In that case, you may not want to remove your buck from your does, and an apron can keep them from breeding until you're ready. "Buck" and "Doe" are considered the technically correct terms. To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. By the way, be careful if your doe is doing this and you're not ready for her to be bred yet. Be sure to write down their birth weight to establish the baseline that you will use to monitor their growth going forward. After that, it will take the doe many months to finish what the buck started. Breeding only takes a few seconds for the buck. This is why, as we mentioned earlier, at a minimum a doe can safely kid about every 9 months, but the best practice followed by most reputable goat farmers concerned about their doe's health is to aim at having a doe give birth to kids no more often than about once per year. With this, you measure the goat's "heart girth", wrapping the tape around your goat's chest just behind the front legs. Some involve more effort and expense than others. However, just because they can breed young doesn't mean that they should. This is important so you can calculate approximate kidding due dates on your calendar so you can be prepared. Just by letting a doe smell the rag, this can sometimes trigger her to come into heat. This will make your life a lot easier at kidding time, and will allow you to manage your goats for a healthier, happier herd. In other words, use a buck that has more desirable characteristics and conformation than the goats you already have. A downside of an anti-mating apron for goats is that the apron can move around and sometimes the buck may be able to get around it and still breed. This applies whether you own the buck yourself, or you borrow a buck from another goat breeder as a stud goat. How Often Do Goats Go Into Heat and 10 Signs to Look For Prepare vaccine with proper dosage and 20 gauge needle. We had one buck that was so desperate he tried to scale over a really high electric fence, got stuck and almost broke his leg. However, many goat owners do find the need to give does supplements before breeding. Goat Management (Dairy, Meat, Record Keeping), http://www.extension.org/pages/19565/goat-reproduction, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons. Most goats are fall breeders and will come into heat during the months of September thru February. Some of the typical signs of a doe being in heat are A "buck rag" is created by taking a rag, rubbing it all over a buck, then keeping it in a jar and using it to help does come into heat. Dairy goats are usually seasonal breeders. Multiply that weight by 2.5. After that, if you "think" she got bred, and she doesn't come into heat again, you can calculate her estimated kidding (delivery) date (or range of dates) in the future and write it down. Miniature goats can be bred at 7-8 months (or 45 lbs.) You can definitely make money in goat breeding, because many different farms, both small and large, are doing it. This is a sign that will persist through a goat's entire estrus cycle and doesn't necessarily mean she's reached her standing heat phase. It's usually best to keep the apron design simple, with a single strap. Nigerian dwarf goats are unlike other goats in that they go into heat roughly every 21-28 days. If their mother is unable to provide the colostrum, you can purchase replacement liquid colostrum from another farm or you can find powdered colostrum replacer at a local feed store. If you were careful to record the approximate date the doe was bred, you can be prepared around kidding time to help the new kid or kids enter the world safely. As you learn about goat breeding, it's important to first learn some of the basic terms that goat keepers use. Bloody or dark-colored loose stool is the main symptom of coccidiosis. To combat the stress that your goat kid will inevitably face during weaning, studies show that you should wait to wean until their weight increases to at least 2.5 times their initial weight at birth. Disclosure. A breeding or marking harness is a nylon or leather harness that straps around your buck's chest, and it has a big colored "crayon" that sits in the middle of his chest. Just be careful if you do this and make sure you get proof that any other goats in contact with your goats have been tested to prove they are disease free. Once they reach 2-3 weeks of age, we start allowing the mother goats out to forage for a few hours each day, keeping the babies safe in their enclosure. If you miss one heat, there will be another one coming around again shortly. Weaning is the vital and necessary process of switching a young mammal from a liquid to a solid food diet. Nubian goats weigh roughly 130 pounds to 175 pounds on average. Providing a solid foundation during the first months of life can go a long way in preventing disease and weight loss in young goats once the weaning process has begun. Does go into heat, called estrus, roughly every 21 days. Retire your does at a proper age. Everything you need to know about Pygmy Goats At that time, they are considered completely weaned. Simply put, a wether goat is a male goat that has been castrated already. One way to tell if your goat is pregnant is to look for the typical signs. At our farm, we raise Nigerian Dwarf goats, and the weigh tape procedure isn't accurate for miniature goats like these. Generally in normal condition, a goat can survive for about 12 to 14 years. You can't alway stay up all night waiting to see if your goats breed. On our farm, we recently had one of our Nigerian Dwarf does deliver four kids at once. To help make your life less stressful, we've created an easy-to-use "Goat Breeding/Kidding Record Form" which you can download for free. at 6 it starts to be a crapshoot. Some Nubians will breed year-round. She will usually get pregnant the second time. Also, you don't want the apron so short that it doesn't cover the goats genitals, or so long that it drags the ground. To decide when to do your goat breeding, determine the ideal kidding time you want to aim at. For a short time, the baby goats will cry for their moms or search for the milk bottle they were used to getting each day. Some people asking this question really want to know "How many babies do goats have at once?" I have an 8 yr old who just had triplets. Make sure your buck is getting plenty of good nutrition, especially if he is breeding with multiple does during breeding season. We had to rush out to rescue him. So only do line breeding with a buck that is high quality and has few or no bad characteristics. Keep in mind, a doe CAN get pregnant even while she is still lactating. Some people prefer to make their own goat anti-mating aprons. Even though you are looking at the age or days to wean goats you should also focus on the weight of weaning goats. Lastly, when a doe is bred before she has reached her full growth potential herself, her growth can be stunted. Why? . Under-feeding can lower her chances of getting pregnant and having kids and canalso reduce milk production after having kids.The genetic makeup of the animal also determines when puberty occurs in the female. By 1-2 years goats are fully matured. They're a great source of extra Vitamin E, zinc, iron and selenium, which can add butterfat to your goats' milk and make their coats shinier. The gestation period, or length of pregnancy,of the doe ranges between 145 to 152 days, or 150 days (5months)on average, and under normal circumstances, the doe can have multiple births (twins, triplets and rarely, more). For example, Nigerian Dwarf goats typically average more kids than that with each birth. The ewe carries the lambs for about 5 months before they are born. I read that if you stop breeding does at 9 0r 10 they will live up to 20 this is what I intend to do then again it dependes on the doe. You are using an out of date browser. Does that are 'retired' from breeding around age 10 live longer, up to the age of 16 - 18 years. This involves holding the doe with your hands, or on a lead, so she can't run away and the buck can have a chance to mount her. It is important that all goat kids have their CD-T vaccination to keep them from getting tetanus and enterotoxemia, a bacterial disease that wreaks havoc on a goats gastrointestinal system. After that, he's referred to as a "wether" rather than a "buck". Even though it's a good amount of butterfat it's still going to be hard to make butter from this milk. Fortunately, his eye was spared, but he had a long painful healing process. Getting Your Meat Goats Bred - Boer Goats Other reasons you should castrate bucks: You need only one buck to breed many does: Your herd is in its best shape if you allow only the best of the best to become breeders. Clip the belly hair on bucks. When is a young female goat old enough to breed? With the exception of the fryers, aged animals here become weed wackerskeeping the fence line clear is an important job. Goat kids should be weaned when their birth weight increases to a specific amount, usually sometime between 2 and 3 months old. A goat kid of either sex can be fertile at 7 weeks of age (though they should not be bred at that age). Standard breed does will usually start coming into heat in August and should come into heat every 18 to 21 days. Most goat breeders are careful to make sure they don't miss the chance to breed a doe during estrus, especially if they raise Alpine breeds that only breed during the goat breeding season. Billy goats (intact males) do tend to weigh slightly more than wethers - or castrated males. At 1 year of age, the buck should service no more than 10 does at a time (inonemonth). The way it works is, when your buck mounts a doe, and he has a crayon on his chest during the process, you will later notice that any does that were bred by that buck will have a big colored mark on their back. LaMancha Goat Breed Information - Lady Lee's Home Sometimes it may be because the doe is young, has never been bred before and is nervous about the process. For miniature goats, like Nigerian Dwarf goats which can average up to about 60 or 70 lbs for a typical adult, a doe should be at least 60-70% of that (around 40 lbs) before you allow her to breed.