A borrowed buck
A fella once said neither a borrower nor lender be. I was thinking about that while I drove home with a borrowed buck in the back of my van. I wonder if William meant the borrowed buck might poop in the back of your wagon. Probably not, old William would have been smart enough to tether goat behind the wagon. Or better yet, pull the wagon.
We've been trying to get our little doe goat bred. She's a kid from this spring. She'll be in heat two, maybe three days in 21. The trick is to spot that heat early in the season and be able to predict the date of the next one. Arrange with some one who owns a buck for the next one. Watch for the next heat. And hustle over there the next time you see her in heat. Then you let nature take it's course... Problem is, it's late in the season and I haven't spotted a heat yet. Thought I did once. But I think she had me fooled.
The lady who's bucks we usually breed with suggested maybe we take a little buck home with us and have him tell us when the little doe is in heat. I don't really like the idea. Bucks can get expensive, depending on their lineage. They can be hard to contain, particularly if they think there is a doe in heat over there. And they might leave more than their genetics behind.
But we're getting nervous about getting the little doe bred. If we don't get her bred, that means she isn't freshend in the spring and we are down a milker. That makes us that more dependant on a successfull kidding from the other doe we bred. It means less cheese next summer. And it means we are that much slower getting to a critical mass of herd members on our little farm.
It also raises the ugly spectar of what if something goes wrong. If we only had the one doe bred and something went wrong, then we'd be in trouble. We would have lost half our genetic pool, we would have no milk, no prodigany and no prospects. The idea can get overwhelming.
But it makes me glad we have goats instead of cows. If it were cows, I could only afford one cow. And then there is no redundancy. If anything goes wrong, all is lost. And when there is milk, there is a lot of milk. When there is not a lot, there is none at all. And you can't put a bull into the your van to bring him over for breeding. Not that I am bashing cows, they just are not the right solution for us.
So we hemmed and hawed over bringing a borrowed buck onto our farm. We don't like it, but sometimes you have to do something you don't want to in order to go somewhere you need to.
We've been trying to get our little doe goat bred. She's a kid from this spring. She'll be in heat two, maybe three days in 21. The trick is to spot that heat early in the season and be able to predict the date of the next one. Arrange with some one who owns a buck for the next one. Watch for the next heat. And hustle over there the next time you see her in heat. Then you let nature take it's course... Problem is, it's late in the season and I haven't spotted a heat yet. Thought I did once. But I think she had me fooled.
The lady who's bucks we usually breed with suggested maybe we take a little buck home with us and have him tell us when the little doe is in heat. I don't really like the idea. Bucks can get expensive, depending on their lineage. They can be hard to contain, particularly if they think there is a doe in heat over there. And they might leave more than their genetics behind.
But we're getting nervous about getting the little doe bred. If we don't get her bred, that means she isn't freshend in the spring and we are down a milker. That makes us that more dependant on a successfull kidding from the other doe we bred. It means less cheese next summer. And it means we are that much slower getting to a critical mass of herd members on our little farm.
It also raises the ugly spectar of what if something goes wrong. If we only had the one doe bred and something went wrong, then we'd be in trouble. We would have lost half our genetic pool, we would have no milk, no prodigany and no prospects. The idea can get overwhelming.
But it makes me glad we have goats instead of cows. If it were cows, I could only afford one cow. And then there is no redundancy. If anything goes wrong, all is lost. And when there is milk, there is a lot of milk. When there is not a lot, there is none at all. And you can't put a bull into the your van to bring him over for breeding. Not that I am bashing cows, they just are not the right solution for us.
So we hemmed and hawed over bringing a borrowed buck onto our farm. We don't like it, but sometimes you have to do something you don't want to in order to go somewhere you need to.
posted by MMP at
5:29 PM
4 Comments:
We want pictures!
Is you camera down?
Wanna BEE farmer
By
Anonymous, at 6:23 AM
Yes, pics of the livestock, please. Another reason you need to get your young doe bred this heat is that if you wait, she will put on weight and be harder to get bred next year. It really is a must to get her bred now. Both of my does are bred finally and we are going to eat the bucks. I'm hoping for doelings next spring...but we got all bucks last year.
By
Danielle, at 7:28 AM
Hey thanks for the advice. Our situation is a bit dire. There are only two bucks in the valley, and their 'accommodation' is not one I'd like to leave my does at. So, bringing the buck here is pretty much our only option. When you say, 'they can leave more than a kid behind', what do you mean? (Please don't make me regret asking!)
HDR
By
Anonymous, at 5:56 PM
The other stuff they might leave behind are parasites or disease. When you host a buck, they will leave their poops behind with whatever parasite eggs and nymphs. I would also be concerned about any communicable diseases. Johnes, CL, Sour Mouth and Pink Eye are some. Unfortunately, there are lots.
Taking your doe to the buck is actually less of an exposure. I do mine as a “drive way” breeding. That means on the day of a strong heat, I drive the doe over the buck. And litterally in the driveway, we introduce the buck and the doe. If she is receptive and he is in rut, it takes about five minutes. My doe doesn’t enter their pens and it minimizes everyone’s exposure.
It’s not uncommon to board a buck or doe for breeding. It’s not my preference, but there are good reasons for it. If you end up hosting the buck, do whatever you can to limit the exposure. Ask the donor farm about health history, do they test for anything or vaccinate? Check over the animal before you bring him home. Try to keep the time period short. Use facilities for the buck that you can disinfect, leave fallow, etc. Anything else you can think of to limit your exposure.
By
MMP, at 8:11 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home