Maybe you want to breed so you can have more of that delicious goat milk, maybe you're breeding to improve the breed, perhaps you're looking to increase your herd numbers, or perhaps you rely on sales of youngsters to help finance feed for the herd.
Here are some things to consider prior to breeding:
BODY CONDITION AND FEED
1. Your bucks and does need to have good body condition before breeding. Does should not be bred earlier than 5 months from their last kidding. It normally takes at least this long, and often quite a bit longer before they regain their pre-kidding body condition. A skinny or thin goat will often have lower quality and less eggs (give birth to singles instead of twins or triplets), will struggle during pregnancy and be less resistant to worms, will have a harder time during birth, and will be more stressed and less able to feed their babies well once born.
2. Some farmers will 'flush' their does 4 weeks before breeding (and continuing for 4 weeks after breeding). Flushing means gradually increasing the amount of feed, and possibly feeding better quality feed in an effort to both put weight on the does that need it, and to ensure they're receiving that big boost of nutrition for hopefully better ovulation and conception outcomes. However, if the doe is already in great body condition and on good feed, flushing is probably not very useful.
Some feeds, such as alfalfa, soy, and other legumes, have what is called phytoestrogens. Studies on other small ruminants have show that if these make up the bulk of their feed, it may have an adverse effect on the number of eggs released and fertility overall. Not a lot is known about whether this affects goats in the same way, but it's worth noting. Also,
For bucks, this is their work time! They will often lose a lot of weight during breeding season, depending on how many does they're asked to service. Therefore, it's important that they're also in good condition.
PRE-BREEDING CARE
3. It's also important to run fecals to count worm eggs and treat if necessary, prior to breeding, which just helps increase overall health for starting a pregnancy.
4. Check for mites and lice. These pests can cause stress in goats and poor performance because of the intense itching. In bucks, mites on the testes can cause infertility. Mites and lice are treated differently. See our Parasites section.
4. We also like to make sure hooves are neatly before the doe becomes heavily pregnant, because it's difficult and very uncomfortable for them to balance on three legs for trimming once they get big.
PLANNING AHEAD
5. If you are breeding to improve your herd, you'll want to find a buck that has good qualities that can be passed on to his babies. Look at your does and see if you can see where they're lacking in their conformation and find a buck that is an improvement in those areas. Remember that breeders who are breeding for good conformation will be unlikely to let their best kids go. So it's quite usual to start a herd with what you can afford and breed to improve what you have. While it's lovely to have all those champions on the pedigree, there are many beautiful, well-conformed goats out there that don't have any big achievements in their pedigree. Learn about goat conformation and you will have a better idea of what to look for. Choose the best you can afford.
6. We always plan ahead to time the births. I'm not a cold weather person, and also, newborn kids can get deathly cold very quickly, so we breed to have babies born in warmer spring weather - after mid-March here. The middle of summer is also hard on heavily pregnant does and newborn babies here (the heat and humidity, as well as flies, worms, are a problem), so we usually breed in the months of November and December. We normally only breed for spring babies, but we have had fall babies in the past. For fall babies, we would aim to breed April and May, although most often our does have stopped coming on heat by the end of March.
DOES IN HEAT
7. While some people have Nigerian Dwarf does that come into heat throughout the year, ours tend to go 'off' over the summer months, and then start to have heats again any time between late August and mid-October. In our experience, they often start coming in with 'mild' heat symptoms, but after about the second or third heat of the season, the heats are strong and easily detected.
Your doe is on heat when she's wagging her tail, flirting with bucks through the fence if she can. If you look at her rear, she may look a little puffy, perhaps quite pink, and some will have a visible clear discharge. Some are quite vocal and will bleat to the boys throughout the day. She's ready when she turns her rear toward the buck and stands still for him.
Does come into heat approximately every 21 days, and they stay in heat anywhere from half a day to two days. The heat will peak at some point and this is called 'standing heat', when the doe is receptive to the buck. She usually does not want him pestering her before or after standing heat.
When we notice a doe come into heat, we mark it down in that doe's notes. This way, we can predict when she's likely to be in heat again. It's just a matter of comparing the days between her heats, and noting whether she is a doe who regularly has 'short heats' so that we don't accidentally miss that important second heat! If you have a doe that has 'silent heats' it can be quite difficult to determine when she's on heat and ready. Sometimes they will have a whitish discharge toward the end of the heat (not to be confused with buck stuff!) and your best bet might be to note that down and start watching her carefully about 18 days from then.
8. A lot of does have 'short heats.' This means that their hormone levels rise and she shows signs of being in heat. But perhaps her hormone levels didn't reach the right level to release an egg, and about 5 days later, she'll be back in heat! Usually, if a doe has short heats, she is more likely to get pregnant on the second heat 5 days later, rather than the first heat. But we breed on both heats, just in case! Some people have asserted that their doe got pregnant at the first heat because she gave birth exactly 145 days later. In any case, if this happens, we make sure to note down both dates!
BUCKS IN RUT
9. Bucks know when the does come into heat. At the first scent of a female in heat, the boys will go into rut. During this time, they like to pee on themselves (it's their cologne and the girls love it!), particularly on their beards and faces. They start to smell quite musky. We don't dislike the smell of bucks at all. To me, they smell somewhat like plain soap, but maybe I have a weird sense of smell. The boys love to rub on us, but clothing seems to get clean without leaving any smell.
10. How to get rid of boy goat smell! If we get buck smell on our skin, we just wash and rinse twice. Bar soap, or hand soap, doesn't matter. Three times if we've really been rubbed on. Once to get the pee off, and once to get the oils off. A third time just because. Easy! Washing with a laundry detergent that has enzymes will take care of any scent on clothing.
HORMONE CHAOS
11. Bucks will mount each other. Bucks will mount does. Does on heat will mount other does. Does not on heat will mount the does on heat. It's a bit of a free-for-all. It's also a stressful yet exciting time for the goats. Bucks do a lot of blubbering and making some strange noises. The girls sometimes will make the same kinds of noises, and some seem to not care about whether they have male or female equipment, but it's all about the hormones!
We run our bucks separately to the does, because we breed selectively. Be aware that does can be bred through the fence! Also, strong fences are a must, because the boys will do whatever they can to get with the girls, and vice versa. Does have been known to try to break into the boy area, and boys into the girls area. And if they can break out, bucks will break out! If you have only one buck and need to keep him with the herd, you can purchase a "breeding apron" which is a pregnancy preventative (yes it has a failure rate but it's better than nothing if you don't want to breed).
BREEDING TIME
12. If you have only one buck and are ready for them to breed, you can pasture breed, meaning he lives with the does for a month or two until they stop coming on heat.
We don't do this, because we like to keep track of exact kidding dates. We pen breed (sometimes called 'hand breeding' - but nobody uses their hands so I'm not sure why it's called that!). Pen breeding is easy and quick. We simply take the buck to the pen where the doe we have selected is on heat and ready to stand for him. (Or sometimes we have the buck in the breeding pen already, and the does are lining up outside begging to be let in with him!)
If we have selected a willing, well behaved and experienced buck, we will sometimes put him on a leash and walk him to the doe in the herd (when I say walk, I mean be dragged by him - he knows which doe is on heat and he's extra keen!), and this has proven quite successful, although some bucks and does prefer a bit more privacy!
13. When they get together, he falls in love with her pretty much immediately, and although she might take a little convincing, once she stands for him, the deed is very quickly done in approximately 3 seconds!
Young, inexperienced bucks need extra time to figure out which end of the doe they should be aiming at, and how all the pieces go together, but once they've got it, you could literally blink and miss the actual mating.
14. Many does will just stand still without any convincing from the buck, but others need a little time to warm to him. She may run from him for a little while, but if she runs from him continually, we understand that she's probably not ready, and we try again a few hours later. We leave them together until we've seen them mate successfully about 3 times. Usually by this time, the doe is ready for him to leave her and will be annoyed if he keeps pestering her. With a young buck, this might take 10 to 20 minutes or less. With an older buck, we may watch the first mating and leave them together for a couple of hours.
RECORD KEEPING
15. We note the names of the buck and doe, the date we saw the pair mate, and then we add 19 days. Since does come into heat on average every 21 days, we keep an eye on her from day 19 past breeding. If she gets to day 28 without coming back on heat, we assume she's pregnant. We add 145 days to the breeding date to get the kidding date. The 145 days is average, but she could kid a little earlier or later than that.
A week or two before that date, we start watching them for signs of labor. It's normal for babies to be born a couple of days early or a couple of days late. It's not so normal for them to be born a week early, as the babies are premature. With care and support, there is a great chance of survival for Nigerian Dwarf babies born 5 or 6 days early. Babies born 7 to 10 days early can also survive but will need a lot of help. If born earlier than that, they are unlikely to survive.