Goats and Sheep pregnancy term?

[arabianequine]

Can you tell me how long boer/meat goats are pregnant for? Also how often should they have babies?

Same on sheep?

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Roughly 5 months (140-150 days)
Many goats and sheep are "seasonal breeders" and only come into heat during the Fall.

Others are year round breeders, and if managed properly, can have 3 birthings in 2 years

Lambing date calculator:

http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/articles/sheep/Flock Handbook/Gestation.htm

Kiddiing date calculator:

http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/duedate.htm

 

[patandchickens]

Yup. So if you put your ram with the ewes in early November you get early April lambs, or etc.

I would just add that (no idea bout goats) among sheep producers there is Divided Opinion as to whether it is *good* for the sheep to lamb more than once per year (i.e. the 3 lambings in 2 years, or 5 in 3 yrs type schedules).


Pat, with four lil' lambies running around right now and boy are they ever cute

 

[awesomefowl]

How soon after weaning can you rebreed a sheep?

 

[patandchickens]

The limiting factor is when the sheep will come into season again.

Most breeds are seasonal (determined by daylength -- will start cycling sometime in Sept or thereabouts, til Jan or thereabouts), so unless you are going to do complicated things with forced lighting schedules the answer depends on when they lambed in the first place.

For sheep that are less seasonal breeders, they can potentially come back into season a couple months after lambing. It is a lot harder on their bodies though to lamb so frequently (and therefore requires more excellence in feeding and management to work at all)

If you google "accelerated lambing systems" or something like that you can read more about 3-in-2 or 5-in-3 type systems.

Pat

 

[awesomefowl]

What if they can breed year round? Thanks!

 

[patandchickens]

That would be my "less-seasonal breeders" paragraph, above

If this is part of some plan you're hatching to breed lots and lots of sheep, for the freezer or for sale or for whatever, I would say it would be quite unwise to count on breedin' the bejeebers out of an animal that you have not yet gotten good at caring for *period*. I'd suggest at LEAST several years of planning to breed each animal only ONCE, and then you can start contemplating whether you are in a position to do a decent job with a more intensive type schedule.

Pat

 

[arabianequine]

I have been responding to ads on goats last few days. I am not sure if all the stuff I am hearing is normal that people are doing with breeding goats or any animal. Breeding a goat still at 16 says never has problems. Breeding back to back I mean they said as soon as the kid is birthed and the placenta drops they put the buck in there and breeds the doe again instantly. No break for the doe it must be hard on the does, I would think.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

they said as soon as the kid is birthed and the placenta drops they put the buck in there and breeds the doe again instantly

They can seldom be bred less than 30 days after birthing, and many breeds wouldn't go into heat for months.

It's not good to breed them too often since it will cause more problems than benefits​

 

[redhen]

Quote:
I think they are BSing you....