It’s kidding time! And by kidding, I mean my mama goats are giving us baby goats. It’s the most wonderful time of year on the farm, as far as I’m concerned.
We have LaManchas, and they are full-sized goats (around 100 lbs each) who typically give us 2-3 kids each every year. They breed seasonally, meaning they only come into heat once a month from August to January, and they can’t breed the rest of the year. Goats are pregnant for 145-155 days, and can kid anywhere from 10 days before to 10 days after their due dates. (Mini goats kid around 140 days, and our Mini-LaMancha, Chip, has consistently kidded right at 140 days with 3-4 kids each time).
We currently have 8 senior does on our farm- that is eight mama goats who have had babies before and are experienced milkers. Each of these, with the exception of Chip, were bought from a dairy where they never raised their own babies (the dairy was on a CAE virus prevention protocol, meaning kids cannot drink unpasteurized milk). So some of our does have embraced motherhood, while others have outright rejected it. This means I have to be prepared not only for whatever may happen during birth, but also for the possibility that mamas may reject or even harm their own babies.
Last year, knowing our goats were inexperienced mamas and having an almost entirely female (12/13 babies were female!) kidding cycle, we chose to bottle feed the whole lot. Bottle feeding ensures that all babies get equal amounts of milk, when raising with mamas often means the strongest kids take more than their weaker siblings, and in cases of 3 or more babies, some babies may not get enough to survive. Bottle feeding also prevents lopsided udders, since it’s common for babies to favor one side, and mamas will produce where there is demand. A lopsided udder can have long-term effects for mama, and since we register and show our goats, we want the opportunity for our mama goats to have healthy and balanced udders for as long as possible. Bottle feeding also produces friendly kids in a pretty easy way, since kids learn to associate people with food from the start. Goats are smart and incredibly skeptical, so creating a bond from their earliest days makes a huge difference in how a mature goat will relate to people- which is a big deal if you’re raising them to be milked by people twice a day.
This year, we’re taking a different approach, largely since the tables have turned and our does are having male kids. 7 out of 8 kids so far have been male, and since this means we won’t be raising them as future milk goats, we don’t have the same need to develop a strong bond between goat and people. Male goats- especially male full-sized goats like LaManchas- are almost exclusively purchased for meat, and the people buying them are rarely concerned with their temperament. So we will love on these boys as much as we can while we have them, but we are enjoying a season off from bottle-feeding and practicing a kid-share with their mamas.
A kid-share is simply the practice of leaving the kids with their mama all day to get as much milk as they need or want, then letting mama sleep with her herd while the kids sleep in the barn. We milk her in the morning and return her to her babies for the day, separating them at bedtime and repeating the process until the kids are weaned. I love this process. We get plenty of milk for us (our best producing does give us between a half and a whole gallon each day!) and they still have plenty for their babies, and we don’t have to prepare and wash bottles throughout the day every day. Win-win!
I’ve also been fortunate enough in the last two years to rarely have to intervene for their births. In my first year, I wasn’t a terribly responsible breeder, and I bred my goats to a buck who threw very large kids. It was catastrophic. My poor does had challenging births, and like all of us, a hurting mama after birth has a hard time caring for her babies well. I’ve learned my lesson and gone with proven bucks from lines that produce easy birthing and the long-term traits I’m looking for, and since then we haven’t had any major issues.
The biggest issue I run into in kidding is malpresentation. Essentially our goats should present with a nose and two hooves as they exit the birth canal. In virtually every birth on our farm, this is what I see. But occasionally, I’ll see a small deviation. Our mini-LaMancha, Chip, often has 3 or 4 kids at a time, and her babies will be tangled as they come out- meaning the nose of one kid presents with the feet of another. In those cases I can usually gently rearrange the kids and she takes over and pushes them out herself.
This year, one of our girls, Nadine, had a boy whose front leg was up over his head. Every time Nadine pushed, his head curled back under the weight of that leg and blocked his exit. After seeing her struggling, using obstetric lubricant and sterile gloves, I waited until she wasn’t contracting and gently slipped his leg over his head to the right position. And once his legs were under his chest she easily pushed him right out, followed by his sister close behind.
The birthing space
About a month before kidding time, the kids and I clean out the barn stalls and fill them with fresh straw or pine shavings. We prep feeders and water buckets so they’re ready to be filled when goats come into the barn, and we prep our kidding kit. I’ve included my kidding kit essentials as a free pdf for you to save for future reference. I keep my kidding kit in our mud room, along with other essentials that don’t necessarily need to be outside for the birthing process, but are good to have on-hand for when babies arrive.
I keep flashlights and headlamps with plenty of extra batteries available in our barn, and I make sure I have easy access to our pens and working latches on their gates (because my goats are the WORST escape artists).
As kidding time approaches, I begin watching my does. I’ll see their udders “bagging up,” that is, slowly filling with milk, and then about 24 hours before kidding, they typically show the udder “pop!” This is a drastic and clearly noticeable change in the udder, going from pretty-full to suddenly on the verge of explosion…and that’s when I bring them into the barn. My goats hate the barn. They can’t wait to get back to the herd, so I typically bring another goat, preferably one who will kid soon as well, into the barn with them, to sleep in the stall next to them. This lets them have a buddy, but also prevents the inevitable curiosity that goats exhibit when a neighbor gives birth.
Once they’re in the barn, I give my girls plenty of fresh hay and a bucket of water, and I get heat lamps ready for kids. Typically I have 1-2 heat lamps clamped to the side rails of their pens, since we typically have kids in freezing overnight temperatures and our barn isn’t terribly warm. Even then, my goal is to wean kids off heat lamps by 2 weeks so they’ll be well-adjusted to our climate. We unplug the lamps during the day (unless we’re having seriously cold temps inside the barn) and turn on the absolute minimum for nighttime as we do evening chores. I don’t start separating mamas from babies for kid-sharing until babies are at least 1 week old and are thriving and able to regulate their body temperatures.
When things go wrong
There’s always the possibility for things to go wrong. I feel like our first year was full of so many issues- I was not a responsible breeder and just bred the backyard herd goats I purchased to a young buck who was small at the time of breeding, but who quickly grew to be very stocky, and who threw HUGE kids. I had to intervene with stuck kids again and again, and my mamas struggled to bounce back from rough deliveries. This is when I learned the value of quality and intentional breeding. 🙂
The good news in that particularly rough year is that I actually was prepared. So while I failed my girls on the front end, I actually was able to help with the right supplements and tools in my kidding kit. I’ve attached that here for you- and please check lots of sources as you stock your kit. We all feel differently about what our must-haves are for goat births, and we evolve our choices with time and experience.
Ahead of kidding, I read Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats chapters on kidding and caring for mama, and I review my notes from last year. I prep their barn stall and I check my kidding kit for supplies. I make a plan for bottle feeding if necessary, and I plan what I’ll do with kids- will we sell them? Will we raise some for our herd, or will we raise some for meat? And what about kids who won’t make it? Inevitably there will be weak kids (this year we had some who aspirated amniotic fluid and couldn’t clear their lungs) and every now and then accidents happen (like babies who jump into water troughs or get injured by other goats). What will we do for when those things happen? Will we put them down, are we committed to making them survive no matter what?
Last year, I was so committed to not losing babies that I tube-fed one of our doelings for 8 weeks. She had a birth defect with her jaw, and I kept hoping it would correct itself. But she never learned to suck and she could never chew hay- so eventually we had to put her down vs. letting her starve. It was a hard but worthwhile lesson, and now we plan ahead to assess each goat for health and ability to thrive.
As babies get older
We always have a plan for our goat kids. Regardless of whether we’re keeping them or selling them, I always disbud them in the first week of life. This is another lesson I learned the hard way- we had multiple goats with horns on our farm, and consistently they put their heads where they didn’t belong, and got caught in fences or other structures. And there were more than a few times we got to them too late. Goats are curious creatures and they do LOTS of things to endanger themselves. Removing their horns is an easy way for me to be sure they’re not going to die hung up in a fence or feeder while I’m away from home.
This year I’ll be selling quite a few of our goats- narrowing our milking herd down to just eight main females, with two bucks to service four girls each. This means I’ll have 12 bred females, some of whom will be in milk in March and many of whom will kid in May, available for sale. If you’re local and interested in quality, ADGA registered or registrable milk goats, or if you’re interested in young kids to raise for future farm goats, reach out to me! I’ll also have a few who are eligible to ship nationwide within the US for an additional fee.
Hooray for babies! Even when things don’t go perfectly, I’m always happier walking outside to the cute little “maaaaaaa’s” that come this time of year. I hope you’re all having a lovely almost-spring, wherever you are.
~L
