Can you increase the odds of having more doelings born?

 This is a question that all goat breeders would like an answer to.  There have been a number theories.  Many of them have a lot of people who are adamant that it helped them get a higher ratio of doelings, while others say it didn't seem to help at all, or that they had even more bucklings than before.  These theories are rather hard to test out, because each year is different.  How can you know whether you would have had 75% doelings this year or not, or if the theory applied increased your numbers of doelings?  It would almost have to be done on a herd for many years before one could start to see a change that was sure to be attributed to the theory.  I will list a few of the ideas and theories I have heard.

In order to make the following test runs a little more meaningful, I have listed several years of kidding without any doeling increasing attempts...

Year Doelings Bucklings
2002 3 (23%) 10 (77%)
2003 3 (30%) 7 (70%)
2004 6 (50%) 6 (50%)
2005 4 (27%) 11 (73%)
2006 11 (33%) 22 (66%)
2007 11 (42%) 15 (58%)
2008 10 (36%) 18 (64%)
2010 14 ( 44%) 18 (56%)
Acidity of the doe:

It seems that according to research, male sperm (bearing the Y chromosome) thrive in an alkaline environment, while female sperm (bearing an X chromosome) prefer acidic conditions. Because of this, people have tried to increase the acidity of the doe. Many say that adding apple cider vinegar (ACV) to the water helps increase the number of does born. I have not found that in my herd as we feed ACV to both does and bucks in their water regularly. Others have tried adding even more vinegar. One method that I tried was feeding each doe a tablespoon of vinegar each day for a week or so before breeding. It's hard to say what kind of results I got because two of the does had sextuplets and quints respectively, each with only one doe in the 'litter'. That kind of threw the numbers off. Here's what we had the year we did the vinegar before breeding:

2009
Does treated with vinegar Does with no vinegar
Doelings - 7 (40%) Bucklings - 8 (60%)

Doelings - 5 (50%)

If you count the kids from the sextuplets and quints, it's 7 (33%)

Bucklings - 5 (50%)

If you count the kids from the sextuplets and quints, it's 14 (67%)
Total average across herd that year was: Doelings - 13 (36%) & Bucklings 23 (64%)
 

Stress Level of the Buck

 I tried this method out in 2011 and was very happy with the results - does bred with this method had 71% doelings! I tried it again in 2012 with a little less success, but the does bred with this method had a better ratio than those bred without it.  2013 had about half the does bred with each method.  The 2013 does bred with the stress method had a much higher doeling %.  See chart below for details of each year.

The theory is that male sperm aren't viable as long as female sperm.  So... You let the buck flirt through the fence all morning over a doe not letting them breed right away. Then, put them together about 12 hours after they first started flirting, ONLY letting them breed once or twice.  If she is still in heat in another 12 hours, you can let them breed one or two more times.  This is supposed to create a situation where mostly female sperm get to the eggs.  It has been interesting to see how it has played out in my herd.

2011
8 Does bred to a stressed buck 2x only 8 Does pen bred as many times as they wanted
Doelings - 15 (71%) Bucklings - 6 (29%)

Doelings - 7 (41%)

Bucklings - 10 (59%)
Total average across herd that year was: Doelings - 22 (58%) & Bucklings 16 (42%)

2012
18 Does bred to a stressed buck 2x only 4 Does pen bred as many times as they wanted
Doelings - 14 (39%) Bucklings - 22 (61%)

Doelings - 2 (25%)

Bucklings - 6 (75%)
Total average across herd that year was: Doelings - 16 (36%) & Bucklings 28 (64%)

2013
11 Does bred to a stressed buck 2x only 9 Does pen bred as many times as they wanted
Doelings - 16 (67%) Bucklings - 8 (33%)

Doelings - 7 (47%)

Bucklings - 8 (53%)
Total average across herd that year was: Doelings - 23 (59%) & Bucklings 16 (41%)
Interesting note on this year - the does pen bred had fewer kids with many singles

Incomplete data for 2014 and 2015.

2016
15 Does bred to a stressed buck 2x only 6 Does pen bred as many times as they wanted
Doelings - 27 (70%) Bucklings - 12 (30%)

Doelings - 5 (42%)

Bucklings - 7 (58%)
Total across all that year was: Doelings - 32 (63%) & Bucklings 19 (37%)

2017
15 Does bred to a stressed buck 1-2x only 2 Does pen bred as many times as they wanted
Doelings - 23 (60%) Bucklings - 15 (40%)

Doelings - 0 (0%)

Bucklings - 4 (100%)
Total across all that year was: Doelings - 23 (55%) & Bucklings 19 (37%)

Have fun and enjoy your goats!

~The GoatMentor