Goats And Winter Kidding

                 It has been a banner week for goats on the farm! We are at 17 kids born now and still have 2 days to go. This really wasn't something we planned. Kidding in late January, with day time highs in the 30's is really a recipe for disaster. Kids freeze before they dry and the nannies can't keep the warm enough on their own. A baby that is too cold to get up for a warm drink of milk, is doomed.

                 In one day we had 10 kids born! It seemed like every time we went out to the barn we were hauling babies back in! The day was filled with the sound of the hairdryer, new baby goats, and excited children, all huddled around the woodstove. The only problem was that our water was frozen and we were running out of towels fast! Good thing we have a creek!

                Some farmers combat the cold with a heat lamp that is rigged up in a way that the kids can  get into to warm up without it being tampered with by the big goats. This is a good idea, but does not solve the overall issue of kids just being born and freezing. If our kids dry off, they are generally fine to weather most of the cold. We prefer to just bring vulnerable kids in on especially cold nights rather than rig up a heat lamp. We don't want to risk a barn fire, so we just skip the heat lamp.
               Knowing who is in line to "kid", or give birth, is our number one line of prevention. A tight or larger udder is an easy thing to spot. Then we check the tail ligaments and generally keep an eye on them. If we think kidding is immenent we will check during the night and through out the day.
               

These babies are too cold to get up!

       Depending on how easy they are to check or how skittish they are, we will sometimes pen a close mother up in the hopes of being present at the birth. It is not fun for anyone to chase a birthing mother around so as to not miss the new babes, especially not for the mother! On the other hand, birthing in the pasture is cleaner as it is open to the natural cleansing properties of sun and rain. We have fewer navel infections from pasture born kids.
         

                  Anyway, when the babies are born we watch to gauge how things are going. If the babies are cold, we wisk them in to the hair dryer and quickly warm them up. Milking out that first colostrum and bottle feeding it to the kids insures that they get that life saving necter and we know how much. We then take the babies back to their mother. We then check periodically to make sure they are nursing and not getting cold in those early days.

Successful reunification!

             If you miss that critical time just after birth and walk out to find cold, limp kids, click over to "Goats And Winter Kidding Emergencies". Winter kids are more of a headache due to all the extra checking and worrying over the cold, but the returns are often higher at the sale barn if you can get them raised in time for Greek Orthodox Easter! Another dandy effect is that your does might breed back before the end of spring, giving you an extra crop of kids! So chin up and bundle up, and look on the bright side!