We have one little buckling with a scrotum but nothing in it. We realized this when we went to band him at the age of 9 weeks. He's going to be sold for meat in the fall, but I was wondering if anyone knows the likelihood of sterility in the meantime.
I know from our unplanned experience of having 9.5 month-old does kid this spring (born May 10th, kidded February 24th) that our earliest doelings from this spring could start cycling mid-July so hopefully this little boy will be big enough that I'll be comfortable putting him in with the bucks before then, but I kind of suspect he won't be.
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I concur. Just don't forget to make SURE he can defend himself against rape attempts from the bucks!
Okay. I'll give him until the beginning of July and then he gets the boot out of the communal kids' pen. Hopefully he's big enough to go in with the bucks so we don't end up with four different pens of goats to deal with (we just condensed from four to three), but if not we can put him in a separate pen with another wether or two his own age/size. Chances are he wouldn't be quite old enough to know what to do, but I'm not willing to take that risk if there's any chance at all of him being fertile.
I haven't seen statistics on this, but I'm thinking I've heard that the odds are pretty high that they're sterile because the testicles are overheated. The reason testicles hang down is because sperm lives best at a degree or two lower than regular body temp. I probably would not want to risk it though and would put him with the bucks or wethers. The other thing is that he will have a full load of testosterone so will be acting very bucky and be able to "breed" does, even if he is shooting blanks.
I have got to start remembering to select which category my questions fit into. This should be under health, not introductions.