Talk me out of it please

[wildhorse]

I went to look at some nubians this morning needless to say I fell in love they are expecting kids in march-april.
then....I went to see and old man he is around 80 ish we bought hay from him several years ago he used to ask 200 for his goats ...he has kids they are Saanen or Saanen/boer cross he offered me a little doe for 50 dollars... she has little horns and should be banded....
Ive got it bad......
Ive got the fever......

[DKWunlimited]

And you're asking US to talk you out of it? She would have already been packed up and at my house if it were me! lol

[ma1bob]

The wife has forbidden me from goingt o the auctions anymore. Animals some how just appear in the barn. Damned if I know how that happens. LOL

I said I was going to thin down the herd in the fall when the whole herd was bred. Like that happened. Now I have 13 prego does ready to deliver next month. I'll thin down the herd then I tell the wife. We'll see.

Cheers

Bob

[wildhorse]

The old man said she is 3 months old and there are buck running with the does.,..what are the chances of her being pregnant.... and if she is will it kill her?Shes so tiny she looks like she may be 3 weeks old...

[Jim S.]

Usually they CAN get bred +/- 4 months, give or take. Doesn't mean they DID, but you never know.

No, it won't kill her to be bred that young, but it does put added burdens on you:

-- You have to feed her like it is going out of style, making sure she gets 18-20% protein in her daily diet. Both she and the kids need to grow quickly. Feed within reason so you avoid bloat, but get her the protein and TDN to grow. (That's more costly than letting her grow on pasture and hay.)

-- She is much more prone to birthing difficulty.

-- The kid(s) - actually probably only one but you never know - are at birth a lot more prone to becoming bottle babies through slightly premature birth and/or a clueless mama who abandons them. They are smaller size and more prone to die after birth.

Those are really the reasons it is not preferable to breed early on the doe side. It just makes things much harder on the animal and the owner.

On the buck side, you don't want them to be out there breeding early because they actually can lose interest in breeding as an adult if they start too early, and get ruined. I have actually seen this happen in a neighbor's herd.

Hope it helps in your decision.

UNDER EDIT: From an economic standpoint, the $200 bred doe is a better value than the $50 maybe-bred kid.