You can add hand or pen/pasture breedings, artificial insemination and embryo transplants for animals in your herd, and services for does and to bucks owned by others.

To add a Breeding, go to the animal's Breeding page and click the Add Breeding link. 

When a due date is included in the breeding record, a notification of the upcoming kidding will be included in the EasyList based on your report preferences, display on the Herd Dashboard two weeks prior to the kidding date, and appear in the Kidding Schedule.

Hand Breeding, AI, and ET

If you have confirmation that the breeding event occurred, such as the doe was hand bred or AI’d, add the actual date in the Serviced/Exposed field on the Add Breeding form and the due date will automatically be calculated based on the average 150 gestation; The due date can be edited, which is helpful for Nigerian Dwarfs.

Pen Breeding

When your animal will be penned with the buck for a period of time, enter the date the doe was put in with the buck in the Serviced/Exposed field. This will create a due date for the earliest day possible based on a 150 day gestation.

Editing a pen breeding to the actual service date when the animal has been covered

If you later see the animal being serviced or is marked (when using a marking harness), adding the actual date of service allows you to update the animal's due date to be more accurate, and maintains the original exposure date in the breeding record. To add the later service/exposure:

1. Edit the Breeding record, 

2.  Click on the "Add another service to this breeding record" link,

3. Enter the new Service/Exposure Date into the form, and

4. Confirm you want to update the estimated due date based on the new date of exposure.

You'll then see the new due date saved to the animal's Breeding record and your Kidding Schedule will be automatically updated.

Adding a Breeding When Multiple Bucks are Present

If your animal was exposed to multiple bucks at one time, leave the Bred To field empty on the Add Breeding and Add Kidding forms.  Once you've confirmed the sire of the offspring you can edit the breeding record and add the buck.

"Bred To" Animal List

As part of the Add Breeding function, the system displays a list of all bucks ever associated with your herd that are five months of age and older to pick from so you don’t have to look up his herd record when adding a breeding to him. If you don't find the animal you are looking for, click the Add Buck to Breeding Record link in the dialog to add the new animal.

Animals that are no longer physically in your herd continue to display in the list because there may be cases where you'd still want to add them to a breeding. For example, you are using the animal's semen for artificial insemination or you are entering breedings into the system after the animal died or has been sold. 

Learn more about adding progressive reproductive stages and breeding outcomes