years or longer. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. That's what I thought. Nutrient Requirements. For miniature breeds, such as Nigerian Dwarf or Pygmy, the gestation period may be closer to 145 days, and for other breeds, 150 days. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You can simply purchase the semen and use it to impregnate your goats without the difficulties and delays of the normal breeding process. When it happens, you will often see the doe hunch up and arch her back for a moment, when is a sure sign she has been penetrated. He will also raise his upper lip and make blubbering noises to attract the doe. May 17, 2010. Day length has an effect on reproduction in the buck and the doe. But, as I mentioned before, you may decide to use a larger number of bucks if you want more genetic diversity in your herd. It may sound kind of crazy, but it's better than not knowing when your new kids might be born. This can help you keep records of approximately when certain goats were bred, and which goats were involved. In that case, you may not want to remove your buck from your does, and an apron can keep them from breeding until you're ready. I've heard of does being milked for their 10th lactation before. Most species of does are pregnant from 145 to 152 days. The actual sex act only lasts for a few seconds. On the other hand "line breeding" is generally considered okay. Nigerian dwarf goats are unlike other goats in that they go into heat roughly every 21-28 days. Prepare your weaning pen at least a couple of weeks before you wean the goat kid. However, it tends to be more expensive since it usually is performed by a trained vet technician. The burdizzo method crushes the spermatic cord. Excessive Tail Wagging. It may not display this or other websites correctly. If you choose to "retire" your doe at some point, you will need to keep her away from bucks for the rest of her life. The fist reason that I separate my bucks from my does is that a buckling can breed very early. (Never did figure that one out since you can board your horses and still show them. There really is no exact number of days that will determine when you should wean your goat kid. Females of this same breed stand a little more than 22 inches high. However, as we discussed earlier, this would not be good. There are some better ways to test for pregnancy. Once you know your goat's approximate kidding date, the next step will be for you to get ready for the new baby goats that are coming. Regardless of whether you bottle-feed your baby goats or let your momma goats raise their babies on their own, the time to wean is the same. They will have served you well, and they deserve to live out the rest of their lives peacefully, without enduring the rigors of the birth process every year. Most dairy goat breeds are seasonal breeders, such as my full-size Nubian goats. The average gestation period for a goat is about 145-155 days. When a buck breeds a doe it only takes a few seconds to get the job done. Some people prefer to make their own goat anti-mating aprons. It is important that all goat kids have their CD-T vaccination to keep them from getting tetanus and enterotoxemia, a bacterial disease that wreaks havoc on a goats gastrointestinal system. This is why, as we mentioned earlier, at a minimum a doe can safely kid about every 9 months, but the best practice followed by most reputable goat farmers concerned about their doe's health is to aim at having a doe give birth to kids no more often than about once per year. Keep in mind that Mother Nature never follows an exact calendar or clock. Bloody or dark-colored loose stool is the main symptom of coccidiosis. How Much Do Chickens Weigh? You can definitely make money in goat breeding, because many different farms, both small and large, are doing it. Let's take a look at the answers to both of those questions. When a buck goes into "rut", he will do a lot of crazy stuff like snorting a lot, spitting and peeing on his own legs, beard, face and mouth. Never let your goats do everything whatever they wish and don't allow them to think that 'they are above you in the herd's pecking order'. It's usually more accurate when there are one or two kids inside of your doe. Another way to detect goat pregnancy is with a blood test. (source). A doe can go into heat again and get pregnant less than 30 days after kidding, maybe even within just a couple of weeks after delivering her last litter of kids. The nutrient requirements of bucks, young goats and does with a high . Be sure to write down their birth weight to establish the baseline that you will use to monitor their growth going forward. After that, if you "think" she got bred, and she doesn't come into heat again, you can calculate her estimated kidding (delivery) date (or range of dates) in the future and write it down. to be weaned and prepare for the journey ahead. Not sure, this year we have a doe who turned 7 years old and she just had triplets and another doe who turned 6 years old and she currently has quads. Before you wean any goat kid, you should take a few precautionary steps first. You may also notice her making lots of noise, and her tail "flagging" (rapidly waving back and forth). Just be patient. It's in PDF format, so you can easily save it and print it. We had a good friend whose goat reared its head and stuck its horn into the friend's eye socket. It is important to keep an eye out for any changes in your goat kids behavior after weaning them. Goat sexually mature: From 4 to 6 months. Also, don't be fooled into thinking a young buckling can be left with your doe and won't get her pregnant. General recommendations to handle this cluster are to have ram to ewe ratios of 1 adult ram to 50 ewes during the fall breeding season (2% coverage). Terms: Buck: Male Goat One tool that can help identify does that have been bred is a harness called a "breeding harness" or "marking harness". This work is supported in part by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2. Many people have reported a lot of success using a buck apron from House of Bacchus. In months, the 150-day average works out at five months. The answer to the first question is that some goats have a breeding season, and some goats don't. Miniature goats can be bred at 7-8 months (or 45 lbs.) And since spring is only 2-3 months long (where I live that is) and rabbit gestation is around a month, that really only leaves time for 1, maybe 2, breedings. Having does reproduce too early can lead to pregnancy or birth difficulties. Most goats breed easily when they are put together. I have heard of people who wait until a doe is 1 1/2 years old before breeding her. They will raise their lip, flap their tongue and make a blubbering sound to attract a doe. On our farm, we recently had one of our Nigerian Dwarf does deliver four kids at once. Therefore, it's critical to make sure that buck has the kind of strong, desirable conformation that you want to see being developed in your entire goat herd. But they are fairly easy to pick up. The average is two. This is due to the fact that a doe's body simply reaches a point where the nutritional and other demands of that many kids is simply too much for her body to handle, while maintaining enough nutrition for herself to survive as well. A buck apron is a weighted apron that hangs around your buck's waist, held in place by a girth strap, and the apron gets in the way when he tries to breed a doe. The ewe carries the lambs for about 5 months before they are born. Because a doe's body isn't prepared to grow and deliver a kid safely until she reaches a certain body weight, which is usually 60-70% of an adult doe's typcial body weight. One option is to buy a livestock scale, but that could cost you several hundred dollars or more. The doe can be bred when she has reached 60 percent to 70 percent ofthe averageadult weight for her breed (80 pounds for an averageBoer doe for example). Producing kids will drain nutrition from a doe's body. Joined Apr 19, 2012 To estimate the expected kidding date, start from the approximate date the doe may have been bred, and add the usual "gestation" days (the length of time it takes a does to deliver a kid from the time she first got pregnant). Disclosure. Signs of heat can be wagging the tail, mounting other does, letting other does mount her, fighting, clear (wet or dried) mucosal discharge from her vagina, or yelling (bleating) for no reason. We're glad you're here! The characteristics of the buck is more crucial than that of your does because your herd will be produced from many does, but many of those does will usually be bred by a single buck (more about this below). You'll want to do more research before deciding on goat mineral supplements because the necessity and benefits of using them will vary based on breed, diet, and your soil and water quality. This serves for supporting their maintenance and growth during weaning when milk in their diet is absent. Remember, there may be a short period immediately following weaning where the kid may lose a little weight due to the shock of weaning. For now, feel free to continue reading. Usually after about 2 weeks, the testicles simply shrivel up and fall off. These will be her last. Goats wag their tails frequently while they're eating or playing around. Puberty is reached when the female exhibits her first heat (estrus)andovulation. For miniature goats, like Nigerian Dwarf goats which can average up to about 60 or 70 lbs for a typical adult, a doe should be at least 60-70% of that (around 40 lbs) before you allow her to breed. Many goat keepers have had a pregnant doe pass away during kidding because she was bred when too young and her body wasn't developed enough to carry kids to full term and deliver them. Southwestern Idaho. The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Intact bucks and does over 8 weeks of age should not be kept together because a young buck can, and will,breed a female at 2 months of age, this includes his mother and 2 month old sister! You must log in or register to reply here. We keep several bucks to create some genetic diversity in our herd. This doesn't mean that they should be bred, but it's definitely possible for him to get his sister and mother pregnant, so it's important to remove bucks from females at 7 weeks old! Consider adding minerals and vitamins, from sources such as black oil sunflower seeds ("BOSS"). Or, if you have someone show you how the first time, you can easily draw the blood yourself to save some time and money. Sometimes a doe will come into heat, breed, and then come into heat again in 7 to 10 days. (source). You can get a vet to draw the blood. and are of good size and condition. When choosing goats for breeding, your decisions will depend on what your purposes are for your herd. (source). While I'm addressing dairy goats in this . Ideally, goats should be a healthy weight before being bred, which older goats may have slightly more difficulty maintaining. Pygmy goats can produce a ton of milk for their small size. (source). The elder, age 6, is a cheerful, friendly saanen who looks like skin and bones in her back hips with a huge belly done below. Getting too complicated will usually cause the goat apron to hang to one side rather than hanging down under the buck. Other breeds can breed year-round, such as Nigerian Dwarfs, Boers, Spanish goats, Fainting goats, and Pygmy goats. To combat the stress that your goat kid will inevitably face during weaning, studies show that you should wait to wean until their weight increases to at least 2.5 times their initial weight at birth. However, those numbers are considered somewhat rare. A much cheaper option for larger goats that are hard to lift is to use a goat "Weigh Tape" or a regular measuring tape. The key is to understand the different types of revenue that can be earned with goats, and to focus on one ore more of those income sources to specialize in. They are serviceable even for up to 12 years in exceptional cases, and up to 14 years in rare cases. There are many uses for goat milk and you can . The doe will remain in heat for 12 to 36 hours. It may be better to control your goat breeding to stagger the anticipated kiddings at different times. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. It's also tough when you add the time to wean, bottle feed and care for so many kids in such a short period. The number of does a buck can breed during the breeding season is often referred to as Buck Power (Noble, 2004). It's usually best to keep the apron design simple, with a single strap. Even so, some farms use inbreeding in an attempt to emphasize certain desirable genetic traits in their goats, or to avoid spending money on goats from outside their goat families. At the age of five to seven years, the goats reach their peak efficiency. Like many other animals, humans included, goats have their own mating rituals.