Age for bucks to breed

[Jackie K]

We've discussed does...now my question is-at what age should you start using a buck for breeding? Obviously, they can breed quite young. But I would assume that no one really intentionally uses a 12 week old buckling for breeding. So what is the common, realistic age to start putting a buck with a doe? Is there a timespan where the buck wants to, yet is not successful? What do you do if your doe doesn't like the buck you have chosen for her? Does this happen much?

Thanks

Jackie

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

It really varies from buck to buck. Some lines mature earlier or later than others. I bought a couple of bucks one year, hoping to use them a lot that fall, and they couldn't get it figured out until they were six or seven months old. It was very frustrating for me (maybe for the bucks, too) because I really didn't think they had been successful, but I didn't want to put the doe with another buck just in case they had done something when I blinked. Turned out all the does cycled again three weeks later, so we had a lot of late kiddings that year. This past year I used a six month old buck, and he was absolutely quite successful at breeding the doe, but she came back into heat three weeks later. A month later I used him on three does and all settled. I'm sure Murphy's Law applies here -- in my case, a six-month-old had trouble, but if you don't want a buck to breed, they probably could do it at three months. :)