I think it is always important to keep in mind things we are grateful for, but it’s especially important at thanksgiving. So as a special holiday treat I thought I would make a list of things to be thankful for here:
- A beautiful home with a pasture – this time last year the girls were all standing out in mud
- Not one but TWO bucks out in the pasture. Every day I’m grateful to have these and I can’t wait for kids next year
- The capabilities and space to breed 20 goats
- 8 doe kids born last year
- Two does settled by AI last year who provided us with doe kids, and one doe settled this year
- Enough feed to feed the goats
- 4Hers who are excited about goats
- Most of breeding season done
- Clean water, clean goats, shelters to keep everyone dry.
I’m sure there are more but I am just too tired to think of it now.
November 27, 2010
November 17, 2010
Some good news and some not as good news
Next round of pregnancy tests came back today - an even split between the does open and does pregnant. I try to look at the on the bright side every time a doe comes back open. Maybe it is good because we can use a better buck, maybe it is good because we can have kids in a different age bracket. Reality is that I hate does coming back open. So instead of looking on the bright side of the open does – I am choosing to look at the conception rates we have And boy am I excited about those!!!!!
First one of our Alpine-Lamancha crosses are on its way. On the down side, we had hoped 2 of them were due at the beginning of February. Instead of more senior kids (yay!) we will have more junior kids (sigh). The best way I can look at it is that 1 more Brazil daughter is 1 more than we would have had before.
Speaking of Brazil kids, the next positive test we got was Alaska. Of all our Lamancha kids this year – she is definitely one of the prettiest, and she is bred to Brazil. In fact she is the only 2010 kids bred to Brazil. These are kids to really be excited about so I really am glad that she settled with immediate kids. Unfortunately, Ysis’ daughter Artemis – also bred Lamancha for my (starlet lace) first Lamancha kids – came back open. This wasn’t too surprising since we thought we might have seen a heat 3 weeks later and rebred her as such. Still it would have been nice if that second heat was a false heat instead of a real one. Once again, I have to remind myself that Artemis is on the smaller side and really she could use some more growing time. Plus the buck that we bred her to (Arabica) is on site – we can always rebred her again until she settles. Even if she didn’t settled she really would do fine as a dry yearling – selfishly I really want Lamancha kids but I also understand that with goats patience is part of the lifestyle.
I have left the best news for last– the doe I MOST wanted to bred settled!!!! We bred Zinfandel AI – no wait that isn’t exactly right – I bred Zinfandel AI. My first successfully settled doe by AI!!!! I can’t believe it! Sure things could all still go wrong but you know how excited I am!!! (Perhaps you can tell by the exclamation points). Now I feel like I can try this again next year. My ideal cross is with Azalea and some really pretty genetics I have in the tank. Maybe next year it will happen!!
The only other interesting thing to talk about is our Togg girls. I posted last week that they both came back open. We brought both of them into heat this weekend and looked at AI’ing both of them. When we tried to pass an AI gun on Lanney it worked no problem. Maybe she just wasn’t have good heats because she showed the best heat we have seen on her all year. We chose to use some of our nicer (more expensive) semen on her because she was so strongly in heat. Hopefully we will end up with some really nice kids from this cross. Maybe next year we will even have a new Togg herd sire… wouldn’t that be nice!!
First one of our Alpine-Lamancha crosses are on its way. On the down side, we had hoped 2 of them were due at the beginning of February. Instead of more senior kids (yay!) we will have more junior kids (sigh). The best way I can look at it is that 1 more Brazil daughter is 1 more than we would have had before.
Speaking of Brazil kids, the next positive test we got was Alaska. Of all our Lamancha kids this year – she is definitely one of the prettiest, and she is bred to Brazil. In fact she is the only 2010 kids bred to Brazil. These are kids to really be excited about so I really am glad that she settled with immediate kids. Unfortunately, Ysis’ daughter Artemis – also bred Lamancha for my (starlet lace) first Lamancha kids – came back open. This wasn’t too surprising since we thought we might have seen a heat 3 weeks later and rebred her as such. Still it would have been nice if that second heat was a false heat instead of a real one. Once again, I have to remind myself that Artemis is on the smaller side and really she could use some more growing time. Plus the buck that we bred her to (Arabica) is on site – we can always rebred her again until she settles. Even if she didn’t settled she really would do fine as a dry yearling – selfishly I really want Lamancha kids but I also understand that with goats patience is part of the lifestyle.
I have left the best news for last– the doe I MOST wanted to bred settled!!!! We bred Zinfandel AI – no wait that isn’t exactly right – I bred Zinfandel AI. My first successfully settled doe by AI!!!! I can’t believe it! Sure things could all still go wrong but you know how excited I am!!! (Perhaps you can tell by the exclamation points). Now I feel like I can try this again next year. My ideal cross is with Azalea and some really pretty genetics I have in the tank. Maybe next year it will happen!!
The only other interesting thing to talk about is our Togg girls. I posted last week that they both came back open. We brought both of them into heat this weekend and looked at AI’ing both of them. When we tried to pass an AI gun on Lanney it worked no problem. Maybe she just wasn’t have good heats because she showed the best heat we have seen on her all year. We chose to use some of our nicer (more expensive) semen on her because she was so strongly in heat. Hopefully we will end up with some really nice kids from this cross. Maybe next year we will even have a new Togg herd sire… wouldn’t that be nice!!
November 13, 2010
Not all Senior kids
Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want it. We got the results back from Lanney and Keegan’s pregnancy tests. Sadly neither were pregnant yet. I’m glad that we got to use Jessie on the 2 Liberty Ranch toggs and single grade, but I really wish we could have bred these two girls to him too. Such a pretty cross that would have been. Now it is time to make the decision if April kids are more important, full togg kids, or just making sure she gets bred… sometimes these things are harder than they look.
First it is 1 round of AI since no one has a buck around then maybe it will be Lamancha-burgs
The rest of our early October girls got their tests sent off as well. Hopefully we will know by next week who is really bred and who we still need to get bred. Can you imagine if they are all bred? Mostly older kids! Ah what a dream.
First it is 1 round of AI since no one has a buck around then maybe it will be Lamancha-burgs
The rest of our early October girls got their tests sent off as well. Hopefully we will know by next week who is really bred and who we still need to get bred. Can you imagine if they are all bred? Mostly older kids! Ah what a dream.
November 04, 2010
Planning breeding season
It’s really hard to believe that it is November 4th and we are nearly done with breeding season. Don’t mistake my meaning – these are animals we are talking about and certainly they can come back into heat if they want to, BUT of the 16 animals who live full time at our house (who we were planning to breed) all 16 of them have been bred at least once!! This means that possible we could not even have to take a Thanksgiving trip to get a goat bred. I don’t even remember the last time I have not had to breed a goat over that weekend.
So I guess it would be fun to talk a little bit about how we choose which bucks to use for our girls. Of course it varies from year to year because our circumstances change so much from year to year but there are similarities each year.
Believe it or not, choosing what buck to use starts long before fall. Really I think it starts late spring or summer. This is when everyone starts coming out to shows and starts mingling again. Not to say that we don’t talk to people over winter – but usually kidding season keeps everyone so busy that visiting is out of the question. So you suddenly start talking about what bucks people have or what they are planning on purchasing. You might get the opportunity to see one of the bucks at a buck show, but more likely you are able to see his mother, sister, and possible even daughters. The other thing that happens over the summer is you are able to get an idea about your doe. Listening to what different judges like or dislike about your goats is such a critically important part of the show. If you hear the same thing over and over again then you know what you need to go looking for in a buck – or possible in his female relatives (daughter, mother, etc.)
Then, faster than you know it, summer wraps up and fall is upon us. Now you have to decide when you want to breed her. Of course some of that is dependent on when your doe comes into heat but if you start seeing heats in August you need to know when you want kids. Maybe you want January or February kids – these will most likely be the largest at the show, but they will also be born in (most likely) the coldest time of the year. Maybe you want March kids – usually not the smallest kids at the show but born when it is a little warmer (usually the largest class of kids). Or maybe you want to wait for later kids. Born when there is less rain and school left but could be the smallest kids at the show. You will want to take extra care of your May kids if you live in a place where it is 80°F during the day and then drops down to 45°F at night. This can bring a whole other set of challenges. Regardless of when you want kids – start marking and recording heats early so that you are prepared when your doe is ready to be bred.
Wow, all that and we haven’t even picked out bucks yet. Here at our farm we then have to decide if we want to try AI or live service on the doe. Sometime that is an easy choice. If it is a kid (breeding to be a yearling milker) we don’t even try AI. If it is a doe who had a really rough kidding last spring we also opt for live service to give her a better change to conceive. Finally we consider what bucks are around to use when weighting our options. For our Lamanchas last year we had plenty of AI straws but not a lot of close by bucks to use – so we AI’ed our two older does and drove to a live buck for the kid. On the other hand this year we have not 1 but 2 bucks on the property to use – you better believe that we used them this year! In the same manner last year we leased a Saanen buck and used him on 3 does – but this year we tried AI on the yearling milker instead.
Finally we decide which buck to use. Let’s take for example the two Saanen kids we were breeding. Since they are both kids we didn’t want to AI them and since we didn’t want to cross them that meant finding a buck to use. So first I look at their strengths and weaknesses. Alba for example is very strong in general appearance but I would love to see her with more dairy character. Then I thought about my choices of bucks. One buck that I have wanted to get a daughter out of for a long time lives over on the coast. We have two does in the herd who are 2x bred on him (he is on both sides of the pedigree) and they are very dairy individuals – almost to a fault. Also he is an older buck – meaning that although I love some of the young animals around me I may not get a chance to breed to him again. Finally I make sure I go to the adgagenetics.org website and use their planning to check the inbreeding coefficient. Although I know my pedigrees well – there could always be something unexpected. Generally I try to keep the inbreeding under 10% unless there is an intentional reason for having it higher. Also you want to make sure that the animals who are contributing the most are strong animals. Of course all my careful planning and preparation can go all wrong when the animals decided not to cooperate. With my other Saanen doe Azalea I had planned to breed her to a beautiful older buck who I thought would really improve on her type. Sadly when we got there he refused to service her. Then you have to decide if it is more important to have that cross or to have kids at that time. Since I had armed myself with information on the other bucks on the property I was fully prepared to select a different animal and knew what type they came from and what they would throw – but if I hadn’t already known it might have been a lot more difficult. So that is my final piece of advice – go to any breeders house knowing what your other option are if your animals refuse to cooperate.
So I guess it would be fun to talk a little bit about how we choose which bucks to use for our girls. Of course it varies from year to year because our circumstances change so much from year to year but there are similarities each year.
Believe it or not, choosing what buck to use starts long before fall. Really I think it starts late spring or summer. This is when everyone starts coming out to shows and starts mingling again. Not to say that we don’t talk to people over winter – but usually kidding season keeps everyone so busy that visiting is out of the question. So you suddenly start talking about what bucks people have or what they are planning on purchasing. You might get the opportunity to see one of the bucks at a buck show, but more likely you are able to see his mother, sister, and possible even daughters. The other thing that happens over the summer is you are able to get an idea about your doe. Listening to what different judges like or dislike about your goats is such a critically important part of the show. If you hear the same thing over and over again then you know what you need to go looking for in a buck – or possible in his female relatives (daughter, mother, etc.)
Then, faster than you know it, summer wraps up and fall is upon us. Now you have to decide when you want to breed her. Of course some of that is dependent on when your doe comes into heat but if you start seeing heats in August you need to know when you want kids. Maybe you want January or February kids – these will most likely be the largest at the show, but they will also be born in (most likely) the coldest time of the year. Maybe you want March kids – usually not the smallest kids at the show but born when it is a little warmer (usually the largest class of kids). Or maybe you want to wait for later kids. Born when there is less rain and school left but could be the smallest kids at the show. You will want to take extra care of your May kids if you live in a place where it is 80°F during the day and then drops down to 45°F at night. This can bring a whole other set of challenges. Regardless of when you want kids – start marking and recording heats early so that you are prepared when your doe is ready to be bred.
Wow, all that and we haven’t even picked out bucks yet. Here at our farm we then have to decide if we want to try AI or live service on the doe. Sometime that is an easy choice. If it is a kid (breeding to be a yearling milker) we don’t even try AI. If it is a doe who had a really rough kidding last spring we also opt for live service to give her a better change to conceive. Finally we consider what bucks are around to use when weighting our options. For our Lamanchas last year we had plenty of AI straws but not a lot of close by bucks to use – so we AI’ed our two older does and drove to a live buck for the kid. On the other hand this year we have not 1 but 2 bucks on the property to use – you better believe that we used them this year! In the same manner last year we leased a Saanen buck and used him on 3 does – but this year we tried AI on the yearling milker instead.
Finally we decide which buck to use. Let’s take for example the two Saanen kids we were breeding. Since they are both kids we didn’t want to AI them and since we didn’t want to cross them that meant finding a buck to use. So first I look at their strengths and weaknesses. Alba for example is very strong in general appearance but I would love to see her with more dairy character. Then I thought about my choices of bucks. One buck that I have wanted to get a daughter out of for a long time lives over on the coast. We have two does in the herd who are 2x bred on him (he is on both sides of the pedigree) and they are very dairy individuals – almost to a fault. Also he is an older buck – meaning that although I love some of the young animals around me I may not get a chance to breed to him again. Finally I make sure I go to the adgagenetics.org website and use their planning to check the inbreeding coefficient. Although I know my pedigrees well – there could always be something unexpected. Generally I try to keep the inbreeding under 10% unless there is an intentional reason for having it higher. Also you want to make sure that the animals who are contributing the most are strong animals. Of course all my careful planning and preparation can go all wrong when the animals decided not to cooperate. With my other Saanen doe Azalea I had planned to breed her to a beautiful older buck who I thought would really improve on her type. Sadly when we got there he refused to service her. Then you have to decide if it is more important to have that cross or to have kids at that time. Since I had armed myself with information on the other bucks on the property I was fully prepared to select a different animal and knew what type they came from and what they would throw – but if I hadn’t already known it might have been a lot more difficult. So that is my final piece of advice – go to any breeders house knowing what your other option are if your animals refuse to cooperate.
October 29, 2010
First Preg tests!
Hurray! The Pregnancy tests results are back for all of our does bred in September and they will all confirmed pregnant! Now I can let out the breath I have been holding. Wheeewwwww.
Granted we may end up with all bucks or something horrible could happen, but at least I don't have to sit around worrying if I am missing silent heats on all of these does because 9 out of 19 done ain't bad.
Granted we may end up with all bucks or something horrible could happen, but at least I don't have to sit around worrying if I am missing silent heats on all of these does because 9 out of 19 done ain't bad.
October 27, 2010
Deja vu?
First let me apologize for the lack of quality pictures. The danger of storing all you photos on SD card is that when you want them they are not around. This top picture was taken back in Fall 2008. That was the time when 3/5 (that is, 3 of our 5 goats) of the herd was in Salinas. It was actually quite fun because they got lots of attention we would run around with them all over the school's farm. The Togg is Yodel, the blackish Lamancha is Yucatan, and the Sancha is Ysis.
This bottom picture was taken on Sunday after we had penned everyone up Saturday for the first big rainstorm of the year. 3 of the kids got out and were in the pasture by themselves (enjoying the feeder until we let everyone else out). It caught my eye because it reminded me of something... then it hit me:
The Togg in the picture is Annie - Yodel's daughter
The blackish Lamancha is Argentina - Yucatan's daughter
The Sancha is Artemis - Ysis' daughter
Doesn't it amaze everyone else this little moments in life? Reminds you how much things change and how much they stay the same
October 16, 2010
Do you like her?
Now that life is calm enough and all we can do is sit around worrying if a doe settled or not we really have time to evaluate the herd. All summer we have heard what the judges had to say about them, we saw them stand at the top of the line and we saw them stand at the bottom of the line (less than previously maybe, but the occurrences were still there). We have a good idea of that their worst faults are (especially the milkers) and what we love about them and yet we still play the "what do you think of her?" game.
The nice part is that all the does who have made it to the fall are nice enough in their own right, but knowing how many does were are breeding means we have the start thinking about who will go in the spring. It is sad at some level, but at the same time I know that none of the goats are not eligible for sale if something comes along.
So how is it done? Well take a doe for example - currently my most often subject is Thistle. What do we like about her? Well I love how deep she is and how strong she is on her feet and legs. What do I dislike? Well lets start with how I wish her mammary system was better, but what I really don't like is how much trouble she had last year after kidding. We have a show herd - this means that if a doe ends up with such a horrible freshening that she can't show - she will have a hard time fitting into the herd. But then I really like her daughter. Azalea is one of the nicest does kids we had this year... If you like the kids a doe gives you is that enough reason to keep her and at what point does she have enough daughters to pass on her good traits. It really leaves you to sit about and ponder what is a good doe?
What do you want your herd to look like? What do you like about each doe and what would you like to change? Fall is the perfect time to really sit around and evaluate the does. It makes the spring - when you are overwhelmed with kids to choose from - easier when you already have your list of who is staying or who has to shape-up or head out.
The nice part is that all the does who have made it to the fall are nice enough in their own right, but knowing how many does were are breeding means we have the start thinking about who will go in the spring. It is sad at some level, but at the same time I know that none of the goats are not eligible for sale if something comes along.
So how is it done? Well take a doe for example - currently my most often subject is Thistle. What do we like about her? Well I love how deep she is and how strong she is on her feet and legs. What do I dislike? Well lets start with how I wish her mammary system was better, but what I really don't like is how much trouble she had last year after kidding. We have a show herd - this means that if a doe ends up with such a horrible freshening that she can't show - she will have a hard time fitting into the herd. But then I really like her daughter. Azalea is one of the nicest does kids we had this year... If you like the kids a doe gives you is that enough reason to keep her and at what point does she have enough daughters to pass on her good traits. It really leaves you to sit about and ponder what is a good doe?
What do you want your herd to look like? What do you like about each doe and what would you like to change? Fall is the perfect time to really sit around and evaluate the does. It makes the spring - when you are overwhelmed with kids to choose from - easier when you already have your list of who is staying or who has to shape-up or head out.
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