My goat Zara went into heat today, so I debated whether or not I wanted to bread her yet. She will be a year old in March, but she's pretty good sized. She has great length and width and she seemed to be a good weight. I got my scale out and she weighed 55 pounds, so my husband said go for it. I was going to wait until December to breed, so it is just a month early. So she went in with one of my bucks, Wickson, all day. I decided at 5pm to let her out, so she could forage for a while before bed. I was up in the kitchen when I look out the window to see my buck, Belmont, that his her dad breeding her through the fence!!!! The only fence that is in need of repair. We haven't done anything yet, because that fence is going bye, bye and a gate is going into its place. So I get my boots on and run down the stairs just in time to pull her away from yet another advance! I'm not really sure what I should do. I saw her and the other buck have multiple, successful penetrations, but I don't want to take any chances with inbreeding. I guess I should call the vet tomorrow and see if they have the "morning after pill" for goats. What do you guys think? Needless to say, that fence is Fort Knox now!!
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I spoke to the vet and we are going to do the drug to end the pregnancies. The fencing was okay when they were buckling, but with a buck that's almost 2, it is most definitely not strong enough. We were planning on making some major changes this Spring, but I think the project has just been moved up in priority!! I hope others can learn from this and make sure your fences are strong enough, or make the buck area away from the does. Thanks everyone for you support!
I learned the hard way that for us, TWO fences between bucks and does is a minimum, and the first fence has hotwire at the bottom so they don't touch it.
We had a doeling get accidentally bred but I didn't know it had happened until it was too late & she had an emergency C section and nearly died, the kid did die. Now she is runtie and I don't know if I'll ever be able to breed her.
Inside the barn, boys are on one side of the aisle and girls on the other. No one is allowed to open the buck door without first calling out to everyone else to be sure girls are secure. We actually have a goat panel across the hall right now so that if someone wants to open the buck door while someone else is in and out of the girls' stall it will at least slow a loose buck down long enough for one of us to tackle him.
All of these precautions are mainly due to the stunted doe & the oversized buck...she is the only one not bred at this time so you know he would bee line for her if he could!
I only have one fence, but I would like to have two... in the mean time, I have smaller, 2X4 fencing hog wired to my cattle panels along the lower level.
Yes, woven wire, also known as field fencing or horse fencing, does not work for bucks unless you have a single strand of electric running along the fence at nose height. Otherwise, if there is only one fence between bucks and does, it needs to be cattle panels or combination livestock panels, which are rigid. Ideally, you should have two fences between bucks and does, and sometimes that isn't enough. A lot of people will have bucks on one side of the barn and does on the other side, so the boys can't even see the girls.
Well my dear buck has proven to us, that the 4 by 4 horse fencing does not work for him!! He got his other daughter through the fence Saturday morning, before my husband, RUNNING down the hill could get to her!! SO Belmont went to goat timeout, and our plans of making the buck pen has moved up to priority 1!!! So today I am calling the vet, because the little girl that was bred Saturday is too little to be bred! GRRR Note to everyone: If you think your fences are sturdy enough, make them even more sturdy for a determined buck, because they will get what they want done!!!
Thanks, I'm a little less stressed about it today! I'm hoping since he only got her once good, that it didn't take. But we will see :0) I think I'm just going to hold off and see what happens. She's totally not interested in anyone today, so at least I don't have to worry about today. Thanks again
You can get DNA testing for the kids to prove parentage. It's a hair sample, and it's only about $25 per goat, which would wind up being $100 for one kid this time (dam, 2 possible sires, kid). If it's a buck, you could just wether it. Info is available from ADGA. Once you do the goats, they're on file, so if it ever happened again, you wouldn't have to re-type the bucks. And sorry to say, this won't be the last time you have an accidental breeding. It happens to the best of us!
You never know how the kids will turn out. I know a breeder who does "test breedings" of father-daughter to see if anything bad pops up. She figures that if nothing bad pops up from inbreeding, the buck's genetics are pretty good as far as undesirable traits.
Line breeding isn't uncommon. I think that you shouldn't stress too much about it... and possibly consider selling any kids as pets?