Three reasons why we kid later in the season

One of our does tending to her newly born kid (from an earlier kidding season).

You don’t know how many times this winter (now spring) I’ve been asked, “How’s kidding going?” Each time I explain that we don’t have any babies yet since we’ve moved kidding to later in the season.  We’re set to kid in late April and then have the last batch of kids in May.

We’ve kidded and worked with baby goats in January through April, with both babies born on our farm and bottle babies we’ve raised since they were only a few days old.  The first few years raising goats we didn’t own a buck and our breeding schedule worked around the farm where we rented a buck.  We’ve also bred for earlier in the season (anytime between January and March) because that seems to be what most farms do in our area. So why not do the same? And, with raising bottle babies, we of course were on the schedule of the dairy farms we worked with.

There are many reasons farms kid earlier: raising for the show/fair kid market, having kids be at market weight in the fall, renting bucks like we have done, seasonal milking, and so on.

Here are three reasons why we’ve moved to late season kidding:

1. Be in sync with nature. There’s probably a reason why deer have their fawns in the spring time.  Wisconsin winters can be downright frigid cold. Kidding later in the season gives new kids a greater chance of thriving rather than being a “kid-sicle,” potentially leading to pneumonia or even losing a kid.  It also gives new moms a little extra time to let their maternal instincts kick in or time for the shepherd to assist (my preference is the first option).  Shortly after kidding we’re able to get the does and kids out on pasture rotationally grazing, taking advantage of the higher quality pasture earlier in the grazing season.
2. Reduce shepherd’s fatigue. Kidding or lambing can really be wearing on the farmer. Whether it’s a set schedule of late-night barn checks in person or by barn camera, it can get exhausting. That part isn’t going to change with warmer weather (as in not subzero temps). However, the increased effort, and even stress at times, to dry off and warm up new kids is reduced. I also tend to have a little more patience letting does clean up their newly born kids. Last season we also had a new baby (as in human kid) and it was harder to get out to the barn as regularly as I like to do so. Kidding later in the season gives us a little bit of flexibility on being able to bring my kids (again, human) down the to barn and a little more give and take on timing if I can’t get to check on a new set of kids immediately. 
3. Reduce the need for heaters. Mother Nature permitting, kidding later also allows us to reduce the use of heat lamps and infrared heaters to keep kids warm in their safe areas in the kidding pens and in the creep area in the main pen. If spring comes earlier, we might even be lucky enough to not need the heaters at all. Reducing use not only cuts down on our electrical and propane (we also have propane infrared heaters) bills, it also reduces the risk for fire by not using the heat lamps or using them minimally. When do use the heat lamps we use the ones from Premier 1 Fencing, which have more safety features built in than the standard metal heat lamp. We also like using infrared heaters (we have both propane and electric powered ones - the electric are from Sweater Heater).

Even with our later kidding season, we can still run into Mother Nature’s seasonal mood disorder. Last season we kidded a week earlier than this year and ended up having kids during the spring cold snap (single digit temps). We can try our best to work with the flow of our seasons in the Upper Midwest.  Kidding later works well for our farm and family.
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This post was originally published 3/27/19, and updated 4/14/20.