2015 Embryo Flush

Today is a big day for our breeding program.  Last Froday (9/11/2015), we did the artificial insemination (AI) portion of our embryo flush.  I am partnering with several others in this flush.  Lee Patrick of Ragin River Kikos is the lead breeder for this flush.  Between the does he flushed and did AI on, he used Blue’s Son, Heslington Sesame, JFK Noble, 14/89, TAY Onyx and Sports Kat.  So quite a few rare genetic lines there. Very excited for him.

For our program, we are trying to build a top tier foundation doe herd.  One of the Kiko qualities that we value highly are the maternal characteristics, so we are making an effort to flush those lines most likely to produce durable, healthy, great mothers. Gary Richardson and I are partnering on a flush with JFK Noble over SDR Lara Bear (Newman Bear x Lark Bear).  Erin London and I are also partnering on a flush.  Our flush is Blue’s Son on our own GHK Venus (Iron Horse x Tasman Toia).  After searching and negotiating all summer, I was able to get some Sunboy 117 (Loverboy) semen.  We are fortunate to have three NZ Loverboy daughters in our herd, and this is my favorite genetics line for does.  After a lot of consideration, we selected GHK Sarabi to use with the Loverboy semen.  She is an Iron Horse x Lightin’s Lady doe.  Her dam is by Sunboy Waco 139 (Lightin) and out of a Generator daughter.  This gives us a great combination of Moneymaker, Iron Horse and Generator. We are hoping this gives a winning combination.  Lastly, we are flushing AVG Jodi (Ozark Rathe x AVG Miss Spots- a LEN 8 doe).  Ozark Rathe is currently at the Nebraska University farm and we have been told he produces the most parasite resistant offspring in their program.  Jodi is a thick blue roan doe who is a heavy milker.  We are excited to see the product of this cross.  We should see tough, hardy goats that grow out well and have great maternal characteristics.

Today is the embryo flush portion of the process. We will find out today how many embryos each produced and will be implanting the embryos on our recipients.  Not every embryo carries through all the way to kidding, but this gives us an idea of how many kids we can hope for.  We haven’t flushed any of these does before, so how well they program and how many eggs the will produce is an unknown.

Well, I will post later when we know how today goes.

GHK Sarabi