There were 7 dead babies this year, more than I could imagine, but apparently it is not an unusual aspect of raising Angora goats. Contributing to the problem, the rain and cold temperatures resulted in at least three of the weak babies with pneumonia. Two Bit is missing and I suspect he died in the bush and has not been discovered. He was the weakest, smallest triplet of Sherri and was being bottle fed to supplement his needs since he was always pushed aside by his stronger siblings.
The little fellow on the right is half French Alpine and half Angora. Unfortunately for him and for most of the bucklings, their fate is for meat purposes. There were not many doelings born this year, but a few will be kept for breeding. Three new Nigerian Dwarf goats were first time mothers and two were decent mothers, but the third abandoned her babies. Angoras are very poor mothers as well and I will debate for the next six months whether to continue the Pygora/Nygora breeding project or not. I am in the process of procuring a Nigerian buckling with blue eyes and a registered Pygmy buck. Although I have not milked any of the goats, there are several with excellent udders and they would be excellent milk goats.
One thing for sure though….the goaties are adorable, even the grown ups, and the kids are amazingly cute. If it was a more for sure thing, I would not hesitate to breed the other Angora buck again. At any rate, the Angora girls will be bred by the Pygmy buck for sure. No more pure Angoras on this farm, thank you!