Breeding plans

[rebelINny]

I have been plying with my breeding schedule but I am NOT breeding for February kids this time! It is too cold here in upper new York in feb. I will wait to breed in late October so we get late march babies. I am getting copper for the girls and have put them on a bit of grain so they are at a real good weight for breeding and going into winter. I have one doe I may not breed this year if she doesn't fill out better by October, but I have plenty of time so I will be really feeding her heavy on hay, grain, BOSS, and garden produce leaves. If I have her ready by then I will have eight adult does to breed and depending on size I may have two FF from feb.2010 kiddings. One is already almost as big as my adult does but the other is smaller. Those are all standard alps. Then I have three or four mini-alps that will be bred. A possibility of fourteen does to breed. I have three bucks to choose from. All kids from this past spring so hopefully they will mature enough. I did notice 8 week old max with all his equipment out yesterday and trying to mount one of the older mini- alps. He is a broken chamois with blue eyes a first gen mini- alp. Reign is a chocolate and white pied ( very cool coloring and pattern) but he hasn't shown ANY signs of manliness yet. He is an f1 mini-alp too. Then there is Tabasco. A blonde colored Nigerian dwarf buckling I bought to add new lines in my mini's. He is out of pheonix rising farm in MA. Keeping my fingers crossed they are ready in October!

 

[helmstead]

Wow, how many does do you have?!

Not enough to make every buck as happy as they'd like to be. I have a LOT of junior bucks who will only get 1 or 2 does for their test crops...

 

[lilhill]

Wow, how many does do you have?!

Not enough to make every buck as happy as they'd like to be. I have a LOT of junior bucks who will only get 1 or 2 does for their test crops...

. Poor little guys.

 

[helmstead]

. Poor little guys.

indeed!

 

[RPC]

Kim,
I just looked at your breeding schedule on your website and I am super excited to see how all your breeding's work out. I am so glad this is a goat forum because when I say things like this to my friends or family they think I am just weird. I really just like to see how genetics work out with pairing different animals.
Also has Ruby ever had a doeling?

 

[Roll farms]

Nope, only boys...single, single, trips.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Wow, how many does do you have?!

Not enough to make every buck as happy as they'd like to be. I have a LOT of junior bucks who will only get 1 or 2 does for their test crops...

How often do you find a young buck just doesn't work out after testing him on a couple does? Can you really tell his potential from just the offspring from a couple breedings?

 

[helmstead]

How often do you find a young buck just doesn't work out after testing him on a couple does? Can you really tell his potential from just the offspring from a couple breedings?

I'm not testing his potential when I'm doing test crops. By the time I decide to keep a junior buck and breed him, he's already shown me if he's the style and type I want, I already know the mammary genetics he carries, and he's been in the show ring and done well. A test crop is more of a "lets see if he can figure out this breeding thing (make sure he's fertile) and what his babies look like" for me, anyway. It's not a shot in the dark.

You don't "prove" a buck just by breeding it, IMO (I always giggle at those ads for bucks, "does his job" and similar...DUH, it's a buck, it'll wanna breed!). He has to produce kids that are improvements on himself, and produce nice udders on his daughters consistently. It's a bonus if he's a winning show animal, too...but some of the better mammary systems might come from an ugly buck, so that one's not even necessary - just a bonus.