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Smith360
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Oh and how tall are these goats? Like as tall as my knees? I'm 5'7 soooo would they reach my knee?
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OneFineAcre
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Here is a doe that is 21.5 inches tall. She is an inch under the maximum height.
And this buck is 22 1/2 inches. He is an inch under the maximum for bucks.
Mike CHS
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Thanks babsbag - that did answer the question
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Smith360
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Those are beautiful goats! Thanks for the pictures, they are small!
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Smith360
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So I'm figuring out roughly how many 50 lbs bags of grain ill be buying, I'm thinking 1/2 cup every day, start feeding them a month before they kid and then keep training them until the kids are weaned, and then I will be graining one of the does in the grain stanchon because ill only be able to handle on does milk. Does this sound good? Any recommendations on goat feed?
OneFineAcre
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OneFineAcre
Herd Master
That should work
Really depends on the goat
Some need a little more when in milk you can tell by their body condition
Ginger is one that does really well with free choice grass hay and a little grain
You can get Goat chow that is formulated for goats it has 16% protein
I feed mine a local mix that is only 12 % and mine so fine
But I also feed alfalfa hay to mine when they are in milk
You may have to modify if one starts to get thin or fat
We show our goats so we try to keep ours as close to perfectly conditioned as possible but you don't have to do that you just try to do the best you cam
By "line", I meant not a direct family member of the does they purchase. If the does are purchased from the only Nigie breeder nearby, there's a better than even chance that line breeding has already been done/is being done. I wish you nothing but success with your 1/2 brother breeding this fall.
I'm aware that line breeding is done by/accepted by many (and NOT done/NOT accepted by many more). My published thought/recommendation was just to avoid any potential issues from multiple line in-breeding. Just makes more sense to me that an expanded gene pool would be better all around since the OP doesn't appear to intend to raise a large herd for show or sales... not to say that either couldn't/wouldn't happen later on down the road.
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Smith360
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Well i was told by the breeder that the buck I was going to buy is the father of the doelings I was going to buy, so now I'm going to buy 2 doelings and I was informed that one of our friends happens to have nigerian dwarf bucks! So how young is too young to breed this fall for April babies? They were born in April and may
OneFineAcre
Herd Master
You go by their weight not their age
A Nigerian should weigh at least 40 lbs to breed
So it really depends
Some will weigh that at 7 months old
I have 2 born in March that weigh 31 lbs now
With that being said we have not bred before a year old even if they already weighed 40'lbs
I have 2 now that are 15 months old that we are not going to breed until this fall
I would recommend not being in too big of a rush to breed
If you make your living on livestock then you want them to be in production as soon as possible
But if it is a hobby I would personally wait until next fall to breed but that is my opinion
