Moon Phases (Part 2)
by Gary Pfalzbot
About the Author
Time of year doesn't seem to play any role in whether or not kids will be born during the full moon phase. Nearly each one of my goats has followed this full moon calendar in the heat of summer or in the very chilly winter months. However, I can relate that most of my goats are most likely to kid between the months of December and March.
I have read posts from a number of other goat owners over the years and have paid close attention to the phase of the moon when they announce their goats have kidded. The greatest percentage of these also fall within the full moon phase. The exceptions seem to be those owners who shelter their goats under artificial light or in complex shelter arrangements.
I do not see anything wrong with raising goats in this manner. However I feel strongly that goats may be influenced by artificial light in such a way that their biological clocks are stimulated and disturbed to the point that they cannot discern what phase the moon may be in. There is some evidence to support this in studies on the pineal gland in goats. (The link previously featured here was discovered broken and removed. I will continue to research this area and provide supporting evidence as it is discovered).
Why would goats display this behavior?
Three schools of thought here, the first using the percentage Boer mentioned above...I feel strongly that some breeds of goats such as the Spanish are less likely to be domesticated and feel a need to protect their young by keeping them hidden until any dangers have passed. Since this breed of goat may have been one of the last to be truly domesticated, they are more likely to be the stronger in giving birth and will be less likely to encounter problems in giving birth to one or more kids at a time.
The second thought is that the more domesticated goats have had many more years of human intervention and are usually more apt to have problems in kidding. We as goat owners are providing them nutrition and chemicals they may otherwise not receive in the wild. Perhaps they find their own type of safety in being able to immediately see their newborn kids.
The third thought centers around goats being subject to somewhat of a type of genetic engineering that we as the owners have planned and mapped out for them. There are several farms that employ artificial insemination (AI) as a part of their program. The are also a number of kid goats that are bottle fed from day one in strict control environments which in my opinion, somewhat cancels out at least a small portion of their natural behavior. Hence the bottle fed goat that will bond closely to the person feeding them, for life.
Artificial Light - An interesting factor
Since my original writing of this article over 10 years ago, I have consistently collected data on my farm to help either establish or disprove the full moon theory and further expound upon the mystery. For the most part and despite a number of external factors, (not including artificial light), my data supports that at least 90% of my does have given birth within the full moon window. However in 2006, another factor came into play without me realizing it at the time: artificial light or, security lights.
