We finished up kidding for 2024 this week. The final count is 2 doelings and 4 bucks. The does will be kept in the herd as they are all purebred Lamanca’s that we will register. Here is a recap of the babies born this year.
Hope was first with a big buck kid. Since he was so big, she had to have a little help and I ended up pulling him. It took both of them a little while to get up and going afterwards but both are doing well now. Her baby is black and white but looks more like salt and pepper mixed. It was a surprise when Hope kidded first because I was betting Holly would be the first one!
Next was Faith with another buck. Again, not who we expected to be one of the first ones! She delivered her baby without any help and he was up and nursing quickly. Her baby is also black and white. Our buck is black/white and he has marked almost every one of his kids with similar markings.
Finally, on Easter Sunday, Holly kidded with a set of twins. We all thought that she would be one of the first ones to kid but we were wrong! She had a very pretty little grey/white doe that Colton named Easter. Her twin is a black/white buck. Both babies were up and nursing in no time. Holly is a great mom. I’ve written about her before as she is special to Colton. You can read it here if you missed it before https://14handsranchks.com/february-featured-animal/
Cocoa finished it up on Wednesday with another set of black and white girl/boy twins. The girl is dainty, petite, and half the size of her brother. Colton decided that his goat herd was large enough so he gifted the little doeling to Kinzie for her to start her herd. She won’t be able to show livestock in 4-H until next year but she is so excited that she will now have her own goat to show. Kinzie got to name it since it was now hers and she decided to name her Moana.
Almost every year we learn something new or have something happen that we’ve never experienced before. Last fall we bred 7 dairy goats to kid this month. Unfortunately, only 4 of the does kidded when they were supposed to. After the really cold snap we had in January, three of the does aborted their babies within a week. We’ve never had that happen before and still aren’t sure what caused it. Those does have been receiving extra care to make sure that they are healthy for breeding in the fall.
Overall, we are happy with how it went. In a couple of weeks, we will start separating the babies from their moms at night. This allows us to have enough milk for us to milk in the morning. The babies then are with their mom all day long and have as much milk as they want during the day. The goat milk is used for our soaps and lotions but also for the bottle lambs that we have. Goat milk is very similar to sheep milk and easy for the lambs to digest. Whenever we have raised bottle lambs on goat milk they have always been healthy and strong.
Be sure to follow our social media channels for photos and videos of all the babies this spring and summer!
Here are some goat kid photos!
