[QUOTE=crowinghen]
Our whether Oreo isn't showing any intrest in her. Would I expect him to?
Nope. My wether gets beat on by the does in heat. I've heard of people giving their wethers a testosterone shot in the fall to spot heats for AI.
how often do they cycle?
14-30 days. They will come into heat in a couple of days if you bring a buck home. The smell will get them going. Seems like the heats get more intense later in the year. August you can barely tell and by Nov. they're riding each other and screaming all night.
I've heard 70 lbs at 7 months, does everyone agree with this? Are there any advantages to waiting,
I've been breeding at 75/7 months with no problems (knock wood). If you wait and breed them at 1 1/2 yrs they can get too fat to conceive. A doeling that has not been gaining well or is not vigorous & thrifty I would hold over a year even if she is 70 at 7.
and do I need to pick out a buck that has little or easily born babies?
Nope. Ease of birth is such a non-issue that it isn't even tracked with goats. Linear traits are on
www.adgagenetics.com - bucks have a chart that shows their daughter average on traits and PTI. Also shows milk average. There is a help page and a FAQ and the whole site is set up to be easy to figure out. You can even do planned breedings to see what your inbreeding % are and what animals you'll concentrate in the breeding.
The goat linear was developed from Holstein linear appraisal so it will probably all make sense to you. It's the same deal as with breeding cattle- make the daughters better than the mamas!
