Sheep vs goats

[Beekissed]

That is the exact reason they work so well for a small homestead. Who wants to have to shear sheep when you have to either buy expensive clippers and wrestle with your inexperience or pay someone to come and do it? If you don't spin..and few folks do..the wool is a detriment. Having the sheep build and character with the easy care wool shedding trait is a plus.

 

[Blaundee]

After talking to milk sheep owners, I've pretty much decided to get a Dorset ewe and AI her to a British Milk Sheep from Canada, as Dorset have many of the qualities that I like about BMS (which makes sense because dorset were used to develop BMS), and work my way to as pure a BMS as I can get without actually importing one from Canada. They have wool suitable for hand spinning and for wearing next to the skin, plenty of milk, they are beautiful, and they routinely have twins & triplets- which is a big plus.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Forgive me, but I have a question and I am hoping some of you goat people will help me out. I'm borrowing a buck for my 2 does. Well he is only 7 months old, but his owner felt he was ready and trying to mate, so he is here and my girls are each about 2 years old....one of them, probaby 3 or older.
Well, its obvious the older doe is wanting to mate....tail twitching and vocal and such...lots of rubbing, examining, head butting, but when the actual genital contact takes place, it starts and is finished, just as quick as it began. Seems to me like it should be longer, but I don't know. Well, the doe continues with all the same activities.
So I googled to find a video and watched about 3 matings, which was just about like what I have going on in the barn.
So....is that about what I can expect? One woman that was mating her does, claimed the buck had some good contact early on and maybe that was it, but I don't know if she is a goat expert or anything.
Is it possible to mate goats in all of 7 seconds or so?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

SEVEN SECONDS! Send him down here - my gals would love him. They get about 3 seconds - tops! LOL

Seriously, it definitely is 'wham bam, thank ya ma'am' with goats. It takes him longer to smoke a cigarette afterwards than the whole mating process.

Okay...Im being silly, but that truly is the way it goes with goats.

 

[Wannabefree]

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Thankyou. Appreciate it. I"m glad I asked to keep him for 21 days, because I really thought they had already mated a few days ago. I had even witnessed it and again...just a few seconds. I only saw mating with my big girl. But I really had thought the smaller doe had mated first cuz she wasn't walking right and had a whitish discharge and even the fur around her genitals were wet, so I just figured....Well, I'll probably return him soon, cuz he is kinda a bully. He wasn't at first, but now that he has established his role here, I put some food down at A, B and C and he goes to each as I put the food down and chases the does away and they too silly to realize that if he is at B, then A and C are still available. Actually I've been putting him on a collar and rope and staking him out for weed control when I wanna feed my girls.....then they stay by the fence and cry their hearts out. Go figure....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Generally, the discharge in a doe who is just going into heat is thin-ish and clear... and it gets thicker and creamier colored towards the end of the heat cycle. By the time you the thicker white-ish color, she is usualy on the way out of heat.

Here's another 'sometimes'... Sometimes just a few days after a heat cycle, a doe will come right back in around 5 days later. Usually the doe will ovulate on that second cycle so I always re-breed on that cycle if I catch it.

Shame on your borrowed buck for not being a gentleman and sharing feed...

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like a typical guy-a selfish pig, thinking of no one but himself.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

That might be today's project.....buying new collars and stakes, with short cables for my girls. I only tried it out with my big girl, but she freaked out, at first. Then she munched out. I only have one dangerous plant in my yard and it can be cut down and poisoned, so I have lots of weeds that need tending. Oh......and my big girl is STRONG. I tied the rope to my unearthed old clothes line frame....T post metal, with a huge chunk of concrete still attached to the bottom. Well, she is a short, stout grade....obviously part pigmy and she pulled the frame around. I obtained my goats from a plantation....still running, a few towns over. Its one of our historical landmarks, called Laurel Valley. Pretty sure she has already kidded, so hoping she will deliver easy.