Breeding Dairy Goats

**This page should in no way replace the consultation of a goat veterinarian. It is merely a quick grouping and explanation of terms and helpful information. Always consult your goat veterinarian before supplementing or such.**

Common Dairy Goat Terms, Acronyms, Definitions, and Info to Know

Polled - A genetic condition that causes goats to be born without being able to grow horns.
 
First Freshener (FF) - The first time a doe has given birth and been in milk.

Freshened - When a doe has given birth. With each successive kidding,  a number is added showing how many times a doe has given birth: 2nd Freshening, 3rd Freshening, 4th Freshening, etc.

Kidding - When a doe is giving birth.

Heat - When a female goat is in estrus, and is receptive to being bred to a buck.

Flagging - When a female goat wags her tail to spread her scent, telling bucks that she is ready to be bred.

A.I. (Artificial Insemination) - Where a dairy goat doe is inseminated with semen that has been collected from a buck, and stored frozen in a nitrogen tank, until it's time to inseminate a doe.

Lap A.I. (Laparoscopic Artificial Insemination) - Where collected semen is deposited directly into the oviduct of the doe. This procedure requires the doe to be put under anesthesia, and laid on their back in a special 'chair', allowing the reproduction vet to inject semen directly into the oviduct.

Embryo Transfer - Where a donor doe is artificially inseminated, then a week later, a veterinarian flushes the donor's uterus to receive an embryo(s). This embryo is then stored in the same manner as semen, until it is time to be implanted into a recipient doe, who will carry and give birth to the donated embryo(s).

Live Cover - Where you have your doe bred to a live buck. This can be accomplished with a buck that you own, scheduling a driveway breeding with another goat breeder's buck, or leasing a buck to your farm, from another breeder, for a period of time. 

Linebreeding - Where related goats are bred together (not directly such as mother/son, daughter/father, brother/sister, and such), but uncles, nieces, aunts, nephews, cousins, etc. to retain desired traits of a genetic line.

Goat Gestation Lengths - For miniature dairy goats, the average gestation length is 145+/- days, while standard dairy goats gestate for 150+/- days.

** Terms are still being added **