Embryo Transfer Program
The Preparation
In the spring of 2004 we plan to participate in our first Embryo Transfer (ET) program. Our plan is to use Kattie as our donor doe; she has an outstanding bloodline and has produced some truly tremendous kids, to include Enhancer I, Panna, Samantha, and Thunderbolt. We are still considering using Venus as a donor; but since her ‘Black Friday’, we will continue to monitor her and make the final decision in late February 2004
reaction plan
Step 1 of our planning is to have an adequate number of happy, healthy recipient does.
Many of the recipient does will come from our existing herd. All the does who kidded in the fall of 2003. except Venus, will be used because we know their capabilities, their health history, and their mothering abilities. All kids from the fall 2003 crop have gained more than ½ pound a day with no supplements other than the mothers are being fed twice a day instead of once a day
 
Two of our kikos, Holly and Eileen
But, we need a minimum of 10 to 12 recipient does; so, we attended the monthly auction at Elgin Crossroads on 12 Dec 03 with the intention of buying some recipients if the price was right.
The prices were extremely low. We decided to buy does with kids by their side. That way we would be able to determine their milk capacity and determine their mothering skills.
Note: any time you purchase from a sales barn, you never know what you are going to be bringing home – in the way of quality or disease. It is, therefore, extremely important to have an “isolation area” where the goats can be kept and monitored before joining the rest of your herd. All our purchases from sale barns are tested for CL, CAE, and Johnes as a precaution. Our intent is not to allow these receipts to join the herd at all.
As soon as we brought the goats home, we wormed them three days in a row with Valbazen. One week after the final worming with the white wormer, we wormed with an Ivomectin product. One of the three goats we bought had a very mild case of diarrhea, so we chose an aggressively treatment of Biosol and Kaopectin.
We also went to our vet’s and picked up three syringes of 3 cc lutylase just in case these does were pregnant (although we were certain, based on the age of the kids on them, they would not be bred back).
At the auction, they sold the male kids off one of the does. Based on the size of the kids, we guessed they were 2 months old. Two days after we gave this doe her lutylase shot, she aborted 3 fetuses – two girls and a boy – who were well-formed and clearly in the last trimester of the pregnancy. The clear indication is the kids by her side at the auction were not hers. The other two does had no noticeable reaction to the lutylase.
One of the three does we purchased as a recipient is a fullblood Boer with a week-old doe kid. She’s long and extremely thin but, with the proper nutrition, should be easily capable of carrying two embryos. The other two does are Kikos – one (the one who aborted the 3 fetuses) appears to be approximately 4 years old and is extremely malnourished; again, proper feeding and an occasional fortified Vitamin B complex shot should improve her condition. Both the Kikos have a large capacity and can easily carry two (or more) embryos.
With the actual flush date set and on the horizon, we spent several days making our final preparations…getting the does ready.
In January we made the decision to definitely use Kattie as our donor doe instead of Venus. Venus may be used in our next flush if this one is successful. We removed Kattie's male kid in mid-January but left Samantha for Kattie to wean. In retrospect this may have been a mistake; we probably should have weaned Samantha when we removed Thunderbolt.
On January 24th we picked up the last two does we need for receips. Damon Deese, the manager of the Lawrence County Co-Op, is loaning us two of his does. In return we will allow him to breed his remaining does to one of our bucks and return the two does bred. Since he does not have a buck, we determined we would give him a buck kid from the ET breeding. Damon, in loaning us the does, is just being a good neighbor.
Arrangements were confirmed with Jeff Latham of the Lazy L Farm in Livingston, AL. We were told CIDRs were to go in on March 1st; the breed date would be March 18th; and the f
lush would take place on March 25th. Since the breed date conflicted with the goat show in Montgomery, AL, we cancelled our plans to attend the show.
Jeff recommended we start to increase the amount of feed for the donor and receips a month to six weeks before the flush. Before we could increase the feed, we felt we needed to wean the babies of Kattie, our donor, and seven of the eleven receips so these does could dry up. Samantha was almost 4 months old; time to wean her regardless of how much Kattie protested. Dot, Matilda, Xenia, Koko, and Louise had all kidded in November, so their kids were at least 10 weeks old when we weaned them. Faith's daughter, Gidget, was only 8 weeks old as was Koko's little boy; but both kids were eating well. So the kids went in one paddock and the mothers in another, and we had a lot of extremely unhappy goats for about two weeks. (The mothers more unhappy than the babies because not only were they uncomfortable with full udders, they also were confident we were starving them by feeding only hay and water!)

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