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Established June, 2000 Roy & Julie Austin El Dorado, CA 530-621-2920 Our Mission Providing a green alternative method to reducing the unwanted vegetation for property owners all over El Dorado County and California while breeding top quality kiko goats Scroll down to view entire page
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Evaluation
Birth Any obvious structure fault-long split in scrotum, one testicle, teats, legs, mouth Lack of vigor, poor overall health
Birth to 90 days Any obvious structure fault-split scrotum, one testicle, odd/multiple teats, legs, mouth Lack of growth-This can be tricky, as it can have as much to do with the does ability based on what is going on with the weather and brush work. Sometimes it is a no brainer, other times it is not so easy. Too easy to catch-this goes to surviability. Overall poor health-physical or mental-some are just “off” or not quite right Does the doeling allow you to touch her udders or is she super jumpy?-This is tested during the regular weigh ins. If you ever have to milk out a doe in the field, one that tolerates her udders touched is easier then one who doesn’t! (single kid born, milk out the other udders colostrum and store it!)
Weaning to breeding/kidding Overall body conformation-a balance of the goats overall structure Conformation faults-hocks, pasterns, back, hooves, mouth Buck-Libido, testicles size How well they have managed within their group-is their condition as good as the others/is their feet as good as the others Disposition-do they always seem to be on the bottom of the beating? Do they forage aggressively? (climb trees, pull branches down etc) Are they easy to manage?
Kidding Kid with ease Chase off curious does? Chase the LGD if it is close? Gentle/rough in fending off kids that mistake her for mom? How does she handle her kids when we enter the herd? (some gather them and off they go-spanish are really good at this!) Does she chase the herding dog or is it the other way around? How do the kids perform to weaning? How quickly do they grow in the first 30 days? Again, this is a tricky one. Are the kids independent or very dependent on the doe at 3 mos old? Some are not as advanced psychologically (many dairy goats). Does she maintain a good body condition during lactation? Where does she place within her group? Litter size?-evaluation her environment 30 days prior to breeding. What sort of brush project was she on? Were we able to "flush" naturally or was it marginal in terms of vegetation quality? End of summer can mean marginal feed in many areas we do brush work. Does she leave her kids immediately to rejoin the herd or hang with them a few days? How does she balance their needs with the need to get with the herd? Is the buck aggressive at breeding? How well can he settle the number of does given to him or do many have to be rebred to settle?
After kidding How is her condition at weaning the kids? Does she dry off easily? How does her udder dry off? Is it tight to the body? Is it loose and look like it is still sort of full? Is it loose and hanging almost to the hocks? What do the teats look like? Are they still a functional size or have they disintegrated to an ugly, poorly functional state? How easy is she to work with? Does she follow the field rules or make a mess of the whole event because she is too wild?
We look at the bucks with many of these questions is mind as well-disposition, structure, balance of the body, condition maintenance, breeding effectively. We apply these to all our does, kikos, spanish, dairy and the Xs. These questions are applied to all goats in the herd. Some situations can be difficult, as we are not always present for each event. Some must be balanced by the breed. Our spanish just are not docile like the kikos, the dairy does are not as resilient with parasites etc. Remember, for us, our management is likely very different then most anyone. Being on brush projects, these does can be stressed with a variety of situations. Weather is the single biggest factor, real hot, real wet, real cold. Any extreme places added stress on them and really shows the poor ones and the super stars. This can also affect the feed quality of the brush. And we do supplement when it is necessary. But at a minimum. We never keep a goat because "it's pretty". And more often then not, problems continue in the lines. A problem in the doe can show up in the kids, the grandkids etc. And not every breeding will produce a perfect kids. It can be fun to see if the same results occur with a different buck. A different set of genes can do wonders in a terminal group. But knowing a breeding will provide a consistent kid (or group) takes many kiddings. We choose a group of 50 does that will be our "super stars". Based on past kidding performance, they can move up into this group. They must twin, they must wean the kids, they must maintain body condition, they must have good feet.
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