Tag: goat breeding

Happy New Year

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year! Our family had quite an interesting holiday break, we were all sick. There are four of us in this family and someone was sick the entire time we were off for holiday break. Between stomach bugs and chest colds, I am completely wiped out.

On a happier note, everyone on the farm is doing fine. We have had some cold weather and recently had a bit of a snow storm and so far everyone is doing fine. I was a bit surprised with how our muscovy ducks handled the crazy weather. I had a shelter all ready to go for them and they proceeded to completely ignore it and simply sit out in the snowstorm like it was a sunny day. Apparently, snow and wind have no effect on muscovy ducks.

Goat Plans

About a week ago I made some changes to how we are keeping our goats. I have five does and two bucks, and until the switch the boys lived in the “buck pen” and the girls all stayed in the large pasture with a shelter. Three of my does had a baby in April and were the goats we milked all through the spring to fall. One of them is our Alpine and because she is a larger breed goat, she will not go into heat all year round like the Nigerian Dwarf girls will. So, I only have the fall to get her bred or she won’t deliver this year. So, our breeding plans for the year were to breed our two Nigerian Dwarf girls who have never had a kid, and our Alpine.

I am fairly certain the two Nigerian Dwarf girls are bred. I have not seen them come back into heat and they are getting quite fluffy. However, I am not certain. I bred our Alpine twice the last time she came into heat, I haven’t seen her come back into heat, however, I have no idea if she is pregnant. She doesn’t look to be getting any bigger but Alpines typically have one baby, so I don’t know if you could even tell by looking at her or not.

So, to make fully sure they are all bred I went ahead and put the bucks in the pen with the ladies I want to kid. I took the two does I do not want bred and put them in the buck pen. I am hoping that I can watch over the next month and see if anyone comes back into heat. If no one does, then in theory all the does will be confirmed pregnant.

If they does took on the first breeding we should have kids at the end of March. This will be our first kidding on the farm, and for two of the does their first kidding as well. I am a little nervous about our first deliveries, but I have faith we will get it done.

Now we just have to make it through the winter!

2024 Fall Breeding Plans

~ wattlesandcombsfarm ~ Leave a comment

It’s that time of year. Breeding season is upon us. In our goat herd, we have four Nigerian Dwarf does and one Alpine doe. Two of the Nigerian Dwarfs and the Alpine are currently in milk and not on the docket for breeding this fall. That leaves my two other Nigerian Dwarf girls to be bred for the first time.

Since we live in a colder climate I decided to wait until October to breed the girls. February can be quite brutal here and I did not want to try and keep kids alive in the extreme cold. Goat pregnancies are around 150 days, which should put us delivering in March if they conceive in October.

We have actually, already attempted breeding with our fall girls as of this post. In fact, yesterday we were able to breed the goat who I thought would never come into heat. She showed tons of signs but wasn’t interested. She still ran around a bit yesterday but I do believe our buck was able to get his job done. Both of these does have never been bred before, and our buck is about six months old and a new breeder as well, so I will not be shocked if this first time doesn’t take.

Now, we simply watch and wait. If they go back into heat we will know they weren’t successfully bred and will try again. In the meantime, I am drying off the other two Nigerian Dwarfs and will be keeping the Alpine in milk. As mentioned earlier we live in a very cold climate, and on the prairie, so it gets pretty miserable out here. I decided to dry off the other two does since they give less milk and I would have to keep two of them in milk to produce what the Alpine does alone. We will keep the Alpine in milk throughout the winter since she produces enough for our family and is really quick to milk. When temps are in the negative and the wind is blowing I want to be outside for as little time as possible.

Those are our fall breeding plans. I am not sure yet what we will do for the rest of the upcoming year. If the two bred now kid in March then they should be able to stay in milk until we hit winter next year. I am not sure how long our Alpine will stay in milk, I have read they can stay in milk for years sometimes. However, I think I may breed her sometime in the spring and have her kid next fall so we can milk her through the winter again. As long as that provides our family with enough milk then that might end up being our breeding schedule from here on out. That would actually give each goat a pretty good chunk of time off between kiddings.

I think our biggest challenge is going to be not keeping every baby born here on the farm. My kids get attached to everything!