Is this nubian ready to be bred?

[Straw Hat Kikos]

I'm a breeder, so my purpose is to make a profit.....keep that in mind when reading my answer. Also, I'm talking about standard goats, NOT minis.

I breed our Nubian does by the 8 mos / 80# rule...I try to let them get bigger if possible, but that's not always an option.....and I usually cull any does who DON'T make 80# by 8 mos. We try to be 'done' kidding my March, which means I *should* be able to breed the doelings by November if they were born in March or before.

I've found the 'slow grower' lines tend to not be very impressive as adults, anyway....in my experience.

I don't want kids born in Sept / October, our kiddings run from late Nov - March. I need the rest of the year for gardening / putting food up for winter / getting ready for the holidays.

I cannot afford to feed goats for 1+ years and NOT get kids from them...again, while I ADORE my animals and take good care of them....I have to also be practical as this isn't 'just' a hobby or a couple of backyard milkers / pets I'm talking about here. I have to feed that animal for a year, it has to give back.

IMHO, the 1.5 yr old rule makes breeders 'feel' better, but if the goats were in the wild and cycling, they'd get bred and the strong, good breeders would survive, the weak would not....we coddle our animals too much and that's how we end up w/ weak animals.

I can honestly say that in almost 15 yrs of kidding goats, I've never had a 'young' doe kid w/ a worse problem than a big single. I've had very bad presentations / resulting complications from well-seasoned does who've kidded multiple times.

And they DO grow out fine....otherwise I wouldn't continue to breed yearlings / doelings. Last year Ellie hit the right weight and Blue (3 mos. younger) did not. Ellie got bred, kidded 2 nice 8# boer x bucklings, and peaked at just under 1 g of milk a day, kidding at 13 mos. old. We waited the extra year w/ Blue (born in June -she was bought, not born here) and they are the same weight now. Ellie didn't suffer one bit by being bred.

I'm not advocating breeding a doe at 71#, necessarily, I'm just saying experience has shown me that it's OK to breed a doe before 1 yr of age if she's physically fit.

Great post. I completely agree with all your thoughts there.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

OP - I respect Rolls very much and would listen to her advice. My Buckling is from Roll Farms.

With Tilly and Libby, I am not planning to wait until next fall to breed them. I am hoping that Trip will be ready to breed them June of this year, which will give me babies in November of 2013. That way, I will have milk over the winter, etc.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

I'm a breeder, so my purpose is to make a profit.....keep that in mind when reading my answer. Also, I'm talking about standard goats, NOT minis.

I breed our Nubian does by the 8 mos / 80# rule...I try to let them get bigger if possible, but that's not always an option.....and I usually cull any does who DON'T make 80# by 8 mos. We try to be 'done' kidding my March, which means I *should* be able to breed the doelings by November if they were born in March or before.

I've found the 'slow grower' lines tend to not be very impressive as adults, anyway....in my experience.

I don't want kids born in Sept / October, our kiddings run from late Nov - March. I need the rest of the year for gardening / putting food up for winter / getting ready for the holidays.

I cannot afford to feed goats for 1+ years and NOT get kids from them...again, while I ADORE my animals and take good care of them....I have to also be practical as this isn't 'just' a hobby or a couple of backyard milkers / pets I'm talking about here. I have to feed that animal for a year, it has to give back.

IMHO, the 1.5 yr old rule makes breeders 'feel' better, but if the goats were in the wild and cycling, they'd get bred and the strong, good breeders would survive, the weak would not....we coddle our animals too much and that's how we end up w/ weak animals.

I can honestly say that in almost 15 yrs of kidding goats, I've never had a 'young' doe kid w/ a worse problem than a big single. I've had very bad presentations / resulting complications from well-seasoned does who've kidded multiple times.

And they DO grow out fine....otherwise I wouldn't continue to breed yearlings / doelings. Last year Ellie hit the right weight and Blue (3 mos. younger) did not. Ellie got bred, kidded 2 nice 8# boer x bucklings, and peaked at just under 1 g of milk a day, kidding at 13 mos. old. We waited the extra year w/ Blue (born in June -she was bought, not born here) and they are the same weight now. Ellie didn't suffer one bit by being bred.

I'm not advocating breeding a doe at 71#, necessarily, I'm just saying experience has shown me that it's OK to breed a doe before 1 yr of age if she's physically fit.

She may be a slow grower because she had really bad diarrhea (coccidiosis I believe) when she was a young kid. I treat my chickens the same way - very well but I don't baby them. They have to survive the Maine winters up here. I like your thoughts above - and agree that summer is insanely busy with gardening and putting up food - I didn't even think about that.

 

[Roll farms]

I wasn't necessarily saying you girl is a slow grower....I honestly didn't pay that close of attention to anything but the 71# and should you breed her....so don't remember how old she is...
I'm saying if I myself had a doe that didn't reach breeding weight in time, and had been given proper cocci prev. (which we do), fed properly, and dewormed as needed (and therefore had no excuse) that *I* wouldn't keep it.
The rest was my reasoning for breeding them at what some consider to be too young.

I've dealt w/ people w/ 'small' goats who claim they're 'slow growing' lines. I have found them to be generally unthrifty overall...they may make a good size eventually but I haven't the time / patience for it.

But my biggest conviction is- as always - do what works best for you and your situation.
If folks WANT to wait until a goat is 1.5 yrs old, by all means do so. I'm just sayin' I'm not necessarily 'wrong' by not waiting, and we all gotta do what works best for us.

 

[pdpo222]

Since I have no reason to have my does bred by any certain time I breed mine in Dec-Jan only because I don't want to worry about heat lamps, weather temps. etc. Mine will have babies when the weather hopefully is warm. They are just a hobby for me, so I chose the warmer months for kidding. If they were a business I would probably do it different, but lucky for me I can choose the months and what is best for me. One of the perks of being old. lol.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Another thing to consider is your market. Around here, Meat goats are in very high demand at two main times because of Various Religious Holidays. Also There is a market for bottle babies for 4-H members who want pack goats, meat whethers, etc. I plan to contact our local 4-H and find out when they typically look for babies to be on the ground for these programs.

And another, do you have a buck. Prior to this year, I did not have a buck and finding someone to breed to when it was convenient for me was not easy. Now that I have my own buck, I have a lot more options. I really want to stagger to keep at least one doe in milk pretty much all the time, not the same doe of course.

 

[Tiss]

I guess I'm of the impression that they're pets but they are also here to provide. If you don't breed her now, you are going to have to wait until next breeding season, conservatively, 8 more months. There are others more knowledgable than I am, but if she were mine, I'd breed her and make sure to feed her well so she and the kids can grow.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

I don't have a buck. She has a wether friend (who helps confirm for me when she's in heat - he does ride her during those few days). I found a buck about 20 minutes away that will be available for a "driveway" breeding which sounds pretty low-class to me, but I'm not a goat in love...


I do want to get her bred (I'm looking forward to the milk) but I think it still sounds safer to wait as she hasn't made weight, even if she made age. There's still a piece of me though that thinks I should still do it.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I'm a newbie (first year with goats) so take my advise for what it's worth:

I got my girl when she was 12 months old. I doubt she weighed 80 pounds, she was kinda small. I did do a driveway breeding when I got her, but it didn't take. I'm actually kinda glad it didn't because over the last 8 months she has REALLY grown a lot. I just rebred her now that she is around 18 months old and I think she settled.

I guess the point is I am glad I waited until the next breeding cycle instead of retrying. Because she was smaller I feel like the extra time was good for her to grow. She is a lot bigger now, maybe 130 pounds.

But these are my pets and I'm not trying to maximize production, just do what's best for them and us.

 

[Fullhousefarm]

Another newbie here.

We have a just turned 12 month LaMancha doe that we decided to wait to breed when she was 8/9 months. I would have been comfortable breeding her in November (11 months) but April is a horrible time to kid in Florida and doesn't work well for showing at all since our fairs are Feb/March, with two smaller ones in Oct/Nov. We don't want to risk having babies at the fair, though some people don't care about that. So, we are waiting for timing purposes for kidding with the benefit of showing her longer as a junior.

If however, we didn't show and it wasn't a really bad time for parasites in April/ May here, I would have bred her in November, so I think it really depends on what you want.