Who’s your daddy?

We took Lincoln, our Cormo ram, out of the breeding pen about two weeks ago. He had been in with the ewes for more than two months, which should have given him ample time to get all of them bred, but Lincoln does his work a lot more discreetly than Buck Fifty, our angora goat buck. We saw Buck Fifty romancing the does from the first minute we put him in the pen. But with Lincoln, well, were just  not so sure.

So, even though we’ve never had a problem with Lincoln getting everybody bred, we’re putting FDR, Lincoln’s son, in with the ewes this weekend, as a “clean-up ram.”  This is a really common practice with livestock, the idea being that any “uncovered” females the first ram misses will be impregnated by the second. We waited two weeks to put FDR in so that we’ll be able to tell without any doubts who actually fathered the lambs.

It’s just so hard for me to believe that FDR is ready to work as a stud. He was the first lamb born on our farm and his photo was the basis of our logo.We will have to take Sicily, FDR’s mama out of the ewe pen when we put FDR in to prevent any inbreeding from taking place. She will be going into the adjacent pen with the Weight Watchers, so called because they are all on the heavy side.

The Weight Watchers are Daisy, Buster, Cosmo and Ernie. They are on a strict, hay only diet, but even without a grain ration they don’t seem to be reducing much. Snow is pastured with the Weight Watchers as well, because it’s adjacent to the breeding pen where all her girlfriends are. We also put Truman in with them, because he was getting beat up in the boys pen, and Kit Kat is a temporary resident until his wound heals up.

We won’t be putting a clean-up buck in with the does this year because, frankly, we have enough goats. If Buck Fifty managed to miss anybody we will just leave them open for the year. This year we are putting all our time and attention into ramping up our Cormo breeding and goat kids will be a bonus.

Last year at this time we were starting kidding season. When I look outside at all the snow on the ground I feel like a genius for deciding to breed later this year. We should start seeing lambs and kids in late April. Of course, there could be some unforeseen consequence to breeding this late- unforeseen consequences being my middle name- but right now I’m basking in not having to trudge through snow to make the every-four-hour barn checks that come with lambing and kidding.