You could tell that kidding season was upon us without even glancing at the large red "X" marked on the calendar. During feeding time in the barn the double-wide does shuffled to the feed trough to gobble their daily quota of grain and hay only to return to their slumber spots in the barn. The goats are pretty quite during the final weeks before kidding. The only sound you hear in the barn at night is the groans of does attempting to shift their body weight to breath easier under the weight of their baby filled bellies.
This time of year is always the most exciting and tiring on the farm. With 16 does expecting, we expect approximately 30 kids on the ground by the end of the month of March. First time mothers will usually have singles or twins and the “professional” will typically have twins or triplets and some singles.
It is such a miracle to watch life enter the world on the farm. I can't begin to understand how anyone could think it was gross. My only guess is that they have never witnessed birth. In fact, I love that my daughter gets to witness this miracle of life.
To see a creature transform from a curled up, immobile, water loving fetus to a beautiful, air breathing, 4-legged, crying, walking kid within minutes is nothing less than a miracle. To me, watching them take their first breath is the best gift my does have ever given me.....truly a remarkable thing.
Our animal husbandry technique during birthing season is summed up by phrase "nature knows best." For the vast majority of births on our farm, the does have no problem birthing the kids and the kids are born strong and healthy. My husband and I are a strong supporters of natural childbirth. Our beautiful daughter, Miss Raven greeted us in this world 2 weeks late and after 29 1/2 hours of natural labor.
This strong belief in a hands-off approach carries over in our animals husbandry techniques. In over 100 goat births on our farm, we have only had to intervene once during labor. This kid ended up having a genetic defect that caused it's vertebrae not to fuse and hence made birth difficult for the doe.
If problems are going to arise with the kids it is typically after the kids are successfully born. We do practice what is refereed to in the sheep and goat industry as "snip, dip, and strip" technique. This refers to snipping the umbilical cord if is longer than 2 inches and then dipping it in 7% iodine. This process greatly reduced the possibility of infection caused by bacteria entering the umbilical cord site (known as Navel Ill). In addition, we "strip" the teat of the doe by milking each teat out to insure that the waxy plug is removed and adequate colostrum is present for the newborn kids.
Like other mammals, it is imperative that newborns receive colostrum from their dam within hours of being born. The colostrum provides vital energy and antibodies for the kids. The quantity of live antibodies disappears from the doe's colostrum within a day or so. The kid's nursing instinct or reflex is strong after birth (evident by how they try to nurse your pant legs, fingers, and everything else in the way) and they should learn to nurse quickly.
We have had several farm visitors during the kidding season. Here our close friends, Sharon and Robert who playfully showed up on our farm "dressed" for a weekend of playing goat midwife....yes, they did get to see kids being born....in fact, they have two namesakes...meet the kids Robert and Sharon below.
Here are a few answers to some of the most commonly asked kidding questions:
1. Do you know if the does are going to have singles or twins? No...your guess is as good as mine. Typically I can expect one to two kids the doe's first year and twins or more the following years. You never really now. I have been surprised more than once with a very small looking doe giving birth to twins or a huge doe giving birth to one giant kid.
2. How do you know when the does are due? We place a certain buck in with a group of does for a little over a month (two heat cycles for the does). This insures that all does are bred by the time we remove the buck. I then mark on the calendar 5 months from the date. Typically the goats give birth within 2 to 3 weeks of "d' day.
3. How long does it take for them to birth the kids? Unlike, humans, goats typically give birth pretty quickly and have a "hard labor" period of 10 to 45 minutes. If a doe is in "hard labor" for over 45 minutes I begin to worry about the position of the kids in the birth canal.
4. How long before the kids are walking? Most of our kids are up trying to stand within
minutes. Within half an hour the kids should be standing. Like all ungulates (hoofed animals), they are prey animals by nature and have "eat me" stamped on their forehead. Hence, if antelope, deer, or other hoofed animal babies aren't up running right away they become a predator's meal......biology and natural selection at its best.
5. When do the kids begin to eat? The kids should be getting their first drink of colostrum within the first hour after birth. They will nurse until we wean them at approximately 3 months of age for the males and sometimes up to 5 months for the females. The kids begin eating some grass hay within a week or so after birth. This helps develop their rumen bacteria.
6. Do you milk your goats? No, we raise goats that a primarily meat goat breeds (Kiko and Boer). Though you can milk these meat breeds, the quantity and quality of milk would not be that of a dairy goat breed such as a Nubian. It would be like milking a Black Angus verses a Holstein Cow.
7. What do you do with all those goats? We raise several "grades" of goats. Typically I will choose several replacement does from the kid crop to retain in the herd. Many of the goats will be sold as breeding stock (both buck and does) to other farms. We have both percentage breeds (hybrids) and purebred registrable (Kiko and Boer) stock. Some of the whethers (fixed males) and doelings will be sold as 4-H projects. The remainder of what does not fall into these categories will go to the local ethnic markets for meat at the end of the season.
8. Do you bottle feed your goats? No, not unless we have to. It is not cost or time effective to bottle feed meat goats. You end up spending more in milk or milk replacer than the kid is worth and it is extremely time intensive, with having to feed newborn kids every couple of hours during the first week. That being said, there are times when the doe is unable to care for the kids for some reason and we do not allow kids to simply die on our farm due to this. When this occurs we bottle feed...case in point, meet Thimble ....
Thimble's mother did not have enough milk for her twins for whatever reason. In addition, Thimble was extremely small at birth weighing approximately 2 lbs (typical Boers weigh between 7 and 9 lbs at birth). Though we hesitated to take Thimble from her mother, we watched as the kid grew weaker and weaker by the day. We made the decision when Thimble was less than a week old that if she was going to have a chance to survive we would have to pull her and attempt to bottle feed. At first she was too weak and had to be tube fed (yes, you have to stick a rubber tube down the throat) for several days, but eventually she gained strength and became more interested in the bottle. Now, several months old she happily devours her bottle during her 2 feedings a day.
It is now the third week of May and all but one of our does that was bred late have birthed. The grand total to-date from 16 does is 32 live kids, and one still born. I am quite proud of such a birth statistic which reflects a very low loss rate for a livestock farm. Not to speak too soon, because a lot can happen between birth and weaning (keeping my fingers crossed).....
