Baby Goats Anyone?

[The15thMember]

!5th,
 We have a purebred Nubian buck and 5 does of different lineage. Three of my milkers are out of an old Sanaan doe who passed of old age at 14yo a year ago. The sire of all of my does is a Purebred Nubian buck who passed a few years ago. I have one pure Nubian left that is such a pet that we refuse to give her up even though she hasn't kidded in 2 seasons. She is 14 or 15.

That's awesome!  My sister breeds registered Kinders (rhymes with cinders), a stable cross of Nubians and Pygmies.  They are a miniature dual purpose breed for meat and milk.  We absolutely love them.  My sister would someday like to get a Nubian doe and a Pygmy buck to breed first generation Kinders.  Right now we have 3 does, all of whom either have kids or are pregnant, 3 bucks, and 1 wether.     

[The15thMember]

My sister made a disappointing discovery today.  Mr. Moon has a third teat.  Extra teats (the technical term is supernumerary teats) occasionally occur in goats, and it is a heritable trait, which means Mr. Moon is ineligible to be a breeding buck.  It's also concerning that the trait showed up at all.  My sister contacted the breeders of the dam, Bella, and the sire, Phantom, and unfortunately, Bella's breeder has seen the trait twice this year, with both babies coming from the line of Bella's father.  My sister isn't sure what she's going to do yet, since this throws a wrench in her breeding plans.  Although she was glad to find out which parent was the culprit, she's still very disappointed. 

[The15thMember]

My sister has decided to just keep Mr. Moon for now.  He is freakishly friendly, he follows us around like a little puppy, and it can be handy to have a wether around in case a goat needs to be separated from the herd for some reason, since goats can't be alone.  She is contemplating getting rid of Bella, since she doesn't want this to happen again, and Bella has been having some trouble getting along with the other goats lately, being extra bossy and butting them aggressively and not letting them in the barn when it's raining, so my sister is kind of feeling like this might be the last straw. 

[The15thMember]

Sweetie has it in mind to train him as a pack goat when we go hiking and foraging. 

Since my sister doesn't want to keep any animals just as pets, she's decided to train Mr. Moon as a pack goat, so he has a job that will contribute to the homestead.  He seems like he'd really enjoy packing, since he loves following people, and she's already got him on a leash.  She's been doing a lot of research and we're going to start taking him in the car with us when we go somewhere close by so he gets used to it.  We aren't serious hikers by any means, but we do hike a good bit when the weather is nice, since there are so many trails around us. 

Our last doe, Murphy, is due this week.  It's her first pregnancy and she's my sister's favorite, so my sister is a little nervous.  Murphy is the first doe we had born on our homestead.  If you go back to my first post on this thread, she's the spotted baby eating the stick.  Now she's all grown up and having babies of her own!

[The15thMember]

Murphy had her babies overnight last night and we missed it!  Thankfully my sister put her in the kidding stall last night, just because the other goats were beating up on her a little bit, and when Mom went into the barn this morning, the babies were out and dry!  She came running in the house shouting, "Murphy had her babies!!"    They hadn't nursed yet, since Murphy didn't really know they needed to, being a first time mom, and babies often need help getting latched the first time, but my sister and I got them drinking quickly, and they are no worse for the wear.  The brown baby is a boy, and the grey one is a girl, and they are our first babies with wattles!  We were hoping they'd have them, since their father, Arthur, has wattles.  My sister named them Duncan and Tessa after the characters from the Highlander TV show, which we are watching right now.  My sister has been thinking about replacing one of her original bucks, so she is going to keep Duncan, and Tessa will be for sale. 

[The15thMember]

Moonie went on his first car ride today.  We had to run to the post office and one of the local farm stores, so we brought him along.  He did so well, he wasn't stressed at all in the car.  My sister had him on her lap, since he's still little and he feels comfortable on laps.  At the post office, our postwoman came outside to see him, and she said he was the most handsome thing she'd seen all day, and she'd seen her husband that morning!    Mr. Moon let her pet him and acted just like he would have if we were at the barn.  He did very well at the farm store too, although the dog who lives there did scare him a little bit, even though Cash is very friendly and polite.

[Bakersdozen]

Cute! Cute! Cute!

[Bakersdozen]

Last Saturday I helped at a honey bee informational booth at the Mother Earth News Fair.  A few feet away from us was the goat lady and two kids.  They got all the visitor's attention!  All the kids wanted to pet the goats.  She rents out her goats to property owners that would like the goats to clean up brush and weeds.  A beekeeping friend of mine inquired about her services.  She will put up fencing, check on them daily, provide water and additional feed. She also gets a healthy fee for the use of her goats. 

15th this may be a good money maker for you!

[The15thMember]

Last Saturday I helped at a honey bee informational booth at the Mother Earth News Fair.  A few feet away from us was the goat lady and two kids.  They got all the visitor's attention!  All the kids wanted to pet the goats.  She rents out her goats to property owners that would like the goats to clean up brush and weeds.  A beekeeping friend of mine inquired about her services.  She will put up fencing, check on them daily, provide water and additional feed. She also gets a healthy fee for the use of her goats. 

15th this may be a good money maker for you!

That's really cool.  I'm not sure if my sister would be interested in doing something like that though, just because it's a lot of work to move the goats.  The other concern I know she would have would be having a movable fence that is secure enough that she would trust the goats wouldn't get out.  But boy, if you need brush cleared, there is nothing like goats to do it.  I'm sure it's a service that people use.     

[Bakersdozen]

I just read a post on a social media app that they were using goats for fire suppression in a canyon in Aliso Viejo, California.  There is a picture of about 3 dozen goats clearing brush on a steep canyon wall. 
https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo  Let's see if this link gets you there.

[neillsayers]

Just getting caught up on this thread....15th, many years ago I got into raising Boer Goats for the goat meat market. The literature from the purebred folks says they were intentionally bred for more than 2 functional teats to raise bigger litters. Of all the does I had I only had one with this trait and she had four, all with milk in them.

[The15thMember]

I just read a post on a social media app that they were using goats for fire suppression in a canyon in Aliso Viejo, California.  There is a picture of about 3 dozen goats clearing brush on a steep canyon wall. 
https://nextdoor.com/p/_SgQhGDbNzdR?utm_source=share&extras=MzcyNDYyOTg%3D&fbclid=IwAR2K-vvHxkPwGdbbroYukuzMkP7dDBJXua0EyTWsdIyrnqByzBsxUDeyoYo  Let's see if this link gets you there.

Nope, pay-walled.  Well, subscription-walled, I guess.   

Just getting caught up on this thread....15th, many years ago I got into raising Boer Goats for the goat meat market. The literature from the purebred folks says they were intentionally bred for more than 2 functional teats to raise bigger litters. Of all the does I had I only had one with this trait and she had four, all with milk in them.

I've heard that about boers.  Did your doe ever have 4 babies to make use of her double udder?

[neillsayers]

 She never did better than twins. One of the reason I quit boers is they are the dumbest of goats. No idea how to mother, need you in attendance to have a successful birth and prefer to eat grass over brush like a sheep. I had 110 acres of woods and 3 acres of pasture and they spent all their time in the pasture.

 A very similar breed meat-wise is the Kiko goat. Great meat goat that loves brush, great mothers and very hardy. If I ever got back into meat goats they would be the breed I'd go with.

[The15thMember]

Today my sister Haley purchased her last goat for the foreseeable future.  She named her Louise after the main character in Arrival, which is my sister's favorite movie.  We got Louise from a farm we sold a buckling to earlier in the year, but unfortunately, they had almost all their fencing destroyed in a wind event and are now having to sell all the goats because they can't keep them in until the fencing is replaced.  Because of this, Haley got a really good deal on Louise, who has a pretty expensive pedigree, including a grand champion in her lines.    As a result of them having to have all their goats together in the one remaining paddock, Louise is probably bred to the buckling we sold them, even though she is a little too young to be bred, but my sister feels confident she can handle the situation.

We are going to be butchering two wethers and one buck this fall, and we will be butchering Bella, the black doe who threw 3-teated Mr. Moon, next year.  That will leave us with 4 does and 3 bucks, plus Mr. Moon who is wethered now, which is what my sister has been working towards for several years.  So that will be our herd until our oldest buck Phantom "dies of natural causes", as Haley has been saying.     All the kids from here on out will be sold or butchered.
 

[Bakersdozen]

What is the life expectancy of a goat?

[The15thMember]

For does it's about 12-14 years, an intact buck is about 8-10, and a wether could even be 15+ years, since they have really no stress on their bodies.  Phantom is 5 years old, so we've got a while to go with him.       

[The15thMember]

Good news, Louise went into heat a few days ago, so she is almost certainly not pregnant!    Haley is very happy, since it would have been rough on her body being so young and still growing, and oftentimes does who are bred too young will reject their kids, so this could have meant bottle feeding a baby too, even assuming everything with the pregnancy and birth went well.  This will also make her integration with the older does a lot easier and safer, since there is usually a good deal of beating up on each other before they get their pecking order resettled, and as the newcomer she was likely to take the most hits. 

[The15thMember]

We're expecting our first kids of the year this week.  Prim's due date is tomorrow, and we are expecting very bad weather, rainy and extremely windy.  There is some evidence that does try and have their babies during bad weather to protect them from predators, so she'll probably be on time!

Mr. Moon's training as a pack goat has been going extremely well.  He now gets in and out of the car on his own without any hesitation, and a few days ago he went up and down stairs for the first time when we took him for a walk over at WCU.  Haley commented on how much better he is than a dog to walk, since he doesn't need to be trained not to pull.   

[The15thMember]

Well the bad weather came last night and so did the baby!  We had a buckling born at 1:48 AM, and we waited until 4:00 thinking she must have another one in there based on how big she looked, but the placenta came and nothing seem off, so that was that.  It's the first time Prim has had a single.   

[The15thMember]

Here's some pictures of the little dude.  We named him Asher.  Since he's a single and can't even begin to drink all the milk Prim is producing, Haley started milking right away.  This afternoon she milked out a bunch of colostrum to freeze in case of emergencies.