Raising Goats Naturally

by Deborah Niemann

  What I Learned from Giselle

  When I started raising goats, everyone I knew talked about breeding does to kid as yearlings. It never crossed my mind when I bred Giselle at 13 months that she might not be big enough to give birth safely in five months. All of my other young does had been bred to kid by the time they were her age, and none had had any problems.

  Five months later, it was Christmas Eve, and Giselle was in labor. I could see two hooves, but regardless of how many times she pushed, the kid wasn’t emerging. I pulled gently on the two legs and made no progress. I pulled harder and still made no progress. One of my daughters tried, and we agreed the kid was stuck. We’d heard about people pulling out a goat’s uterus, so we didn’t want to pull too hard. I called the vet, and he said he’d meet us at his office. We put Giselle on the front seat of the pickup truck between us. It took almost an hour to drive to the vet, but Giselle was quiet because she was already exhausted.

  I assumed Giselle would be having a caesarean, but when we got to the vet’s office in the early morning hours of December 25th, he said he could probably get the kid out vaginally. He attached a leg snare to the kid’s front hooves and pulled so hard that he would have pulled Giselle off the table if my daughter and I had not been holding her. After a great deal of pulling and even discussing the possibility of damaging the kid’s head, he finally pulled the single kid out. Giselle was so stressed that she completely ignored the kid and just stared into space. On the drive home, she continued to ignore him, and we realized we would need to bottle-feed the buckling.

  A few days later, I called one of my mentors and told her about the experience. When I told her that Giselle, a Nigerian Dwarf, weighed 35 pounds at the vet’s office, she said that she didn’t normally breed goats that small. For months I said I’d never breed Giselle again, assuming that she just had an unusually small pelvis, but I finally did breed her more than a year later. Since then she has given birth without difficulty to kids that were more than four pounds, which is above average for the breed. And since then, I don’t breed Nigerian does until they weigh at least 40 pounds.

  The Second Thing I Learned from Giselle

  The above story was in the first edition of this book, but the story didn’t end there. After that book was published, Giselle had trouble giving birth again, not just once but twice. Early in my goat breeding days, I created a two strikes rule. If I have to help a goat give birth twice, she will not be bred again. Not only do I not need the stress, but I don’t want to perpetuate the genetics. But Giselle had the longest teats in the herd. They could have belonged to an Alpine. Anyone could milk her. I wanted more teats like that in my herd, so I made excuses for Giselle’s kidding problems.

  The first time, it was my fault for breeding her when she was too small. The next time, it was because there was a kid presenting ribs first because it was dead. Dead kids are notorious for being positioned weirdly and causing a traffic jam. That was not her fault. It was just bad luck. Then she had a buckling that was close to five pounds. Normally my does have no problem giving birth to a kid that’s presenting with a nose and only one leg, but because this kid was so large, I had to fish for the second leg and pull it forward to be able to get the kid out. It was such an ordeal that I even said, “You’re retired!” once the kid was born. But seven months later when she was in heat, I convinced myself that she had just been the recipient of bad luck and there was no reason not to breed her again.

  Five months later, I found myself at the university vet hospital witnessing our second cesarean. She had a five-pound kid presenting with a nose and only one hoof. Because the kid was so large, I couldn’t get my hand into her uterus to get the other leg to pull it forward. As it turned out, that would not have made a difference anyway. The kid was simply too large to fit through her small pelvis. Between the two-hour drive to get to the vet hospital and the two-hour wait to get everyone assembled for the cesarean — the clinic was unusually busy that day — neither of the twins were still alive by the time they were delivered. We continued to milk Giselle until she dried up about a year later, and she is now enjoying her retirement in our pasture.

  And I will never make another excuse for a goat that gets two strikes.

  Signs of Estrus

  Flagging: The doe will be wagging her tail a lot.

  Mounting: A doe in heat may mount other does or let them mount her.

  Vocalizing: Some does won’t vocalize at all, but others will be screaming so much that anyone within a quarter of a mile will know she’s in heat.

  Flirting: A doe will hang out next to a fence where she sees a buck. Even if there are two fences between them, she will get as close as possible.

  Discharge: A clear or white discharge might be visible on the tip of the vulva. The color of the discharge is a clue about what stage of heat the doe is in. If it is clear, she is usually in the early stages, but if it is white, she is near the end.

  Drop in Milk Production: This is temporary and will last one or two milkings. It may be a minor drop or substantial.

  Breeding Methods

  There are benefits and drawbacks to both pen breeding and hand breeding, and the decision to do one or the other is usually based on what is most convenient for the owner. While pen breeding is more convenient at breeding time, hand breeding usually provides a smaller window for the due date.

  Those who breed goats primarily for meat usually pen breed, which means they will put a buck with a group of does and let them run around together for three or four weeks, during which time the does should all come into heat and get bred. If you are milking the does, be aware that the milk might be tainted with a goaty taste that results from bucks, which are stinky, rubbing on the does. However, unless a doe is in heat, most won’t let bucks do this, so you might have only one day of milk that you don’t want to use for human consumption. You can feed it to the chickens, pigs, or barn cats, and they won’t mind the taste.

  Although I have done pen breedings with goats that are not in milk, such as first fresheners, I am not a fan of this practice because in most cases the due date is a mystery. When goats are together 24 hours a day, the odds are pretty slim that a breeding will occur when you happen to be observing. Goats usually give birth about 147 to 152 days after being bred, but it can be a little earlier or later. Nigerians usually kid between 145 and 150. If you don’t know when a doe was bred, you don’t have a due date. A doe needs to stay with a buck for at least 25 days to be sure that she went through at least one heat cycle, and when adding a few extra days for her to deliver early or late, you have a month-long window when a pen-bred doe could give birth. It is especially important to be present for births by first fresheners, does that tend to have triplets or quadruplets, and for births that are expected when temperatures are below freezing. When I was still fairly new to goats, I did pen breedings only for summer due dates.

  Hand breeding isn’t quite as involved as it sounds. It simply means that you put a doe with a buck when you know she is in heat. You might put the two of them in a stall or pen for a couple of hours, although some people will separate them after seeing two or three successful breedings. If it’s convenient, I’ll leave them together overnight.

  If you don’t own your own buck, you should call the buck’s owner as soon as you see any signs of heat. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they thought they could take their doe to get bred the day after they started seeing signs of heat because they’d read that a doe is in heat for 24 to 48 hours. Although it’s true that most does are in heat that long, you don’t know exactly how long she’s been in heat when you notice signs. If she went into heat the previous night, she will have been in heat for 12 hours by the time you notice her in the morning, and she could be done by the following morning. Color of discharge is one clue about what stage of heat the doe is in. If it is clear, she is usually in the early stages, but if it is white, she is near the end, which means you need to hurry up and get her to a buck for breeding as soon a
s possible.

  Using a Buck Rag

  If you don’t have a buck, or if you keep your bucks far from your does, you might want to use a buck rag. What’s a buck rag? It is an old piece of cloth that has been vigorously rubbed on a stinky buck so that it picks up his scent. It is then kept in a jar or sealed plastic bag to retain its scent. It has a couple of uses. First, some people say that does may not come into heat if a buck is not within sniffing distance, so they are more likely to come into heat after smelling the rag. Second, you can sometimes determine if a doe is in heat by letting her sniff the rag. If you are really having a hard time figuring out when she’s in heat, you might want to let her sniff it every day. Typically, does ignore it if they’re not in heat, and they want to rub on it when they are in heat.

  Even though I have my own bucks, I put a doe and a buck together as soon as I realize she is in heat, and I leave them together until the doe is no longer showing signs of heat. When you look into the breeding pen and see the two goats rubbing on each other, the doe is in heat. When she runs to the door or gate, jumps on it with her front hooves, looks you in the eye, and screams, that translates as, “Get me out of here! Do you know what that stinky buck is trying to do to me? He won’t leave me alone!”

  Every now and then, you may have a doe that simply does not like the buck you have chosen for her. She is showing every single sign of being in heat, but when you put a buck with her, she runs from him or butts heads. If she is in standing heat and was standing for another doe or wether to mount her before you put her with the buck, she simply may not like the buck. Sometimes this happens with young bucks that are not stinky yet. And it may happen when you put an inexperienced buck that isn’t quite sure which end to mount with an older doe. If you want this particular buck and doe breeding, you can leave them together for the day and hope he figures things out, provided the doe isn’t being too hard on him. Some does will get violent with young bucks, and in such cases, they should not be left alone together.

  Buck Behavior

  If you are new to goats, normal buck behavior can be shocking. They stomp and make a variety of whooping and blubbering sounds when they’re near a doe in heat. It has been said that it sounds eerily human. It is common for a buck to make the Flehmen response, lifting the upper lip, when trying to figure out if a nearby doe is in heat, and a buck will sniff a doe’s urine as she is peeing, sometimes even getting it on his nose. He may also pee on his front legs and face. No, he is not messy. He actually has directional control and does this on purpose.

  Successful Breeding

  I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t surprised by how quickly goats breed. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that if you blink, you will miss it. It takes only a few seconds. I once sold goats to a woman who kept complaining that they were not getting bred. Several months later, she called in a panic because one was in labor. She had missed the breeding because, not realizing how quickly goats breed, she had gone into the house for 15 minutes while the doe and buck were together.

  We always wait to see at least one successful breeding before leaving a doe with a buck so that we know she is in heat and likes the boyfriend we selected for her. A successful breeding is signaled by the doe arching her back. Her front and back feet will be unnaturally close together. The buck is usually able to breed again in 5 to 15 minutes. A well-nourished buck in his prime should be able to breed several does in a single day and have a sperm count sufficient to get all of them pregnant. A young buckling may not be able to successfully breed more than one doe a day unless the breedings are several hours apart. After six or seven years of age, a buck might still be able to breed several does, but his sperm count may be going down, which would lead to the does that are bred within a few hours of the first does not getting pregnant. An older buck is not ideal for pen breeding because does tend to come into heat in groups, and the older buck might not breed all of those that come into heat in one day.

  Occasionally a goat will come into heat five to seven days after being bred, although it is not common. If you think you see signs of heat, don’t think you’re losing it. The doe should be bred again. In my experience, the due date from the second breeding is when the doe actually kids, but mark both days on the calendar just to be safe.

  If the doe comes into heat three weeks or more after being bred, you should assume she is not pregnant and breed her. Again, in most cases, it is the last breeding that actually impregnates the doe, but mark the calendar for every possible due date and check for signs of impending labor as each possible due date approaches. The first time I had a doe with false heats, she continued to come into heat every month, and I kept moving her due date. I was expecting her to kid in September, and late one afternoon in July, we found her in the pasture with three kids.

  If a doe doesn’t come back into heat, you can assume you will see kids in five months. An ultrasound, which can be done three weeks after breeding, or a blood or milk test, which can be done 30 days after breeding, will confirm pregnancy.

  Goats usually don’t look pregnant until at least three months, although I’ve had a few that didn’t look much wider than normal the day they gave birth. Long-bodied does do an excellent job of hiding kids. On the other hand, I have a doe that’s been giving birth to quadruplets or quintuplets for the last four years, and she starts to look pregnant by two months. First fresheners usually start to get udder development about a month before the due date, with the udder gradually growing as they get closer to the end of pregnancy. Senior does may appear to have a full udder as much as a week or two before they actually give birth.

  Artificial Insemination

  If you don’t have access to a buck, you might consider artificial insemination (AI). When you consider the cost of buying a buck and feeding him, AI is less expensive. Although a semen storage tank can cost as much as a couple of bucks (male goats, not dollars), it will last a very long time. If there is another breeder in your area, or even a cattle ranch, that uses semen, you might be able to rent space in their storage tank. Semen costs about one-tenth as much as a buck. If you’re lucky, you might have an AI technician or a vet in your area who can inseminate your does. The procedure can be tricky, and success is not guaranteed, but workshops teaching you how to do it yourself are available.

  Feeding for Fertility

  “Flushing” is the practice of feeding does more than usual for a month prior to breeding with the idea that it will increase their fertility. This is a very old practice, and the idea behind it is a good one. Of course, you want your doe to be in top condition prior to breeding. She is more likely to get pregnant and stay pregnant. However, for most people, flushing translates as more grain, which is not the best thing for a ruminant. Flushing should not be necessary in a goat that is in good condition. Feeding more grain than her body needs will simply cause her to put on more weight, which is not good. Does should not be either underweight or overweight when bred.

  This really boils down to the fact that excellent nutrition can help a goat to perform at the highest level possible, given its genetics. But nutrition can’t trump genetics and cause a goat to release more eggs than it is genetically programmed to release. For example, if you have a doe that consistently produces singles when her dam produced more, perhaps there is a problem with nutrition. But you can’t expect flushing to cause a goat to produce triplets or quads when her mother and grandmothers always produced twins. The majority of dairy goats produce twins, and feeding grain prior to breeding doesn’t increase that number.

  I have never used flushing prior to breeding my goats, but I have seen firsthand that nutrition plays an important role in fertility and production. When we had a problem with copper deficiency, we had goats not coming into heat, not getting pregnant when bred, and not staying pregnant. However, once our copper deficiency problem was resolved, our fertility rate shot up considerably. In our Nigerian Dwarf goats, the average number of kids went from 2.5 per doe to 2.9 per doe, with some years excee
ding three kids per doe. If I include the does that aborted or didn’t get pregnant, the average was less than two kids per doe, and from an economic perspective, those does should be included because they are being fed for a year and are not producing kids or milk. Our two remaining LaManchas went from not getting pregnant at all to both having triplets.

  The problem with the concept of flushing is that it puts an emphasis on nutrition during a single month. The goal needs to be optimal nutrition every month of the year. Even if I had been flushing my does during those years when we had a copper deficiency problem, it would not have eliminated the fertility problems that we were having. Although the problem was nutritional, the goats did not need more calories. They needed more copper.

  The nutritional needs of bucks definitely increase during breeding season. Although most sources recommend bucks not be fed grain because of the risk of urinary calculi, you need to look at your bucks to determine whether to feed them grain or not. For years I was so worried about urinary calculi that I didn’t give my bucks grain, even though they would lose a lot of weight every year during breeding season. I talked to other breeders who lived in even colder climates than I do, and since they weren’t feeding grain, I didn’t think I needed to do it either. Then one day I saw one of those breeders at a goat show. Her hay was far superior to what I had been able to find at that time, which meant her bucks were getting a more nutrient-rich feed than mine, which explained why they were so much healthier than my bucks, even though none of her goats was eating grain.