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Split Hoof Ranch

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Herd Sires & Doe's

Former /Refernce Herdsires

For Sale

Last updated Oct. 13th, 2021

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Famacha scoring

Famacha scoring is a process of peeling back the goats eye and scoring there inner eyelid to tell you how high the blood count is or if they are anemic. We score each goat a minimum of 3 times a year and keep track of each animals score and use there scores as a culling factor. Those that are continually carrying the higher loads of parasite are culled and sent to market. Thru this practice we have eliminated the need of deworming most of the goats in our herd with hopes of totally eliminating the need to deworm in the near future.

Average Daily Gain

Average daily gain is a very key part of a meat goat operation. It will tell you which doe's are putting the most pounds on there kids. We use ADG of our kid crop to determine which kids stick around to become a part of our breeding program or sell to others for their breeding program if they are sold at market.

We weigh and tag each kid as they are born and record for later use. At approximately 90 days we wean kids and get there weights again to determine their ADG. This information can be tracked on paper or there are several kidding calculators available. We have used the OSU meat goat site http://agecon.okstate.edu/meatgoat/record.asp. This free tool is a must have in the meat goat industry.

Maternal Instincts

You must have doe's with strong maternal traits. If they refuse to care for there offspring you do not need to give them another chance. They are only costing you money and need to be removed from the herd. For this reason we also score our doe's for maternal instincts. Not every kiko doe will be the best mother. Some are better than others and it is your job as a breeder to find those that excel and remove the others. Doe's must also be clean teated without fish or extra teats, spurs, or other abnormalities. Some will argue this but they are to be clean 1+1 teated here at SHR. We have sold some commercials with extra teats but not before explaining to customer the risk involved. We have never and will not sale a registered doe without being clean teated.

Parasite resistance/resilience, AGD, and Maternal instincts are all important pieces to the puzzle. All breeders will place emphasis on the traits at different levels depending on there operational needs. We try to balance all 3 to fit our needs and they can change from season to season. We suggest that you set goals for what you expect on ADG from your kid crop and try to improve each kidding season. Also don't compare farm to farm with this data. No 2 farms are the same and therefore #'s can be and will be different. Set a good starting point and build from there. In our experience you will need to cull till it hurts and then cull some more. Also keep in mind that you can always raise better than you can buy. Breeders do not sell their best in most cases.

We hope this info helps you as you moved forward in your goat journey. If we can be of any assistance please contact us by call or texting 405-568-6842 or by email [email protected]

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