Whimsey and Windy are sisters here at Russell's Ridge Nubian's. They are twins even thought they don't look anything alike and were born on March 3, 2011 at 10:30pm. They are now 8 1/2 months old. Last week the girls went into heat. They are old enough to breed now but I wanted to make sure they weighed enough.
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| Whimsey 11-14-11 |
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| Windy 11-14-11 |
Weighing the goats were very easy. You just take a soft sewing tape measure and place it a few inches behind the front legs around the goat's body. This is called the goat's heart girth. Then you just take the measurement figure, find it on the dairy goat weight chart I got off of the Internet and it will tell you how much your goat weighs. Both girls heart girth measurement was 29 1/2 which brings the girls weight to approximately 83 lbs.
The book Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats by Jerry Belanger & Sara Thomson Bredesen suggests to breed your goats when they reach 70 to 80 lbs which is usually at 8 months of age. All information I''ve read suggests to breed by weight not age.
Whimsey 11-14-11
Whimsey came into heat first on Thursday. I found her at the fence talking away calling to Brady and really wagging her tail flirting with him. I could tell she was in heat immediately because Whimsey is very quiet usually. I went ahead and brought Whimsey over to Brady and she spent 9am to about 2pm with Brady. Of course I stayed around watching for a bit to make sure to witness the deed a few times before leaving them alone. I have full confidence in Brady to do his job since he has finally figured out what he is suppose to do with the girls when they come visit him. Whimsey was very happy to spend time with Brady and was rubbing her neck on Brady's back and standing really close to him.
Windy 11-14-11
Windy came into heat on Saturday. She was also wagging her tail more but wasn't too vocal to Brady. She is also a very quiet goat. I brought Windy over to Brady and of course he was very happy to have some female company again. Windy also enjoyed spending time with Brady as she also stayed really close to him and was smelling him. She stayed in with Brady from 9am to 2pm. I also witnessed Brady doing his business, so I decided to leave them alone.
Of course I couldn't leave the daddy out so below is a picture of Brady.
Brady 11-14-11
We are hoping that both girls are bred and will be able to be a comfort to each other during their first pregnancy. We will be watching closely to see if either girl comes back into heat, which will be in about 21 days. That would be about December 2nd.
Check back in a few weeks to see if we will be expecting babies from Windy and Whimsey.
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