# Saanens are seasonal breeders?



## TerriA (Oct 14, 2004)

I have read that saanens can only get pregnant from about Sept to Jan or so here in the midwest (fall-winter). I wanted to see if anyone had experience breeding "out of season" with possibly a different breed of buck on their does.

I have 6 does and the buck that I had contracted to breed them is apparently no longer available so I am scrambling trying to find a different saanen buck ASAP so we are on track with our breeding/farm plans. I had wanted April kids but now looks like May at the earliest... 

I guess I was wondering if it were POSSIBLE to even breed to a different breed and stagger their breedings like some breeds of sheep to keep up production levels year round. 

Thank you! I so much appreciate all the wise responses we all get here as "newbies". Even though I have raised goats for 3 years, it seems that the more I learn, the more I have to learn! LOL!!

Terri


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

It's more dependent on the doe's heat cycles than the buck's rutting season.  My Saanen was bred very late February last year, and kidded in July :grump: - not doing that again! She didn't catch on the first breeding and I was just lucky that she came back into heat. I'm not breeding her this year - I know she will "milk through" with no difficulty, so I'll breed her next fall.

I'm only just thinking about breeding my dairy girls in the next month. I had three kid in early April last year - and we had blizzards! :baby04: not to mention a bottle baby in the basement.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

My Saanen buck was in rut in August last year and obviously earlier this year as the doe dropped her kids the end of October. 

Saanens are seasonal breeders, but some will be in rut early and some late. 

Next year I plan to have a Nigerian Dwarf buck breed a Saanen doe.


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## Janis Sauncy (Apr 11, 2006)

Spinner:

Some of the nicest crosses I had was between my pygmy buck and my Saanen does. I didn't try milking the resulting doelings, but I had a really good pet market for them and the wethers. They were the cutest things and people really liked them because they weren't as little as the pygmy but, obviously, not as big as the Saanen. They also seemed to have the Saanen personality (the best).

Janis....who thinks Saanens are the greatest!


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

Janis Sauncy said:


> They also seemed to have the Saanen personality (the best).
> 
> Janis....who thinks Saanens are the greatest!


I've only had goats for a month now... but I am in love with my Saanen! She is utterly sweet and affectionate. Her half toggenberg-half saanen daughter is flighty and personality-less in comparison. Am in love with my saanen.


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## Janis Sauncy (Apr 11, 2006)

cathleenc:

I have a Sannen/Toggenburg doe and she is wonderful. Loving, calm, never gave any problems when we were milking her. Her name is "Sweet Pea," and, not only does she look pure Saanen, I think she definitely inherited the personality, too.

If I were going to start all over with an all-dairy herd, it would be an all-Saanen herd. What I have now are just pet/brush eaters and I'm starting to lose some to old age. I just lost "Buttercup" (Sweet Pea's mom and the Toggenburg half) this past weekend. She was at least two years old when I got her and I'd had her ten or eleven years.

Janis


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

> Next year I plan to have a Nigerian Dwarf buck breed a Saanen doe.


I did that last year! The wether is just the friendliest little guy - someone's coming to look at him this weekend. His sister was a little more standoffish, but she's come around. If I don't sell her, I'll breed her to my Nigerian buck who comes from milking bloodlines - she should make a decent little milk goat.  

When I took my Saanens to the show a few weeks ago, two of them had never been off the farm. They were a little nervous, but stayed very calm and sensible, not a peep out of any of them. :angel: Unlike the Boers and Nubians - I'm sure one of them was yelling "MARK!!" and another was hollering "BILL!!"  Too funny.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Oh, yes, I love the good nature of the Saanens. I have LaManchas and Oberhaslis for the same reason, they are calm, quiet, loving, and just plain sweet. I like those floppy ears on the Nubians, but I can't take the noise level! I've been owned by Saanens off and on in the past, and never had a bad one. 

I've been to shows where the judge had a mike at her disposal, and never needed it until she got to the Nubians! Couldn't hear a word over the goats yelling without it.

(Still, I'm partial to my LMs and Obers.  )

Back to the original question. You could try using lights to trigger heat off season. You keep the lights on until March or so, simulating the longer days of summer, then decrease the amount of light available to simulate the shortening days of fall. It's supposed to bring the does into heat for off season breeding. Seems like a lot of work to me, but I know of dairies that need year-round production using it successfully. For myself, if I want year-round milk, I just make sure at least one doe is bred early in the fall season and one is bred late - like December or even early January - which gives me at least some milk year-round. It does spread out the kidding season and the bottle feeding, etc, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending. HTH.


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