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Breeding season is so exciting as we look forward to new kids!
Breeding season is here! Isn't it so exciting? The does look nice. Their weight is good and their coats are nice and shinny. The buck is anxiously waiting the day. Just put the buck in with your does and now you can start dreaming about all the baby goats that you will have. You make your guesses as to who will be bred first and how many each doe will have. You start your list of name ideas and think about all the baby goat cuddles you will enjoy. But oh, I forgot to mention the stinky smell and annoying noise of Mr. Billy Goat. Don't get me wrong breeding season is exciting but here are some things to consider when breeding your goats.
When is breeding season for goats?
Generally speaking breeding season for goats is late summer or fall so that the babies are born early spring. There are some people that leave their buck in with their does year round and have kids randomly throughout the year. This might be nice to just go out to the goat pen/pasture some days and get a pleasant surprise of new kids however you could also be met with dead kids or doe because she needed help during kidding and you did not know when she was due. So, consider that when deciding how you want to handle breeding your does. We like our does to all kid at the same time so that we only have a few weeks out of the year that we are checking on them more frequently.
The best thing to do is determine when you want your does to kid and count backward about 5 months. The gestation of goats is 145 days for smaller breeds and up to 155 days for larger breeds. We have determined that we want our kidding to be right around Christmas time so we breed July 23ish. Which may seem weird to you because Christmas is normally a busy time of the year for everyone. We still work at other jobs besides the farm work and this is the slow time for our other jobs. Therefore, we can take off work with no problem a few days before Christmas and then for a few weeks after to care for the goats.
Another thing to consider is where are your does going to kid. If you do not have a shelter for them it would be best for you to breed your does in the late fall to have spring kids when the weather turns nicer. We have a nice set up in our barn for them to kid that is out of the weather and we can put up heat lamps if necessary on really cold nights. We keep our does on pasture as much as possible but like them to kid in the barn as it is safer against predators. Depending on the weather we bring them into the barn in November, let them kid in the barn in December, and then early spring they go back to pasture.
Here was our timeframe of how breeding and kidding went in 2022 with our Kiko buck and Kiko and Boar mix does. We put our buck (2 and a half years old) in with 20 yearling and older does on July 23. 2 does miscarried early on and 1 never got bred (not the bucks fault she had worm issues and was not very healthy at the time) but the rest were successfully bred. Kidding started December 21 with most of them being born on 26th. The last ones were January 11 so in the space of 3 weeks 17 does had 26 kids and we only lost 1 kid.
How long should you keep the buck in with the does?
This is another thing that is totally up to you. I would say in general most people would leave their buck in with the does for about 2 months or 2 heat cycles of the does. Some people watch their does and only put their buck in when they are in heat. A does comes into heat/cycles about every 21 days and last 1-3 days. So watch your goats and when you see your does in heat write that date down and then in about 21 days watch them again and see if they come into heat again. If they did not you can assume they are bred. In 2022 we put our buck in July 23 and left him with them until November because it was easiest for pasture rotation to keep them all together. If you have mature does and a mature buck then he should be able to breed them all in their first heat. But that leads us to another question of how many does can one buck breed?
How many does can one buck breed?
It is possible for one healthy buck to breed up to 40 mature does. The more his has the more of a chance he will miss some on their first heat cycle. In 2022 our buck had 20 does (2 miscarried and one never got bred, she was sickly) and this year (2023) he only has 16 does and our young buck has 6 young does. So we will find out in December as to how they did breeding their does this year. Sigh up for our emails so you don't miss finding out how they did.
Interbreeding and keeping records
Do not interbreed too much! Interbreeding can cause birth defects and mess up their genetics and could cause a loss in reproductive performance. Here are the general rules to follow to keep from interbreeding.
Do not breed father to daughter.
Do not breed son to mother.
Do not breed brother to sister
Be careful breeding half siblings (This is the gray area. Some people say it is okay to do it sometimes just not a lot and others say not at all.)
Keeping breeding records is very important so that your know who you can breed to who. For our small farm we keep our records using the an app on our phones and sharing it with one another so we all have the information at our finger tips. This also has each goat's medical record which is also very important to keep detailed records for each goat.
How old should bucks and does be to breed?
In general puberty for goats happens
between 4-6 months for bucks and 6-8 months for does. But just because they reach puberty does not mean that is when they should be bred. Breeding at this young age could cause problems for the does when they kid. This could vary in the different breeds of goats, their growth vigor, and the season they were born. There is not a set age that they can be bred and it can be confusing reading all the differing opinions online. Therefore, I cannot tell you an exact age to start breeding but in general most breeders wait until the does are a year old before they breed them. Some say 8-15 months old. With our first goats we bred, we waited until they were over a year old. This year we are experimenting with breeding our biggest does that are under a year old to a young buck. Sign up for our weekly email blog reminders so you can learn from our mistakes or successes!
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