Too many mele

Hi everyone and Deborah,

Im selecting a buck for my 5 year old doe, Macchitta, and have some questions I'd like some guidance on, please. 

I've breed her two times to a first buck, one male kid the first time and three males the second time. I changed bucks for the next breeding and got four males! Is the sex of the kids solely determined by the males or are there determinants from the female, too? I'd dearly love to have another doe. 

Macchiatta is polled, does she need to have a horned buck?

If I choose a third buck, he is only seven months old,is that old enough to have viable sperm?  

Thanks very much for speedy responses, she'll soon be in heat.

Barb Rondine

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Replies

  • I haven’t seen any research on this in goats. Lots of people have been trying to figure out how to have more does forever, and no one has figured it out. I saw research recently where they’re genetically modifying a species to throw only females — I think it’s chickens. If they’re going to that extreme, I think it means there is no simple way to guarantee sex. 

  • That's really interesting about the influence a doe might have on gender. Do you know if there's research on this, or are those results anecdotal?

  • Oh, I see what happened! You posted this twice, and my response is on the other one.

  • How strange that I responded to this the day you posted, but my response didn't post.

    Although the male is the one with two different sex chromosomes, some does do seem to throw lots of one or the other gender. Some people say it has to do with the pH of the vagina and uterus with one favoring one gender over the other. I have had a very small number of does that threw significantly more of one gender over their whole life, but then I've also had does who'd throw almost all of one sex for several years, then try to make it up with four or five of the opposite sex one year.

    As for polled to polled breeding ... there was a study with more than 1000 Saanens, and they found that when breeding homozygous polled to homozygous polled that there was a 10% chance of hermaphrodites or intersex. So, if you're okay with that, then go for it. Lots of people are doing it these days hoping to get a heterozygous buck, which would only throw polled kids. 

  • Thanks so much for your quick reply, Macchiata was wagging her tail when i went out to milk this morning. Good luck to you, too,
    Barb
  • Barb,

    I've had the same luck as you--two years of nothing but bucklings, different sires each year. Yep, it's the sire's side that the gender comes from, so don't blame your sweet doe! :)

    Better luck next time.

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