It's kidding time again!!

[RichZ]

Friday morning, as I sleepily walked into the goat barn to take care of the girls, I heard a strange but familiar sound. At 5:00 AM, I'm still only half conscious, and I just stood there wondering what I was hearing......a kid crying!!!!!!! No one was due until the last weekend in February, but apparently someone hadn't ready my freshening schedule.

I ran into the barn to find Splash standing with a beautifully clean and healthy buckling. But Splash wasn't the mother. Splash is one of my Alpine does, and she's a great midwife. If any first time fresheners don't know what to do, Splash takes the kids and cleans them and takes care of them until I find them. The kid was a Nubian, and I didn't immediately see a likely mother. I said to Splashy, "Who's the mommy, honey?" Splash walked over to a formerly fat, and now skinny Nubian doe and bleated at me. Amazingly, Splash showed me the mommy.

I'm not too young anymore, and I seem to be forgetting all sorts of stuff, but the worst is, I have 2 does, one Nubian, and one Alpine who I don't remember anything about. I can't remember where I got them or their names!!! I have no clue!!!! I know neither of them freshened last year, though I thought they were both bred. And except for their ears and noses, they look amazingly alike, and are pals. The Nubian was the mommy, and was giving me a look like, "What the heck just happened??!!" She had no idea what just happened to her. Well, at least she quickly got a new name...Early (I wish I could remember what her real name is, but she's now Early.) I checked my breeding book, and she was due March 1 (I identified her in the book by her appearance and color of her collar).

It was COLD, about 12 degrees, but the kid was clean and just fine, and as I started taking him into the house, Splash went crazy, screaming and running around. "Is there another kid, Splashy????", I asked. Splashy just screamed. Expecting her to show me something, twice, on command, was asking a little too much, and Splashy was just freaking out. Where was the other kid???!!!

To the rescue came Mannie, the boss of my three llamas. Llamas just love kids and are very protective of them. Mannie ran over to one of my goat sleeping platforms (plywood over cinder blocks) and started pawing at it, while grunting as only a llama can grunt. I lifted the plywood, and there, fast asleep, was another, perfectly clean and healthy buckling. Mannie clearly saved his life, I'm quite sure the little guy would have frozen to death, if I didn't find him.

In the house the two little boys went, and kidding season has started. This has worked out pretty well, as Early is a first time freshener, and I have some alone time to train her to use the milk stand and to cooperate while she's being milked. Most first time fresheners on my farm need a lot of training, but Early took to it like she's been doing it her whole life. And she is enjoying all of the attention, as she has the milking parlor to herself right now. I told her not to get used to it, she'll have a lot of company in there very soon.

The 2 bucklings are doing well, and they're also benefiting from being ahead of schedule, as they'll get to stay in the house a lot longer, and get lots of extra TLC. They'll make someone a couple of great pets!!!

 

[jimmyj]

Nice story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[keegs]

Thought you were starting a joke thread.... Nice story...

 

[DennisArrow]

CONGRATULATIONS..........Funny how the critters really do talk with YOU.....One of God's creatures, one and all........Our Momma Anatolian is the cleaner upper and tender........

We do meat/show type goats, Boers, and you use a couple of concepts that I am not familiar with.

By "freshening" what do you mean..........

You bottle feed all of the babies?......WHY????? Perhaps that you just wait for the momma's to come in and begin turning them into dairy goats and dont want the babies drying them out??????

You don't wether the little guys and take them to the sale?........Better money for intact male pets????????

Anyway......we are in the same boat with 2 momma's popping in the last few days. 4 on the ground, and 3 more does ready to rock and roll today or tomorrow........
These are some high powered genetics breeder stock that have been AI'd so we are watching them close and taking gooood care of them and the babies.......At least the trips are healthy and the single is HUGE, meaty, and long.......The trip mom had 4 but we had to put one down with a cleft palate......shucks, it was a doe and the others are bucklings.....

Get some rest.......God bless......Dennis

 

[schmism]

nice story.... need pics!

 

[RichZ]

Dennis, freshening is when a dairy animal gives birth. Their milk supply is freshened. We bottle feed most of the kids, especially now, when it's so cold. They need a few days in the house to get big and strong enough to deal with the cold. And we're a commercial goat dairy, we need all of the milk to ship to our customers, who are cheese makers. I couldn't have left these kids on their mama anyway, as she has no clue what to do.

Despite being a commercial dairy., our goats are all pets, each with their own name (unless I forget it...never did that before). So I prefer to sell the bucklings for pets. We dehorn and wether them for the buyers, plus give them all of their shots. Unfortunately some bucklings sometimes do go to the auction barn, but we try our hardest to avoid that. Many of the doelings we keep, and we have an excellent market to sell any extras. We have good genetics, and lots of our surplus doelings go to 4-H'ers or to people who just want a couple of goats for their own milk.

 

[Oleozz]

Our neighbors goat was pregnant and was due last Monday. Unfortunately all three of the newborn die, came close to losing the mother but with the vets help she is going to recover.

 

[JESSE1]

Need pictures! Nothing cuter than baby goats.

We had one nanny back in the early '70's. Mixed breed, called her a brush goat. Quite a character. Her name was Mabel, white with black polka dots on her ears, yellow eyes. We bred her to a large dairy goat. I had her in a stall in the barn, went to check on her one morning in January and she had delivered twins, boy and girl.

 

[RichZ]

Pictures may take a while. I need to get a new digital camera. But since I have over 50 does that will be freshening, I'll have lots of kids, so when I get a new camera, I'll post pictures.

 

[Matt_Jr]

I thought this was gonna be a joke thread. haha. Thanks for posting. Wonderful story.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I saw kidding once and rarely anything was more surprising in my life. Those two little buggers basically jumped out of the mother and kept running. I had problems catching them and they were like 10 minutes old. Something to tell your pregnant wife, eh?

 

[weldingisfun]

It is kidding time on our place too.
The two in the picture were born on Saturday morning around 7:30, they were less than an hour old when the picture was taken.
Look at the one on the left. Talk about rubbery legs. She is doing just fine now.
We have eleven more does ready to kid in the next few weeks.
Baby goats are cute little critters.

 

[RichZ]

Early started a trend, I sort of expected that. This morning, Liberty, an Alpine had 2 kids, sired by Scooter, my Nigerian dwarf buck, a doeling and a buckling. The buckling is HUGE!!! And he's supposed to be a mini-Alpine!!!! Then this afternoon, Jumper, another Alpine had a doeling and buckling. Neither of these girls were due for another week and a half. And Toffee, a Nubian, is looking like she's going to kid soon.

IN my experience,when one girl goes early, lots of others follow, and that seems to be happening now.

The count so far, 4 boys and 2 girls. The ration has got to get better!!! Hopefully. I have one of the Early's bucklings sitting on my lap as I type this.

 

[jinman]

I have one of the Early's bucklings sitting on my lap as I type this.

Now, that's the picture I want to see.

 

[DennisArrow]

Mr. Welding..........NICE reds........it just goes on and on. One little billy had to be pulled with harness........so long in the canal that he got a bunch of amniotic fluid in his lungs and 3 days later is still wheezing......In addition his feet got swollen and now we will have to splint them to get them up off his pasterns..........

Another momma that had 3 actually 4 got milk fever and is NOT doing well.......LOTS of meds and feeding.........ON AND ON.........Dennis

 

[RichZ]

Dennis, I feel your pain. Last year was my first year when I didn't have to deliver any kids. Most years, I have to pull many out, as they get stuck. The worst is when a doe goes into labor with no progress, then I have to stick my arm in and get the kids out. I've gotten pretty good at that, and a lot of other goat farmers around here call me to help when a doe isn't having a good labor.

Last year, I cut WAY down on the feed I gvie my pregnant does. I only give them a fraction of what all the books say, and I only give them feed once/day. I had no difficult deliveries and lost very few kids. I'm hoping to repeat that this year, but you never know. To me, kidding time is the most stressful time of the year. I've got three down and over fifty to go.

 

[Greenmountain Farmer]

My daughter and her husband took delivery of 120 milking goats this afternoon

Tom in Vermont

 

[RichZ]

120 milking goats? Are they already a commercial dairy? Where are they located? I may know them, I know several goat dairy farms in Vermont.

 

[Greenmountain Farmer]

120 milking goats? Are they already a commercial dairy? Where are they located? I may know them, I know several goat dairy farms in Vermont.

Just Starting up, they are in Highgate Vt., the goats came out of Bath NY

Tom in Vermont

 

[RichZ]

Starting up with 120 goats??!! They don't believe in starting small, do they. I've been doing this for years, and don't have that many.