114 MODERN MILK GOATS 



Care of the Buck. — The Buck Kid. — One of the most 

 remarkable, one may almost say appalling, facts about 

 goats is their precocity. If born late in the year a kid of 

 two months old, buck or doe, will come in season with the 

 rest of the herd, and while their unsuspecting keeper is 

 still regarding them as infants, they will have started on 

 their lifework of reproduction. A good many instances 

 are known of does at seven months old bearing a good 

 sized pair of twins and developing milk for them. Such 

 precocity, however, is at the cost of the little doe's own 

 future. She will be stunted in growth and limited in 

 milk production all her life. The young buck as well, 

 at two months old, if left unsuspectingly with the 

 does, will promptly get his mother, his twin sister, and 

 any other available doe in kid, to his own consequent loss 

 of growth, if not his final loss of usefulness. 



Separate the Sexes. — Even those bucks who are born 

 in the early spring, long before the season l)egins will 

 harass the little does when a montla old, and for the good 

 of all concerned the doe and buck kids should be sepa- 

 rated at about that age. The separation sliould be com- 

 plete, the buck kids going to a distant pen, where they 

 cannot see, hear, or smell the does. Then when the 

 season comes on, in August, or a little later, the young 

 bucks are spared to a considerable degree the intense 

 excitement consequent upon the season. If a young 



