I don't think anyone new should breed their does to kid until they are 100 pounds. And if you intend to show, apparise and sell breeding stock, and your goal isn't just a family milker, I think you should wait to freshen your does that first several years as they near their second birthday. Biggy when you are talking about breeds like Alpines who have scary large kids, and you dont' know alot about bloodlines yet to know which bucks do throw those big kids or not.

I think it takes awhile for new folks to get everything down, so although alot do breed that young, my 8 months old being bred are also nearing or are 100 pounds, weights not seen in alot of purchased stock from the stress of the move, or on new management. Vicki

 

I agree with Vicki that it is weight and so much age but we haven't had any problems with breeding our Alpines at 80-90 pounds.

 

This topic has a pertinent discussion regarding breeding readiness:

http://dairygoatinfo.com/index.php/topic,5865.0.html

 

This is always the topic that has me as odd one out.
We breed a very large line of Nubians that do not mature quickly and finish out well over 200 pounds-2 year olds are generally 170 to 180 after they go thru first kidding. I never breed them until they are going to freshen as a 2 year old. I would rather have a really well grown 2 year old that milks like an adult and produces large kids and does not miss a beat in growth. For our does they have too far to go to start out breeding at those weights and still be able to milk worth collecting and maintain body condition and have kids that are any kind of good size. The extra feed and time on the milk stand is my time wasted because that few pounds of milk is just a hassle and time eater for me. If I bred them that early it would only be enough to feed out the kids the way I want them fed.
Here is our favorite and most commonly practiced reproduction strategy.
Doe kids born in Feb are carried over one full year and then bred the 2nd fall for kidding around their second birthday. They normally have good sized twins or more and milk at 8 to 9 pounds over a more extended lactation.
Part of this is casual attitude on my part but most of it is watching our does grow until they are 5 and being amazed each time they freshen how much larger they are and how much more capacity they have.
Just another of the many practices out there. But we long ago gave up on doing this to do anything but break even and get the pastures mowed and get a ton of great garden soil improvements. So we don't push in any way- not for early kids or high milk totals. It's a personal preference but it also depends on your line of goats. :biggrin
Lee

 

This topic has a pertinent discussion regarding breeding readiness:

http://dairygoatinfo.com/index.php/topic,5865.0.html

Thanks! That really helped. We are not planning on doing any showing or anything like that. We just want to start a small herd to milk, make some cheese and soap. I will watch her weight. She will be 8 month is November so I will wait until at least January or Feb to breed her if she has the proper weight.

 

When to breed is one of the goat subjects that engenders VERY strong opinions in the goat world. Reasons for freshening at one year-ish or holding till two are interesting and well thought out on both sides. I would just add in one factor to consider, and that's to calculate the cost (both in value in to you and money paid out by you, for both scenarios. I've seen goats from both sides of the argument and frankly liked results for both.

 

I have tried breeding both as 100#'s and waiting to freshen as a 2 yr old. I tend to prefer freshening at 2 ys old. But as it wa spointed out, everyone has their own preference which works well for them.

 

There is no doubt that waiting for a goat to freshen at 2 years eliminates potential kidding problems but then you are waiting 2 years to evaluate udders and losing a year of production...as has been said it is all tradeoff. We will stick with the breed at 8-9 months/80 pounds plus to kid at about a year but I will admit there are good arguments for going the other way. Many of my show friends always wait till the next year to breed them.

 

Glad it helped. I know I brought it up a few times last year (every time I thought about breeding!) and there is another thread I can't seem to remember enough key words to find it in a search, but Vicki talked about when she went to breeding the first year based on what she saw of a specific bloodline. I bred the girls I had at that time to kid at 14 months, and one had quads, the other twins, and they did great. Now I have Alpines instead of Nubians, and my one yearling FF will kid in about 2 weeks.

 

I do think answering for someone new is different than what we do at our farms. I don't think most new folks get the size on their kids that we do, so telling them to breed young can shoot them in the foot before they even get started. Even purchased kids don't get the size of homegrown kids usually. Billie is correct, until a haul of SAADA animals came down here and I saw 11 and 12 month old FF, I would never have done this myself. I was taught to keep does dry until through the 12 to 15 month agressive maturity/growth and went by that. So none of my does kidded before 20 months old. And so I was dragging big 170 pound fat unruly FF onto the milkstand! No more. Now I know the whole maturity issue is directly related to nutrition and parasites. And most new folks don't have a handle on those two subjects their first couple of years. Unless you have a local mentor you are following to the letter, I just don't think it's a good answer. And yes young FF give you more kids to sell, more milk, and simply a doe with more will to milk and udders that havent had time to build any beef to them. Vicki