Breeding starts today!!

[newbiekat]

We are picking up our buck today! Can't wait! Some of you may remember Romeo from last year, we sold him, but LOVED his babies so much that we contacted the new owners and asked if we could lease him for this year. They were kind enough to allow us to do that! So in short, we pick him up today, and plan to keep him for about 30 days!

Last year he bred all of our girls within a week of coming to the farm and all settled the first time. So we are hoping the 30 days is enough time! If all of the girls come into heat this week, that will give them enough time to come back into heat a second time if they don't happen to settle the first time. I'll post pics when we get him home and settled! MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR IS COMING!!!

On another note, we would like to pull all of the babies at birth (or shortly after) this year and bottle feed... We don't quite have the best set up to separate babies for a long period of time, so I'm wondering if we do pull the babies, if we want to put them back in with the big goats after a few weeks, will the mommas recognize them and will babies want to nurse at that point?

 

[Southern by choice]

Yay! Breeding time is so exciting! We got so carried away getting does bred that we stopped when we realized UGHH... JANUARY babies. We are gonna be so cold! We held everyone else off so now we can have Mar/April babies. LOL I hate the cold.

As far as the pulling goes. We tried this for the first time this year on a Nigie doe-first freshener. Pulled right at birth, she never saw him. She never skipped a beat. One time she heard him let out a maaa in the house and she hollered and that was it. I think if it is a FF they really don't know what's going on. She did not clean him, smell him...nothing. She was milked out within a half hour after kidding. Brat gave us a single!
She never saw him for the first 3 days...after that he was on the porch running around while she was brought up 2x day for milking. She never knew he was hers.
We contemplated leaving the kid/s on for the first few days, I am glad we didn't. I think that would have been much more stressful on both mom and kid.
I will say I had very mixed feelings about it. It was very- not sure how to express it- kinda disappointing. We love kidding and seeing mama's take care of their kids and it is always so exciting and joyous. This was not joyous in the least. I stayed with mom to catch the 2nd kid- that never came, and the kid was in the house being cared for. I really hated it and did not enjoy it at all.

On the flip side it made the milking easier and we did not miss the timing (as we always do) with starting to milk. She gives us 3 cups am and 3 cups pm...so 1 1/2 qts day. I think she would really have given us 2 qts if she would have had twins, as her bag is not even very full, you can see she could hold a good deal more milk. It will be interesting to see her as a 2nd freshener.

We only bottle fed for about a week then taught him to drink right from a bowl. So much easier.

We are debating whether to pull kids from does that have always nursed their kids. As ff it made a difference in getting those small teats on the nigie to really expand.
The kid is great! Spoiled buckling.

We decided to try this for a few reasons but the number one reason was the lady that was waiting for this litter wanted bottle/bowl fed kids. So we thought we'd try it. Many advantages to this method but birthing is such a let down.

BTW- this was the EASIEST goat ever to train to the stand!

Hope this helps some.

 

[goats&moregoats]

Good Luck with Romeo. Hope he is as successful for you this year.

I have two that have definitely settled, so January babies for sure. One I am 80% sure settled, again January. Then the fourth I believe my buck got sometime between Sept. 20-23, just before he was sold on the 23rd. Crossing my fingers there. Feb. baby if indeed the breeding was a success.

I haven't decided if I am bottle feeding this year or not. All my ladies are excellent mothers and I don't milk yet. I am giving thought to it though. For personal use. I may pull then and do the nipple bucket. Will decide before the time gets here.

 

[OneFineAcre]

I have no experience pulling kids, we just don't have the time to do that. But, I think most people that do, pull immediately. It also seems logical to me that it would be less traumatic for mama and baby like SBC said.

 

[newbiekat]

Haha SBC- I have definitely debated having Nigerians so I could have babies year round!

I will say I had very mixed feelings about it. It was very- not sure how to express it- kinda disappointing. We love kidding and seeing mama's take care of their kids and it is always so exciting and joyous. This was not joyous in the least. I stayed with mom to catch the 2nd kid- that never came, and the kid was in the house being cared for. I really hated it and did not enjoy it at all.

Hmm... That's good to know... I really enjoy the mother/baby dynamic too. I guess my main reason for bottle feeding is to get my girls friendlier. I know that can (and does) happen otherwise, but if I bottle feed I have to socialize with them. If I don't have to bottle feed, they become socialized much slower due to the fact that I don't get out with them daily. Not that they aren't friendly; all my goats are friendly, I just would like them to be more friendly in the beginning. Basically, I want them to be friendly without having to do the work for it hah! But again... I don't have the time to hang out with them every day like I should, unless I'm forcing myself to by bottle feeding...

Many advantages to this method but birthing is such a let down.

Kidding time (and the interaction that follows) is my favorite... Gosh... maybe I should just forego the bottle feeding. Darn it..

I have no experience pulling kids, we just don't have the time to do that. But, I think most people that do, pull immediately. It also seems logical to me that it would be less traumatic for mama and baby like SBC said.

Yeah, and that would be our problem. We are almost guaranteed not here when they kid. We work during the day and often times they kid early afternoon before we are home. Darn it... Guess we are gonna forego that method this year. It's probably better for mommas and for us.

Thanks for your input guys!

 

[Southern by choice]

I plan on writing an article about our experiences with this because we have acquired does this year that were pulled. Some were kids but some of the does are mature does that were raised this way.
It has been very interesting.
It will give a bigger picture and I think will surprise some with our findings. I hope to expand on the subject and share the pro's and con's.

 

[newbiekat]

I look forward to that! I am very interested in what all you've found!