[keren]

Got my pregnancy test results back. Only one of my two nubian does is pregnant. I am now faced with a pretty tough decision as to what to do with the empty girl. Last year she kidded quads and was sick and dried off so I never really got to see her milking potential. I thought I would give her another chance to earn her keep. I also had planned to sell her at the end of this year as long as a got a doe kid to retain, because her legs were bent during last years kidding so I cant show her anymore. In contrast her sister kidded triplets and milked really well including winning champion at the only show I took her to, and her preg test was positive. So now I have to decide what to do with the empty doe. Sigh. I cant justify keeping non productive goats but I also paid a lot of money for this doe and would at least like a doe kid to replace her. Her kids last year were stunning, but saanen cross so I sold all four (two boys and two girls). She was mated to a purebred this year. I will not break even if I sell her as a dry doe, and I dont want to sell her by herself anyway as she is very attached to her sister (i was hoping to sell her with one of her kids as company).

Geez. This goat business is never easy.

I am pleased that my other nube doe is pregnant, as I will be able to show her more this year since she will be kidding at the right time.

It looks like it will be a very quiet kidding season for me as it is only the nube and one saanen doe that is pregnant. Glad the saanen is as she is in the same boat as the nube, I would like to retain a doe kid and maybe a buck kid and move her on at the end of the year.

One other good thing, my mini doe is not pregnant. Big relief as she jumped in with my saanen buck. I had given her dex but not seen a noticable abortion, so I actually thought she might still be pregnant and would need to get some lute. She was supposed to go to a mini buck this year but broke her leg during breeding season.

Hmm. much to think about.

 

[Little-Bits-N-Pieces]

You could alway induce a heat on your dry, open Nubian, and breed her to the buck again, if that is an option you would like to do, other than that, I dont have any suggestions if you wanted more kids from her, and didn't want to sell her dry.

 

[keren]

I am considering that but it is extremely late in the breeding season. Kids would be born mid - late December, usually I aim for kids August through to September.

If I can get a mini buck service organised I will lute the both of them and join the nube doe to the nube buck and the mini doe to the mini buck so I will at least have two does kidding down at the same time. I hate having a drawn out kidding season or just one doe kidding late.This will have to be her last shot, if she cant have kids for me this time round I dont want to think of the logical conclusion :/

 

[ksalvagno]

Sounds like a good plan to try and breed mini. Hopefully you won't have any problems.

 

[enchantedgoats]

I would breed her this fall and hope for the best. If possible let her run with the buck he is a better heat detector than you. But i would wait and give her a chance. We just found out that one of our yearlings is not pregnant a big disappointment, so we have to wait to breed her until september/october heat and run her with the one buck that we want to use

 

[NyGoatMom]

So sorry Keren~ that is a hard decision to make! Good luck with the mini's!