Responding to the question about whether to increase feed during the winter brought to mind a related question. We free feed grow-outs and we limit feed for our breeding does (except when they're nursing) and buck. The advice to check along the spine has let us keep everyone at a good weight for breeding. But what about the youngsters we didn't send to freezer camp but kept for breeding next season? The 2 proven does we use now weren't ready to breed until they were about 7 months old (I know that is later than many folks say, but we also take 12 weeks instead of 8 for our meat mutts to get to 5 pounds without pellets)
So we want these young does to be ready to breed early in the spring and they were born right at the end of August. We haven't started checking their backs each week yet, but probably should soon. And maybe weigh them to see when they get close to adult weight (8 to 9 pounds so far for us). We don't want them to put on fat that could interfere with breeding. How do the wise ones on here handle this transition?
So we want these young does to be ready to breed early in the spring and they were born right at the end of August. We haven't started checking their backs each week yet, but probably should soon. And maybe weigh them to see when they get close to adult weight (8 to 9 pounds so far for us). We don't want them to put on fat that could interfere with breeding. How do the wise ones on here handle this transition?
