Decoding Goat Lingo

Kid - A goat, male or female, under one year of age.

Yearling - A goat, male or female, who is one year old.

Doeling - A female goat under one year of age.

Doe - Any female goat over the age of one year of age.

Nanny - A female goat who has had a litter of kids.

Buckling - A male goat under the age of one year of age.

Buck - A male goat one year or older.

Litter - Kids are born in litters, like how we say a litter of puppies. This is because goats usually have more than one kid.

Freshen - This means the goat is lactating or producing milk. First freshening is the first lactation, second freshening is the second lactation and so on.

FF - First freshening or first freshener.

Kidding Season - This is not a season of cracking jokes. We will describe the time of year that kids are born as kidding season.

Breeding Season - This happens before kidding season. This is the bucks favourite time of year!

Rut - This is another name for breeding / mating season. This occurs from August to January for most goat breeds. Nigerian dwarf goats are one of a few breeds that can breed year round. Nigerian bucks and does go into heavy rut during this time. So heavy heat cycles for the does and the bucks are more eager to breed when the days get longer and the temperatures drop.

Goatling - This is not actually a term but my husband refuses to stop using it. He /insists/ it's helpful in conversations so we don't mix up our kids and the kids. The correct term is actually "kid" see above.

If anyone needs another word defined please let me know and I will gladly add it to this list! Email me at farm@bayviewsprings.ca.