A change in nutrition for the better can help with overall kidding numbers. Healthy, young does will always out perform malnourished, deficient ones. Sounds like perhaps your overall animal husbandry has improved. However, sometimes other factors are involved including genetics and environment. I've found that does that were part of a triplet birth often give birth to triplets more than those that were part of singles or twin births.
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Yes, but this was actually a lower protein feed than I was feeding and I was doing the opposite, cutting back on their grain since I was drying several of them off for the winter. Same feed company and ingredients were very similar to the feed I had been giving them that some of the milkers suddenly didn't like. The company made a big deal about their new micronutrients and such, but come to find out, the type I had been using went through the same "process".
Some of these does were older, it's a very mixed herd. Standard Nubians and Lamanchas, mixes of the aforementioned and Nigerian Dwarfs. The youngest is 2, the oldest is 9, the rest are 3 and up. Only 1 of the standard does (a Nubian) was a triplet herself, the rest had been twins. As for the Nigerians- 1 was a triplet that I know of because I was the breeder, the other I don't know because I was not the breeder.
This new feed contains ammonium chloride, so maybe that helps with the sex ratio? It is acidic and acidic reproductive tract is responsible for more females.
As for nutrition, I majored in livestock nutrition in school, so these guys/girls each get their own balanced ration. My feed room looks like a chemistry lab with all the extras and different types of feeds/supplements (beet pulp, alfalfa, hay stretcher, rice bran meal, flax seed meal, loose minerals, copper boluses etc). I weigh out their feed and figure the fat/protein/fiber/calcium
hophorus% and all. I used to do it for the dairy farm I worked at, and then for my own many years ago. It's a hobby to keep my mind active, just like coming up with the prefect name is another hobby. LOLNormally I don't want triplets, I prefer twins because were bottle feed the kids.
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