Winter kidding vs. Spring kidding

There's only 2 months difference in their ages but a world of
difference in the size of these Kiko does.

You may remember a few months ago I was talking about how I had changed my kidding from January to March to avoid the cold weather, frozen kids and the human misery associated with kidding in winter. I did have a few does kid in January this year, and after watching them grow alongside the March-born kids, I'm now wondering if I did the right thing.


Both the bucks and does born during freezing weather in January are nearly twice the size of the March-born kids. The rate of growth is significantly different. Of course this has been an unusually hot and dry spring and early summer so I'm not sure if that is the reason or not. 


When I got to thinking about it, I remembered a column I wrote many years ago about winter kidding. I wrote that the kids born in January were so much better than spring-born kids that it was worth losing up to 10 percent of the kids due to severe weather. I had forgotten about that column until I witnessed again this year the difference a couple months can make in the kids.


I have another week or so to decide what I will do this year. If I want January kids, I need to start turning in the bucks in August. I'll keep you updated.