Whilst we were suffering the traumas of bum washing and cut wrists yesterday, Pepper was having a MUCH better day!! Having decided we wanted to wait till Jack the lad had covered all the ewes so we would finish lambing before we started kidding, we then changed our minds!!!! This was partly because we felt sorry for Pepper having to be in his own away from the other goats and also because Parsley is due to calve on 7th April which means we have less than 3 weeks time for the sheep and goats to become pregnant, before THEIR due dates get too close to the start of calving! (Hope you are keeping up...)
Jack has a spreadsheet with all the dates and has spent hours working through various possibilities and combinations… sad but true!
But back to Pepper who despite being a mere eight months old had absolutely no problem mating with three out of his four wives: Pickle, Onion and Garlic. We knew Pickle was in season: her waggy tail said it all and she was then the first to succumb to Pepper's charms. The Boer ladies were not showing massive signs of being in season but Pepper obviously encouraged them!! Curds was actually in season a couple of days ago so Pepper will now have to wait till her next one (21 days). This will make her due date pretty close to Parsley’s!!!
Next year we will of course get to plan ALL our animals’ due dates as a whole, rather than buying in pregnant stock as we have done this year and then having to work around them. Hopefully that may make our planning a little easier!!!