Is this nubian ready to be bred?

[SuperChemicalGirl]

My nubian doe was born May 8. I got her at the end of July. Mid November she weighed 65 lbs. She's now 8ish months old. I attempted to weigh her this morning and she was really uncooperative but my best guess is about 71 lbs. I know there's a lot of schools of thought as to when to breed them. As this is my first foray into goats, I really don't know what I'm doing. I obviously don't want to breed her too late, nor too early. If this was your goat, what would you do? I'm in Maine if you're considering weather. Thanks for any advice.

Pictures of her from today (please excuse the poops, I haven't figured out a way to clean them up out of the snow... I'm open to advice on that front, too):

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

My Does that were born 4/19 are not being bred this season. I may breed one or both of them for a fall 2013.

I am relatively new also, but for me, I am waiting until they are at least one year old before breeding.

Their who I got as a baby was 1.5 years old when I first bred her.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Thanks for the reply. May I ask your reasoning behind waiting for fall 2013/1 year old?

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Basically, when I look at the girls who are 8.5 months old, they seem to small to go through a pregnancy and birth. I know there are breeders who do the 8 months or 80 lbs rule, but I am not in that much of a hurry for babies from these two. I would rather let them get more growing done before they are bred and have to provide nutrition to growing babies.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Thank you for your opinion. I've never seen a full sized female nubian (the guy I got them from had gotten rid of all but these two and his buck) so I don't know how "small" she is, comparatively speaking. I know she's bigger than most dogs I've met! And pushier, especially if there's the potential that I have food hidden somewhere on my body.

I was ready to wait until next fall but I read on fiasco farm's website: "I have heard of people who wait until a doe is 1 1/2 years old before breeding her. There is no reason to wait this long. People do this because they think the doe will grow better if you wait to breed her, but if the doe is well taken care of and fed properly she will grow just as well bred as unbred. We have personal experience with this matter. We have three kidding stalls and only breed three does in a "batch". We let the does have their personal clean stall with their kids for two weeks after kidding (they do get to come out during the day as the kids progress). Because of our breeding procedure, not all does get bred at the same time. We have had twin does where one fell into a "breeding batch" her first year but the second doe came into heat when we were not breeding. The second doe's heat dates never fell nicely into a convenient "batch" and because of this she never got bred before our breeding cut-off deadline of Jan. 1 (we don't breed after Jan. 1). So, one twin was bred when she was 80 pounds (about 8 - 9 months old) and the other twin didn't get bred until the next year, when she was 1 1/2 years old. By the time the both does reached two years of age, they were exactly the same size. I have seen this over and over and I know you can breed at 80 pounds/8 months. You just must make sure you take good care of, and properly feed, your bred does."

Now, I don't agree with everything that they have on their website, but I found this quote to really make me think about the timing of breeding, and whether I want to try to do it in January or February. I don't think I want to do it much later than February because it really starts to get cold here in September.

That being said, I'm nervous about doing it too soon, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. But I also don't want to wait needlessly. As you can see, I have no idea what I want to do.

Again, thanks for your opinion. Anyone else have one?

 

[Pearce Pastures]

She looks small in my opinion, and I recommend waiting until she is one before breeding her and has put a bit more into her height and weight. A year and a half is probably excessive, though goats are still growing at that point, but at 8 months and her size, she will be putting energy into growing kids and then into lactation instead of into developing herself. A few extra months won't hurt anything and it would be better for her to have kids when it is cool out than to have a permanent reduction in her own growth.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Thanks for your opinion. Now I have more questions. If I wait and breed her when she's oneish that's having babies in October, right? Won't it be too cold for that? I am hopefully never having goats IN my house. On purpose, anyway. What about lactating in the winter? Isn't that hard on her udder (ie too cold/will crack?)?


Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

No problem---good questions. No it won't be too hard on her and the temp will be fine. Actually, if you look on the birthing thread, you'll see that a lot of people's goats are kidding right now in the dead of winter, which makes sense because a lot of goats are seasonal breeders (they go into heat in the fall which puts them kidding in winter). You might want to building them a heat barrel or something like that so they can get a little extra warmth, but they will be just fine.

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

I'll check it out, thank you. I'll be surprised if anyone this far north is kidding right now. It was sub-zero most of this week at night.

Then again, I've had many chickens hatch out chicks this time of year in the coop and I haven't lost a single one. As little as I know about goats, though, I'd doubt they sit on their kids to keep them warm.

Ah, the things books never tell you. Glad you guys are here for these questions.

 

[Fluffygal]

SuperChemicalgirl,

She is pretty, love the spots. My Fiona is 9 months and I am waiting for their next breeding season which for Nubians is late summer to early winter. This will give her time to mature. Fiona is small too so I think they grow slower? I am new to Nubians too. My pygmies grow like weeds. Fiona has become my favorite of the 3 girls as she is so personnable and goofy.

My opion is to wait until she is a year old atleast so you know she has had time to mature a bit more. If you wait for their main breeding season for late summer to early winter in 2013 she will be ready. Bet you will have some beautiful babies from her.

All I can give is a newbie opion as I am still learning myself. Had a oops with my pygmy Bella who got knocked up too early (think it was somewhere at 8 months) Luckliy she had a very easy birth. 1 cute doe, Oreo. Sometimes things turn out really well then there are the sad times from others stories that don't go so well.