Dairy goat breeding at our model farm

Cheetah Conservation Fund strives to be a centre of excellence for training farmers about how to manage their livestock in an integrated way with wildlife.  We are proud to show all visitors, students and farmers our onsite model farm, which displays livestock husbandry best practices.  We have herds of cows, sheep and goats and we are in the process of building a business to help sustain CCF’s important conservation work with the sustainable use of milk from our dairy goats.

 

On 29 May 2012 the clinic performed ultrasound exams on the most recently bred group of dairy goats to determine pregnancy status.  These six does, named Safire, Indiria, Noir, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Kimberley, were bred to our new buck, Ou-Raam, about two and a half months ago.  The gestation period for goats is 155 days, or approximately 5 months, so we will be expecting this group to kid at the end of July.   

 

Ultrasound exam confirmed all six were indeed pregnant - good news!  Since this is the first pregnancy for each of these females, they will likely only have one kid each.  Often on subsequent pregnancies does will give birth to twins.  Once the females give birth, they will become part of CCF’s milking herd, producing goat cheese for conservation.

 

We shall keep you updated about the progress of these new dairy goats.

 

Best wishes,

 

Gabriella Flacke DMV

Veterinarian

Cheetah Conservation Fund

 

Photos copyright © Cheetah Conservation Fund 2012