Getting your Goats Ready for the Breeding Season

Submitted by Margaret Bell, Livestock Agent-Jones & Craven County

Written by: Jean-Marie Luginbuhl, NCSU

Extension Sheep and Goat Specialist

Breeding is a very important aspect of any meat goat operation. But, preparing the breeding does and buck(s) for the breeding season could have a large influence on the outcome and the profitability of the operation. 

Will body condition influence breeding success?

As the breeding season approaches, producers should be concerned with the body condition of their breeding does. Goat should not be allowed to become too thin or too fat. Failure in reproduction, low twinning rates and low weaning rates will result if does are too thin. Overly fat does can suffer from pregnancy toxemia, but fat does are rarely a problem.

The term body condition refers to the fleshing of an animal. Simply looking at an animal can easily be misleading. Rather, animals should be touched. The easiest area to feel and touch to determine the body condition of an animal are the rib areas, on either side of the spine, by running a hand over those areas and pressing down with a few fingers. In doing so, one is able to determine the amount of fat covering the ribs. In general, does in good condition will have a fat thickness of not more than 0.03 to 0.05 inches over the backbone. Other areas to monitor are the shoulders, the tail heads, the pins, the hooks, the edge of the loins and the backbone. Practice makes perfect, thus use your animals to get a feel for it. An easy way to start is to select a few animals that are over conditioned and some others that are thin to get a feel for extreme body condition. Then introduce a small group of animals and compare their body to the animals having extreme body condition. Producers should develop an eye and a touch for the condition of their animals and strive to maintain a moderate amount of condition on their goats.

One should also be concerned with the body condition of the breeding bucks. If bucks are overfed and become too fat, they may have no desire to breed does. Because of the increased activity and decreased feed intake during the breeding season, breeding bucks will most probably lose weight. Therefore, they need to be in good body condition and physical shape before the season starts.

Body condition is also used to determine whether flushing will be of benefit to breeding does. Flushing means increasing the level of feed offered to breeding does, mostly energy, starting about one month prior to the introduction of the bucks. By increasing the amount of feed offered, does will put on weight. This in turn will signal to the body that the doe can afford to raise several kids and ovulation rate and litter size will increase. Increasing the level of energy offered to does should continue throughout the breeding season and for approximately 30 to 40 days after removing the bucks for adequate implantation of the fetuses in the uterus. Does in extremely good body condition will tend not to respond to flushing. On the other hand, does that are in relatively poor condition, that is on the thin side, as a result of summer pastures of poor quality, high worm loads, late kidding of twins or triplets, will respond favorably to flushing by improving their body condition.

Flushing can be accomplished by moving breeding does to a lush nutritious pasture 3 to 4 weeks prior to the introduction of the bucks. This cost-effective flushing method or “feed flush” or “green flush” is underutilized in the Southeast where forage is abundant. Another method is feeding ½ lb/day of a high energy supplement. Corn is the grain of choice for flushing; whole cottonseed is another low cost, high energy supplement. The goal being to increase the intake and body weight, breeding does should be grouped according to their body condition and fed accordingly to first improve their body condition, then to maintain it.

What other measures will increase reproductive performance?

Several other important measures will affect breeding indirectly, such as trimming feet, the grouping of animals, deworming, using the “buck effect” to synchronize does, and vaccination.

1. Trimming feet. Feet and legs should be examined closely for sores, overgrown hooves and sources of strange smells that could be associated with infections or foot rot. Start trimming the feet of your animals several weeks before the breeding season to make sure that they will be in top shape during that period of increased activity. The buck in particular will cover a lot of territory. A lame buck will cover does only sporadically, or might give up altogether. Similarly, limping does may not let bucks breed them.

2. Grouping of animals. Goats are very social animals and should be grouped together several weeks before the breeding season so that the pecking order of the animals is established. Forming groups just prior the breeding season will disrupt the pecking order of the animals. The fighting that will ensue to establish a new pecking order within the newly-formed groups will be a source of stress and will influence reproductive performance.

Young does should have reached approximately 70 to 75% of their estimated mature body weight to be bred successfully without adversely affecting their mature size.

3. Deworming the breeding does and the buck(s) before the start of the breeding season is an important management tool. If flushing is planned, it is advisable to deworm prior to flushing. Wormy does will not increase their body condition during the flushing period and therefore flushing may not increase ovulation rate. In addition, wormy does will not breed well or may not breed at all, or may conceive and abort later.

4. The “buck effect”.

Keeping the does away from bucks is important in the development of sound breeding programs that should be paralleled with feed resources and market demands. The best approach to separate does from bucks is to develop a secure buck pasture. The buck pasture should be far enough from the breeding doe herd, otherwise scent emitted by glands located behind the base of the bucks' horns will induce estrous in does. Due to this "buck effect" does will come into heat approximately 7 to 10 days after the introduction of the buck. It is a good strategy to use to naturally synchronize breeding does at the start of the breeding season.

5. Vaccination. Although some producers have had no problems so far without implementing a vaccination program, it is recommended that goats be vaccinated against overeating disease (enterotoxemia) and tetanus prior to the start of the breeding season.

Is the buck ready for breeding?

Bucks may be easily overlooked but one cannot assume that they are reproductively sound.  A buck that was sound one year may not be the next. The results of using a reproductively unsound buck will be reduced kidding rates and profits. It is a good idea to watch bucks for normal urination and also for signs of sexual behavior as the breeding season approaches. For a more thorough breeding evaluation, immobilize the buck and examine the testes. They should be roughly the same size, fairly firm to the touch and devoid of lumps. The presence of testicular abnormalities could indicate that the buck is unsound for breeding. Next, examine the sheath (also called the prepuce) and the penis if you can protrude it. It requires some experience to push the prepuce down to reveal the penis. The penis should be checked for sores and the pizzle (the thin worm-like process at the end of the penis) should not be hard anywhere. The presence of hard, small lumps could be an indication of urinary stones (a condition also called urinary calculi). A buck suspected of reproductive problems, whether in its testes or any part of the penis, should be examined by a veterinarian before allowing it to breed does.