It’s only August but I am planning for
next years’ kidding season. Goats are pregnant for 150 days (give or take 5
days). Goats are also seasonal breeders with the majority coming into season
starting in September until January. They don’t breed all year round. Therefore,
a bit of planning is required.
This year (2012) didn’t go so well.
Most of the does (adult female goats) kidded at the end of February, then we
had kids in March, some in April and then at the end of June. I love baby goats,
I love taking care of them, and feeding them and playing with them but ½ a year
is just too long.
We hand raise all our babies. They are
removed from their dams as soon as they are born, taken into our house, have
their navels dipped in iodine and fed heat -treated colostrum. After their
first day, the babies are raised on pasteurized goat milk (we pasteurize it
ourselves) and goat kid milk replacer (a powder that we make up).
We continue to feed the babies milk
until they are about 4 months old. By this time, they are eating hay and grain
and it’s not too much trouble to wean them. Each baby will drink about 2 litres
a day so it’s a considerable cost to raise them. It’s one of the reasons we
only raise females (doelings).
A doeling can be bred if she is 80 lbs
or more. Some doelings are this weight by the fall of their first year, some
grow slower. It costs about $2.50/day to keep an adult milking doe, so it is
around $800 for that first year. A doeling born in February or March has a much
better chance of growing to breeding weight than one born in July.
That is why the 2013 crop of kids will
be born starting the middle of Feb and ending the end of March. The plan is for
all the does to kid in a 6-week period. Gives the kids a better chance to get
to a good body weight by the time Sept. rolls around. Moreover, it will
concentrate the work into a shorter time span.
Once I have target dates for kidding I
can figure out when the buck(s) need to be in with the does. Which means this
year breeding will begin on September 15th and end on Halloween.
The next decision is who to breed to
whom. We purchased a baby buck from California this spring. He flew up to
Vancouver when he was 15 days old and handled it all very well. My goal with
buying Mousse was to increase our production level per doe. Our does are good
milkers but there is definitely room for improvement.
We want to get more milk and
have fewer goats.
Realistically we will achieve this by
selective breeding and culling/selling the low producers. Production – the
doe’s ability to make milk – is about 30% genetic and the rest is how the
animals are raised and fed. Selecting a buck who’s mother and sisters are high
producers doesn’t guarantee better milk yield. Once my boy Mousse (moose) has
daughters and the daughters have started to milk, we will know if he has passed
on his genetic potential.
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