Breeding Season It's that time of year to start preparing our goats for breeding season. We like to start by bathing and body clipping with focus around the tail and back legs. We will also vaccinate and worm them. One of the most important preparations is to vaccinate animals against diseases. Vaccines Clipping, vaccination and getting does ready for breeding season. Establishing a good vaccination schedule is vital to protecting your goats against infectious diseases. When you begin a vaccination program remember many vaccines require an initial dose with a booster 14-21 days later to initiate an adequate immune response. Over time, the vaccines protective antibodies provided by the initial immunizations will start to decline, with annual and bi-annual booster vaccinations will aid in bringing immunity back to adequate levels and help with the potential for illness. What months do goats breed? Most breeding occurs in late summer through early winter (August to January). Goats have an 18-21 day estrus cycle or “season.” The doe's “season” lasts from a few hours to two or three days. The gestation period is 150 days or five months. With full-size goat breeds it’s a general rule to wait and breed does at 8 months (or 80 lbs.) We prefer to wait till around 1 year to 1 1/2 years old before breeding our Does. Also we like to wait till Bucks are a year old before starting to breed, at 6 months of age one buck can breed up to 10 does, and at 1 year can breed up to 30 Does. Do Boer goats breed year round? Boer goats can breed year-round, although they do not breed well during the off-season (April to July). The old saying goes “The shorter the days, the stronger the heats.” A young doeling will begin to come into heat at about 4 months old. A Does average heat cycle is every 21 days, but can range from 18 to 25 days. The doe will remain in heat for up to 36 hours. Most does will tell you when they are in heat. They will stand by the fence nearest to the buck, flag their tails, stare at him, and call out. However every doe can act different, some can also have a large amount of vaginal discharge when they are in heat, some will butt heads and mount other Does. Many times it’s the doe that is being mounted by the other does that is the one in heat, not the one doing the mounting as one would think. If you think a Doe is in heat you can push down on her butt just above the tail head, and she stands still or even flags or wags her tail, you know there is a good chance she is in heat. This is called oddly enough a “Standing heat”. Usually a Doe that is not in heat will tuck her hips under and walk off, many times does will not show any signs they are in heat, and the only way to catch them is to put them in with the buck and let him figure it out on his own. When to Breed? “When do we breed our does?” You should really ask yourself when do you want to kid? I know, you just want to breed your does, but remember knowing when your Does are going to kid will help you with making a marketing plan. When to kid is a more complicated question than most people realize. The gestation period for a goat is 145 to 155 days, so figure 150 days, or 5 months. There are a few things to keep in mind when setting a planned time:
How to Manage Breeding For our Market goats we like to use the Pasture breeding method. This is probably the most common way to get the job done in a meat herd. To pasture breed you put the buck out with the does during the month that you want them bred, and expect that he will get the job done and he generally does. However, unless you put a marking harness on him you will not know when, or if, your does are bred for sure. A Marking harness is a nylon or leather harness that has a place for crayon block that goes between the buck’s front legs and chest area so when he mounts a doe it will leave a mark on her back or butt. Sometimes with younger bucks in a pasture breeding situation will expend all his attention on one doe by breeding her over and over. Then, when another doe comes into heat, he doesn’t have anything left for her. That is why it is a good idea to leave your does in with a buck for at least 40 days, that’s long enough for at least two heat cycles and this gives the buck another shot if he missed one the first time around. The other method we use for our Show or Wether does that need to Kidd at a specific time, is what we call “Planned breeding”. Planned breeding is where you keep a Doe or a few does that you know will come into heat the same time by keeping record of observed heats or have used a CIDR (CIDR is a temporary implant that will bring a Doe into heat) with a Buck in a smaller area so that they can be observed closer than in an open pasture breeding situation. Getting ready for Kidding, and thereafter Prepare for the arrival of a large number of kids well before the time. Shelter is important during the kidding season and nutritious feed or grazing should be supplied. Around five to seven days before kidding, put pregnant does into smaller grazing pens nearer to the homestead. When a doe has kidded, place her in a kidding pen for three to five days to bond with her kid and start feeding it quickly. The kid should ingest colostrum within an hour after birth to ensure survival and growth. Keeping doe and kids in a individual pen will give the kids time to grow stronger. If a doe kids with difficulty, the kid is yellow and weighs less than around 4 lbs. her milk production is low, her kid mortality is high and her colostrum is thick and sticky, the doe has a through-flow protein problem. After they have bonded for three to five days in a kidding pen, move the doe and kid to a small pen. Our Family enjoying the goat'sSome Additional Post You Might Find Helpful: Don't miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inbox.
Blessings, Margarita & Stace
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Feeding baby goats here at Tailspin Farms...Every two hours... How to Bottle Feed Goat KidsThis post may contain affiliate links but at NO extra costs to you. For further details, please read my full disclosure policy. When baby goats are first born, it is very important that they get their colostrum. Colostrum is the first thick yellowish milk that comes out of the mammary glands after giving birth. It is high in antibodies that provide protection from disease, and help the goat kid develop its immune system. It is critically important for survival. We weigh each baby goat shortly after they’re born. We weigh them each week to make sure the baby is gaining enough weight. I recommend raw goat milk if you can get it, especially if it is mom’s own milk. We freeze milk from our dairy goats to use for our bottle babies. We have used powdered kid milk replacer in the past. That was very costly. A friend uses this milk recipe with great success. Goats Milk Recipe for Bottle Kids
Bottles that we use Kids can be fed using regular 9 oz. baby bottles from the dollar store. We use the nipples that come with the bottles. As the kids get older I use a nipple for human babies 6+ months. Our kids have done very well with human baby bottles and nipples. Some people use the lamb nipples and put them on soda bottles. I personally did not have good luck with them. Some of our friends like and use them. Feeding Schedule for Goat Kids This is the question everyone asks. There are so many charts out there, but here are ours.
Notice that around 6 weeks of age we start cutting back the amount of milk. This mimics natural weaning. Start by cutting the noon bottle in half. By 7 weeks take away the noon bottle. I continue reducing bottles and then gradually removing them until the kids are getting no milk at 12 weeks of age. The first bottles in the morning we add a pinch of baking soda to each bottle. This helps with blot. Only add it to morning bottles. Baby goats act like they are hungry all the time. They will nibble on everything. We keep our bottle kids in with the other kids and mom's. This way they learn how to start eating feed and hay. They usually start by experimenting with the hay, nibbling on it. Around 3 to 4 weeks they start on the grain. We have a creep feeder for the kids. You can visit our YouTube Channel to see some of our goats. Some Additional Post You Might Find Helpful: Don’t miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inbox.
Blessings, Margarita & Stace We like to give our goats lick-tubs. It gives them extra vitamins and minerals. We try to keep goat licktubs out year round in each of the turnouts. Some goats stand and lick for a long time. Then others take a few licks. It just depends on what each goat is in need of. Our baby goats like the tubs just as much as their moms. They all eat them just like it was candy. We recently started using Crystalyx Goat-lyx. We are excited to see the results in our herd. We have searched far and wide to find a product with the amounts of copper and selenium with vitamins A and B and E. Asked other goat ranchers what they use. We talked to our feed-store Ful-O-Pep, and they recommended Crystalyx. We was able to purchase Goat-lyx® from Ful-O-Pep in Cuero, TX. You can get more information from Ful-O-Pep on their full line of livestock feed and supplements. Don’t miss a thing! Sign up for our newsletter to get updates delivered right to your inbox. Blessings,
Margarita & Stace Remodeling our goat pens to make the pens more functional. We have been wanting to remodel the goat pens so they would be more functional. The way we had it before just was not functional We are getting it set up to were you can open a gate and run the goats into a pen, then separate the heard as needed into an adjoining pen. It makes life so much easier when working the goats. I started taking down what fences I could by myself and left the perimeter fences so the goats would not get out. Tried to get everything ready for us to move both sheds. Thank goodness our family loves us. Jennifer, Mike, Kristen and Matt came over to help us. Oh and can't forget the grand-pup Mio, Lilly, and Copper came to help too. The kids were a lifesaver for Stace and I. Without their help we would of not been able to get both sheds moved and the fencing put back up all in one day. Wow it was a lot of work...We are so pleased with this set up now. The new bucklings will have a new home. Still have more work to do on the rest of the pens. This is our work in progress. Thank you kids for all your help! We love y'all Bunches!!! Some additional post you ight find helpful: Don't miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inboxes.
Blessings, Margarita & Stace First Aid Kit Needed For GoatsThis post may contain affiliate links but at NO extra costs to you. For further details, please read our full disclosure policy. New to goats, or have goats already. It's a good idea to have supplies on hand for your goats. You never know when your goat will need extra attention. A first-aid kit for goats can be a real lifesaver. For the most part goats are generally healthy and hardy animals. It seems to always happen if they are going to get hurt or sick it will be on a weekend or holiday when vet assistance may not be readily available. If you assemble a first-aid kit and medical supplies ahead of time, you will be ready to handle most health issues and emergencies. These are items we use and that works for our goat herd here at Tailspin Farms. Since we breed and raise goats this list may be a bit more extensive than what someone who only has a couple pet goats might need. Please remember that nothing replaces the skill and advice of a good, Goat knowledgeable Veterinarian and they should be consulted in the proper care and treatment of your goats. Goat First-Aid Kid:
Medications to IncludeSome of these drugs are available through your veterinarian only.
It is a very good idea to have a working relationship with your local veterinarian that is knowledgeable about goats. Do no use any of the items without a veterinary prescription or vet supervision. Margarita Crews and Tailspin Farms or any of its Agents accept NO responsibility for the outcome of using any of these products. Each goat owner must consult his goat veterinarian for advice and recommendations of usage of medications. Some additional post you might find helpful: Don’t miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inbox.
Blessings, Margarita & Stace How we Wean Goat Kids
When kids are offered a good quality hay and/or pasture, plus started on creep feeding, they can be weaned as early as 60 days, but 90 days is preferred. Another measurement for weaning a kid is when the kid weighs at least 2 times its birth weight and is eating a significant amount of dry food. Intact bucklings need to be weaned to keep them from breeding their Mothers, sisters, or other females in the herd. Doelings can stay with their dams longer. Doelings grow better if they are weaned and if possible moved away from their Mothers no later than six months old. This gives the Mothers time to rebuild their strength after pregnancy before the next breeding. Before weaning kids they will need to be Dewormed, given a booster of CD/T and pneumonia vaccine, also ear tagged if not already. When you start weaning, separate the Mother and kids from each other, preferably out of sight from one another, although it is not absolutely critical. If you have intact buck kids, you will need to have two pens available and separate your buck and doe kids after weaning. This will reduce the chance of them chasing the does and to prevent unwanted breeding. There will be about 2-3 days of adjustment and will usually be a lot of calling out from one another, there is no need to be alarmed this is normal and will pass as fast as it started. If possible, allow the kids and their dams to walk around in the pen you plan to use for a few days before weaning. This allows the kids to be more familiar with their new area and can help reduce stress. Kids are amazingly flexible and can get through tiny spaces. If you are using Cattle panels, consider putting some additional fencing with small openings along the panels. We wean kids early in the morning, this gives them time to settle in with their new surroundings before nightfall. We try to keep the stress down for Does and kids. At weaning, provide plenty of leafy hay and a feed. Bucks should be kept on a low grain high hay diet to help prevent Urinary calculi, which can be caused by too much Feed or from an unbalanced Calcium to Phosphorus ratio Feed. Dairy kid weaning - We start separating the doe from the kids around 2 1/2 months old. We milk the doe out in the morning and turn into the heard during the day. By the time the Dairy kids are 3 months old they will be fully wean off the doe. Because kids are escape artists and can get their little heads through almost anything, we suggest you do not put them in a pen that shares a fence with their mothers or is even close enough for them to stick their heads through, their mothers will back up to the fence and allow the kids to nurse and you will come out in the morning to milk and find empty udders and babies with full bellies. Boer kid weaning - We try to have all Kids weaned off the Does by the time they turn 3 months old, but will sometimes leave the doelings on the does allowing the does to wean them naturally. When weaning kids completely off Boer Does watch for signs of abnormally large udders, redness, hot and/or a painful udder. This is a sign that the doe has started to develop Mastitis. If the udder is not cared for soon there may be a problem of future Milk development. Check the doe’s udder to determine if the udder is abnormally warm and/or has milk that seems to be infected by a mastitis. It may be difficult to determine the difference between infected milk and milk that is being reabsorbed after drying up. Usually, infected mastitis milk will be clotted or stringy and may have a foul odor. There are several treatment for Mastitis, but if you are unsure please consult your Veterinarian for recommended treatments. Once the Doe has recovered, Identify and watch them closely at the next kidding to insure they do not have problems with milk production. Don’t miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inbox. Blessings, Margarita & Stace Here on our farm we are trying to stay safe during the Covid 19 Pandemic.We are considered essential workers. When so much of the rest of the world stopped, because of the Covid 19 pandemic, Farmers / Ranchers kept going. That means we still are working everyday. On the farm life still goes on no matter what. We still need to care for all the animals daily on our farm.
That's just a fact of life on a Farm or Ranch. "You can't turn a switch on a goat to keep it from stopping producing milk." "The goats still need to be led out to pasture." Our daily lives have not changed at all. We milk the goats in the morning, we milk in the afternoon. And think, the rest of the world is literally shut down, and we still have to do what we do. There have been some changes to the way business is conducted and some adaptations that had to be made, but the work has to go on. We sill are going to the feed store weekly to purchase feed and hay for all our livestock. We call in and place our order. Pay for it over the phone. Then we just drive up and guys load our truck. We never have to get out of the truck. Now this has spoiled us! Limiting person-to-person contact can help slow the spread of the corona virus. We are trying to do our part to stay sage. We encourage Texas farmers and ranchers to wave, call, chat over the fence line or online - just make sure you visit with each other in ways that avoid groups and respects the 6-feet social distancing guideline. When all this pandemic started our oldest daughter Jennifer and I made some masks for the family and close friends. Little did we know that this Pandemic would go on for months. I was very thankful we had made mask for all our family. Then a few weeks later Jennifer, Mike (our son-in-law), and Kristen came over with their sew machines in hand...hahahaha! Mike learned how to cut the material for the masks and the girls and I sewed and sewed masks. We made enough for Stace's guys at work and for Mike's sisters work as well. I think we were all happy when they were all done. Now that was and adventure. Just happy we could help others. We've seen a lot more people very interested in knowing where their food comes from, and wanting to learn about homesteading. Before the pandemic people thought all the food came from the store. Then when all the store shelves were wiped out, it made people realize that our food actually came from a Farm. WOW...WHAT A CONCEPT. Like you, I am praying for a quick end to this pandemic. I also have faith that great stories of neighbors helping neighbors and communities working together (even from a distance) to protect one another will shine brightly across this great country. GOD BLESS THE USA, OUR FARMERS AND RANCHERS. Don't miss a thing! Sign up to get updates delivered right to your inbox. Blessings, Margarita & Stace |
AuthorI'm Margarita. A Christian, Wife, mother of three, & grandmother "Mimi" of three. I create blog post about our life on the farm. Archives
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The Goat Management Binder
$15.00
The Goat Management Binder This binder will help you keep your goats health records organized and more. Remembering all the identifications and medical records for each goat is difficult so I quickly learned that I needed to write down our goat herd information. We created all the pages for our goat heard. This system works for us. I think our Goat Management Bind will help you with your recordkeeping. This eBook has 24 pages Print our the pages, fill in your goat information and place in a binder of your choice. When all of your goat information is kept in one place it saves time in case of an emergency. Homemaking / Home Management Binder
$15.00
Digital Homemaking / Home Management Binder I'm excited to share with you my Homemaking / Home Management Binder. This is a beautiful simple binder to write your Weekly task for you home. You can use every day over and over. You will get: Faith based / Proverbs 31 Women Weekly Cleaning Schedule Organizing your home Daily Chores Monthly Plan Meal Planner Grocery List Bill Tracker Savings Tracker Vacation Budget 20 pages 8.5"x11" letter size that matches any printer Unlimited prints (personal use) Instant download and get started PDF Printable Enjoy getting organized with our Homemaking / Home Management Binder ** THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. ** NO PHYSICAL PRODUCT WILL BE SHIPPED. Your files will be available to download once payment is confirmed. * You may print the files as many times as you like for your own personal use. * Sharing this product is not allowed. ** We do not accept returns, exchanges, or cancellations, but please contact me if you have any problems with your order. Instant Download Your files will be available to download once payment is confirmed. Farm/ Livestock Management Binder
$25.00
Farm / Livestock Management Binder In this binder you can log all your livestock needs and help you stay organized with all records. Such as: *Goats *Chickens *Horses *Medications *Purchases of Livestock *Sold Livestock Our Farm / Livestock Management Binder is 24 pages. Print our the pages, fill in your Livestock information and place in a binder of your choice. When all of your Livestock information is kept in one place it saves time in case of an emergency. Gardening In the South
$20.00
Gardening In the South E-Book Learn about Gardening in South Texas Zone 8 In our e-book we cover Fruit trees, Perennials & Pollinator, Garden checklist, What months to plant. Your files will be available to download once payment is confirmed. I don't accept returns, exchanges, or cancellations. But please contact me if you have any problems with your order. Thank you for shopping with us! Margarita Common Goat Medications
$20.00
Common Goat Medications We give you goat medications that we use for our goats. Included: Common Goat Medications & Easy to Understand Dosages General Information on Injection Wormers Antibiotics Anti-Inflammatories & Hormones' Injectable Vitamins and Minerals Oral Treatments You will get: 13 pages - eBook Unlimited prints (personal use) Instant download and get started PDF Printable ** THIS IS A DIGITAL PRODUCT. ** NO PHYSICAL PRODUCT WILL BE SHIPPED. Your files will be available to download once payment is confirmed. * You may print the files as many times as you like for your own personal use. * Sharing this product is not allowed. ** We do not accept returns, exchanges, or cancellations, but please contact me if you have any problems with your order. Instant Download Your files will be available to download once payment is confirmed. Thank you for shopping with us. Crochet Cup Sleeve Cozy
$6.00
Only a few left! Pretty cup cozy for both hot and iced beverage cups. It will slide up over a standard size non handle travel cups or store-bought coffee cups. They are great at protecting hands from the heat and cold of the travel mug/cup. *100% cotton yarn. * Colors may vary due to stock so message me if you prefer something specific. *Machine washable and dryer safe on low heat. *All Cozy’s make a great gift for literally anyone! *If you don’t see one you love don’t hesitate to message me! I love creating new products. Thank you for visiting our store. Handmade Goat Milk & Honey Soap
$7.00
Handmade Goat Milk & Honey Soap 4 oz. bar. Benefits from goat milk & honey - it's moisturizing, clarifying, and naturally antibacterial. Goat milk & Honey Soap has always been a favorite, it smells divine, and there are loads of skin benefits. Goat milk & Honey Soap hydrates and nourishes dry skin. It doesn't leave your skin feeling dry. Ingredients: Sorbitol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Lauretha Sulfate, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Goat Milk, Honey Titanium Dioxide. Due to the handmade nature of our soaps and fragrance oil added, all bars vary in color. |
Handcrafted items made with love.
Farm / Homesteading eBooks Faith eBooks Notary Public Service Goats when available |
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Tailspin Farms
2273 FM 1681 Stockdale, Texas 78160 |
210-771-7205
Email - mcgoats@tspinfarms.com |