Rebreeding A Doe

[firefly81]

we have a 2 year old boer doe that kidded for the first time on may 7, she had a problemed labor, when i got home she was trying to push out a baby but the head was to big, so we helped out and got the first kid out, it was already dead when i found she was in labor, then she had a much smaller buckling she some what took care of him till the 13 then decided she didnt want him and ignored his hunger cries, so i took him and he is now a bottle baby. i have been trying to milk her out alittle every day so she doesnt get mastitis, but she wasnt a tame doe to begian with so it takes a couple of us to get that done. how long should i wait to rebreed her.

[Jim S.]

She won't come in til she dries off, in my experience. Some won't rebreed til fall when the daylight length changes; some will rebreed anytime of year. There are all kinds of opinions on goat breeds and when they will rebreed, so this is just what I have seen and done. I have seen it across the spectrum within just a boer herd, so...that is how folks end up having kids year-around. The herd will have a bunch at once (seasonal estrous), but there will be some that will dribble out all along the rest of the year (polyestrus). It can be used as a cull factor.

A 2-year-old having trouble with a big headed kid is unusual. By that age, the birth canal and all are pretty much as big as they'll get. My experience in cows and goats is that big headed kids and calves come from big-headed daddies. Or too big a buck on too small a doe. There is tremendous size variation among registered boers, even more in percentage boers. You want to find a meaty buck with the smallest head you can. Big butt, springy ribs, wide chest, and small head.

A kidding-ease buck example:



He's not perfect in conformation, but has the smaller head. So did his kids:



Your doe was likely traumatized by the birth difficulty, which often leads to rejection of the kid. If you are breeding same-size animals and your buck does not have a big head, I would say the difficult birth would put one black mark in the book for her. One more like that, and bye-bye doe.

[chamoisee]

She was a first freshener. Some people aren't going to like this, but I don't think it does the doe favors to wait that extra year. My yearlings hardly ever had trouble kidding, most of them make decent moms, and they keep growing if you keep feeding them. The two year olds have more trouble settling, more trouble kidding, and more trouble accepting the kids, IMHO.

[firefly81]

The Billie Was A Small Head Billi, And We Had Waited To Breed Her So We Wouldnt Have Winter Kids,
We Had The Same Billi Breed To 6 Other Does And They All Kidded Fine

[susanne]

She won't come in til she dries off

is that meat goat specific? my goats come into heat even though i'm milking them.

[Jim S.]

Originally Posted by susanne

She won't come in til she dries off

is that meat goat specific? my goats come into heat even though i'm milking them.

No, it is not meat-specific. Your inevitable comment is why I stipulated that it is my experience. Everyone has a wide range of experiences with this, and I do not claim that all goats do thus and such as far as breeding. Pick up any goat book, for example, and read something different. My own view is that it is to some degree individual to the goat, it is to some degree breed related, and to some degree related to where you are located (relative day lengths). There are a lot of variables, including whether the goats are kept under lights in a barn at night or not.

firefly, based on your last post, I'd definitely have her on the cull list. In my herd, unassisted kidding is a must-have trait, and so is mothering ability. You might try her again, if you feel you can afford the resources to carry her, and see what happens. It's a risk. And two strikes and she's out.

[topside1]

Firefly, I made the mistake of giving a doe another chance. Bottom line it didn't work out and she quickly left my herd. You need to decide if you want to feed her, worming expense, hooves, hay, etc. for another year? Think about bottle feeding more than one kid at the end of that year if she fails you again. Granted it's a gamble, and if she wasn't my favorite or in the top five, then I'd let her go...Of course this is just my way of thinking.

[Jim S.]

Excellent post, John. It is a risk for exactly those reasons, plus the kids she might have will also have to carry her expense from the two she just had.

[susanne]

jim bottom line is that dairy goats come in heat if you milk them or not. nothing to do experience. i assume you don't have experience with dairy goats?
maybe i shouldn't have made comments on this thread at all since meat goat breeder have totally different management and goals and i have no experience with it.
leaving now