Most of our kids this year did not begin arriving until around the first of March. Usually, I try to begin kidding in January, but the older I get, the less I like getting out in that cold weather to check on kids. We kid out on pasture, but if the weather gets severe enough, I will move the newborns to the barn and out of the weather. (It's not the goats' fault they are having kids in the middle of the winter...it's the producer's, so I don't mind helping out.)
The kids pictured here were born March 12. It's been a cool March here, but these kids were born outside with no assistance. The dam, ECR Scarlett, is a 3-year-old Sports Kat daughter out of ECR M4. If you'll look closely at this doe, you can see that the tips of her ears are missing. That is the result of frostbite when she was born. She arrived on the night of Jan. 3, 2008, when it was 8 degrees. Ironically, she was conceived during one of the hottest summers we have ever had. It was 108 degrees when we were doing our flush in Aug. 2007. There was a 100-degree difference between the time she was implanted as an embryo and the time she was born. That is a true testament to the hardiness of the goats -- or the lunacy of the producer!
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