What’s Up (with the) Pussycat?

2 responses to “What’s Up (with the) Pussycat?”

1. 

   Debbie

   November 2, 2010

   What happened to Artimas (sp?) kitty?
   Why AI vs – uh – natural / standard procedure?

   Reply
   1. 

      Trase

      November 2, 2010

      Artemis ran away on us – but not before killing a couple of our pullets (young hens), including one of my beautiful Mille Fleur Bantam hens! 🙁 Also, she attacked our dog Loki (who she used to ADORE) and was hostile toward us. It was like she did an instant reversion to being feral.

      And AI has several advantages – good question! Basically, to breed goats naturally, you of course, have to keep a buck around, for at least a period of time. We are borrowing the buck, and will have to keep him around for at least a week to insure that he knocks all of the girls up. But during that time, we will have to put up with his “buckyness.” That means a whole host of behaviors and smells that are less than pleasant. Bucks pee on their legs and beards and have musk glands that they use to create what they feel is an alluring cologne, but pretty much amounts to Hai Karate overload. Does tolerate a bucks presence when they are in estrus (heat), but that’s really the only time they like them. Additionally, there is a risk of STD’s from a buck.

      And for those who keep bucks year-round, they must be housed in separate quarters, because they can taint the milk with all of that zeal for creating a musky presence. They don’t take kindly to being kept away from the ladies, and frequently, there are issues with them becoming escape artists. Furthermore, if you keep doe kids, you can’t breed them to their father, so now, you need another buck, and so it goes with each generation.

      AI is advantageous because you can introduce a variety of bloodlines into your herd without the need to travel with your goat does to breed them, or for the buck to come to your does. Travel puts goats under a great deal of stress, and they can actually get ill from it, when they were perfectly healthy before the trip. (We are fortunate that the buck we are borrowing is only about a 1/2 hour away.) You can order straws of goat semen through catalogs (online and paper) as well as purchasing them at goat conventions and shows, and it can be kept for years in a storage tank. So even bucks who have since passed on, but who had the genetic traits you are looking to cultivate in your herd, can breed your does. My plan for our herd is to eventually breed up to having Oberhasli and LaMancha goats. I’ll be able to be very choosy about who sires the kids in our herd – and if there is a need for breeding improvements, like better udder attachment, etc., I can make AI choices to do that much more easily than I could try to track down a buck who is the right breed, and has the traits that I need locally.

      We are really lucky, because our Awesome Vet is one of the leading authorities on Goat AI – she just got back from the national convention, where she taught classes on it. We are going to be working with her to create webinars on the subject that she will be offering via her website, and that’s going to give us some great practice for our own herd next year! We couldn’t do it this year due to equipment costs -it was just too much at once for us, but we’ll spend the next year gradually acquiring the things we need, so we’ll be ready, come next November. 🙂

      Hopefully I’ve covered it all – let me know if I missed anything!

      Reply