Last year, one of my breeding pairs resulted in a doeling with a large teat spur.
This year, both goats of that pair were bred to different goats and all the kids came out great.
Would you breed either goat to the other's offspring? Or the offspring to each other?
I'm not sure how many generations to wait before crossing those lines again, if ever.
They each had a doeling and a buckling and I'm trying to decide if the boys should be weathers or bucks, and, along with other factors of course, this will really help inform my decision.
Thanks!
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It's obvious when you look at boer goats, as well as sheep, that if you totally ignore extra teats, they will be reproduced in offspring again and again.
However, I think there might also be a nutritional component because we had a LOT of teat spurs -- several every year -- when our goats were copper deficient. We got that figured out ten years ago, and we have had three teat defects in the last ten years. And these are the same genetics that threw a dozen teat defects in three years, and I had a smaller herd back then.
As for what to do with the kids ... I wether all bucklings unless they have awesome moms. Basically, it's not a question of whether I should wether a buck. It's a question of whether his mom is good enough for him to be a buck. That means all first fresheners' bucklings are wethered. I don't usually even think of keeping a buck out of a doe until she's 3-4 years old, milking at the top of my herd, and has an excellent mammary system.
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It's obvious when you look at boer goats, as well as sheep, that if you totally ignore extra teats, they will be reproduced in offspring again and again.
However, I think there might also be a nutritional component because we had a LOT of teat spurs -- several every year -- when our goats were copper deficient. We got that figured out ten years ago, and we have had three teat defects in the last ten years. And these are the same genetics that threw a dozen teat defects in three years, and I had a smaller herd back then.
As for what to do with the kids ... I wether all bucklings unless they have awesome moms. Basically, it's not a question of whether I should wether a buck. It's a question of whether his mom is good enough for him to be a buck. That means all first fresheners' bucklings are wethered. I don't usually even think of keeping a buck out of a doe until she's 3-4 years old, milking at the top of my herd, and has an excellent mammary system.