Who influences singles, twins, trips.....buck, doe, feeding/flushing?

[freemotion]

I am wondering, with so little experience, if this is a pattern or just one of those coincidences....

Two years ago I bought a nice La Mancha buckling from show lines (good udders) and bred two does and got two singles...both doelings, which I kept.

This past year I bought an Alpine buckling from unknown lines, just to get the gals bred and in milk. I bred the above two does and their doelings.

So far, triplets, twins, and triplets. One more doeling is due in mid-June.

Looks to me like it is the buck.

Everyone was flushed with pumpkins for a month or more before breeding and a month or so after, and I had some great third cut hay at that time.

I was going to sell the buck as he gets bigger, as I worry about housing him and controlling him. He's feisty! But if this is his doing, I'll tolerate him! He is a nice boy, just getting big and mature and here I am in the suburbs.

What is the consensus on who/what gets credit for this run of multiples? If you've read my recent kidding thread, you know that the most recent set of triplets was from a first freshener!

 

[RabbleRoost Farm]

It's basically a hereditary thing, so if the sire and dam have multiples in their background and were in a multiple birth themselves they're more likely to have multiples.

The buck is way more important in your herd than a lot of people think too... He IS your herd some would say. Without a quality buck, you're going to be perpetuating the traits of your does, whether for good or bad.

So... I'd say it's a combination of the two.

 

[helmstead]

Unless the buck has fertility issues, the NUMBER of kids has absolutely NOTHING to do with him.

Sex, of course, is determined by the buck.

The doe is completely responsible for the number of eggs that erupt during ovulation. There are MANY factors that effect that.

 

[RabbleRoost Farm]

I'm talking genetically.

You breed a buck with only singles in his entire line to even a high producing doe the kids will either exhibit traits from the buck or the doe... So I'm assuming they would have either lots of kids, or only a few.

Now if you were talking immediate results and not just in generations down the line (the entire basis of your operation), yeah, it's the doe that controls it.

I was saying that the buck is important if you want to keep high numbers of kids being born. He adds to the female, through their offspring.

 

[helmstead]

Honestly I don't believe there is ANY correlation. I have several does who genetically should produce multiples, and throw a single every time regardless of what I do. Then I have does from singleton producers who throw multiples. I don't believe producing multiples has much of anything to do with genetics, but that's just me. I don't shop goats for how many babies they make, anyway, or how many were in their litter.

 

[20kidsonhill]

Unless the buck has fertility issues, the NUMBER of kids has absolutely NOTHING to do with him.

Sex, of course, is determined by the buck.

The doe is completely responsible for the number of eggs that erupt during ovulation. There are MANY factors that effect that.

x2

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

Were the two does first fresheners when they had singletons? I agree, your buck won't have any more trouble fertilizing 2 or 3 eggs than he will fertilizing 1.

I'm talking genetically.

You breed a buck with only singles in his entire line to even a high producing doe the kids will either exhibit traits from the buck or the doe... So I'm assuming they would have either lots of kids, or only a few.

Now if you were talking immediate results and not just in generations down the line (the entire basis of your operation), yeah, it's the doe that controls it.

I was saying that the buck is important if you want to keep high numbers of kids being born. He adds to the female, through their offspring.

Honestly I don't believe there is ANY correlation. I have several does who genetically should produce multiples, and throw a single every time regardless of what I do. Then I have does from singleton producers who throw multiples. I don't believe producing multiples has much of anything to do with genetics, but that's just me. I don't shop goats for how many babies they make, anyway, or how many were in their litter.

Free, didn't you say that your two singletons have now produced multiples? If your does weren't ff's last time perhaps it was nutritional?

 

[lilhill]

Were the two does first fresheners when they had singletons? I agree, your buck won't have any more trouble fertilizing 2 or 3 eggs than he will fertilizing 1.

I'm talking genetically.

You breed a buck with only singles in his entire line to even a high producing doe the kids will either exhibit traits from the buck or the doe... So I'm assuming they would have either lots of kids, or only a few.

Now if you were talking immediate results and not just in generations down the line (the entire basis of your operation), yeah, it's the doe that controls it.

I was saying that the buck is important if you want to keep high numbers of kids being born. He adds to the female, through their offspring.

Honestly I don't believe there is ANY correlation. I have several does who genetically should produce multiples, and throw a single every time regardless of what I do. Then I have does from singleton producers who throw multiples. I don't believe producing multiples has much of anything to do with genetics, but that's just me. I don't shop goats for how many babies they make, anyway, or how many were in their litter.

Free, didn't you say that your two singletons have now produced multiples? If your does weren't ff's last time perhaps it was nutritional?

I have to agree with Kate.

 

[currycomb]

flushing the does prior to breeding increases the chances of multiple births. you are upping the nutrition of the does, their body says yah, we have good food available, lets have lots of babies. when the nutrition isn't so good, only one will be produced, or maybe none.

 

[KellyHM]

I've heard that earlier in the breeding season they're less likely to conceive multiples, but don't know if this is true or not.

My first 2 Nubian gals were bred in September their first go round and both had twins, then last year they were bred in July and each had a single. However, the other Nubian doe I had that was bred in July had twins, so who knows.