I am fixing to get a couple of does. I would like to have some goat milk available, but I don't want to be tied down to milking twice a day. I read somewhere that you can successfully milk a doe while keeping her with her kids if you don't need much milk. Has anyone tried this? Any specific problems or things to watch out for? Thanks for any help you can provide.

-- txcountrygirl (nancyk@icsi.net), July 30, 2000

Answers

Yes, you can successfully milk a doe while she is dam rasing her kids, we do this with our CAE neg does. We have a lot of milkers and we both work full time so we had to do it this way. Nothing to watch for other than sometimes the udder may develop east and west coast teats, where they turn outward. If you show then you may want to reconsider.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 30, 2000.

Txcountrygirl, and a Hi to Bernice! The problem with this scenerio comes when the doe weans, all on her own, the kid at about 8 weeks or some very good moms may let them nurse for 4 to 5 months. Then what? if you don't continue to milk the doe she just dries up. Fairly expensive way to get milk for only 3 or 4 months. Unless you are going to keep 3 or 4 does, and stagger their breedings. Whatever mammal you are going to raise for milk, just like a garden or anything else of real value, it is work and commitment, you can cheat and do less, by perhaps milking once a day or not weeding the garden, but in the end you will have less milk and a doe who losses her will to milk in following kiddings, and a garden that losses production earlier from competition for weeds. O.K. not the best of analogies perhaps... Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 30, 2000.

I understand what you are thinking, but the thing with any dairy animal is that they require that personal touch and anything less than extremely regular care will most likely result in problems. The twice a day every day is kind of a pain at times, but overall I have to say that I really enjoy the stability that that commitment has given me. I must go home and milk and it stops me from working way too much. There are many times where I go and do my "chores" and then come back to work, but it gives me a reason to pause.

I guess you have to decide if you really want to keep goats. It takes time. Best of luck!

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), July 30, 2000.

I was just about asleep when I answered your post. I forgot to add that we do milk 2 times a day. The only time I cheat is when the mother is not a good milker to begin with and not a show goat. We are on DHIR test so we push the production. But, as Vickie and Doreen said (Hi back Vickie) she will dry up and you have to make that committment. You can do it the way you mentioned and as i said; but she will dry up faster without regular milkings. Its your decision.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 30, 2000.

Thanks for your replies! You've answered my question and helped me re-define it somewhat. The real problem isn't milking twice a day every day. I already have other animals that require my attention morning and evening without fail. The real problem will be every 2 to 3 months when I'm gone for a week. The dogs go to the kennel, and the barn cats and chickens are fed by a willing neighbor. But I don't know anyone to goat sit that would know (or want to know) how to milk a goat. Any ideas? What do you do when you have to be away?

-- txcountrygirl (nancyk@icsi.net), July 30, 2000.

I am babysitting and milking to goats for a friend right now[ I keep the milk and get payed to do it, Check with 4h kids some one in a goat group there would probably do it for some spending cash.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 30, 2000.

I am babysitting and milking to goats for a friend right now[ I keep the milk and get payed to do it], Check with 4h kids some one in a goat group there would probably do it for some spending cash.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 30, 2000.

I am babysitting and milking two goats for a friend right now[ I keep the milk and get payed to do it], Check with 4h kids some one in a goat group there would probably do it for some spending cash.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 30, 2000.

sorry about the triple post, I hit submit and nothing happened so I hit it a few more times ops.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 30, 2000.

Wish I lived close to you I'd be glad to milk goats for you. I just learned how & took care of some for a friend last week, my 8 yr. old loved it as well, he asked me how much we we're paying them:) You might ask around, there could be people like me who would jump at the chance, for the experience & the milk.

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), July 30, 2000.

Getting someone to milk them for you, and do it the way that you would, (that's the real catch), can really be a problem. We dam raise all our kids, and I also milk twice a day.I could get away with milking mornings only,especially if I shut the kids in a pen overnight, but I feed them twice a day even if they don't have any extra milk. Our does will often nurse the kids until they are 6-8 months old! Once they get bred again they have a tendency to wean the kids. In late fall, I dry off the does that aren't producing much, such as the yearlings, and switch to once a day milking on the others. Then in the winter, I dry them all off about 2 months before they are due to kid. This is our vacation time, and it is not too hard to get someone to come over once a day and feed them hay and grain. If you are only going to have one or two goats, you might be able to transport them to the goatsitter's place, which would make it much easier and workable.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), July 30, 2000.

We like Kathy,Kathy,Kathy :) are going to be sitting for some goats this week, we also do alot of outside breeding so we are setup to house other folks goats away from my diary barn. Perhaps when you purchase your stock the folks nearby will know someone who sits or will come and milk at you house. I would start with an older 4H kid who can drive. Very motivated by money at this age, I also give a bonus if nothing goes wrong! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 01, 2000.

Last year, when my second-freshener doe was about 4 months fresh, the two of us were drowning in milk at about eight pounds a day. I had only so much time for making cheese, and the chickens would only use so much, so I tapered the doe down to once-a-day milkings. She slowly, slowly tapered off until, by mid-March, she was giving about two pounds. I dried her off to kid in early May.

After she kidded this year I left the kids with her, but, for the first week, I milked the excess morning and night. There wasnt much. After a couple of months, we still werent getting a useable amount, and I worried that she was drying off, so I separated her from the kids. Boy, was I surprised! She was giving 11 to 12 pounds a day!

Soon we were drowning again, so now I just separate the kids in the morning and milk the doe in the afternoons after work, letting the kids have the milk through the night. Everybodys happy. I still feed a couple pounds to the chickens and get about 4 pounds for household use, plus the kids get milk and the does production stays high. When I sell the kids, Ill probably take her down to once-a- day milkings again.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 01, 2000.

I was wondering about that myself. The Kinder Goat breeder says she is getting more than a gallon a day from at least one of her does, and I'm thinking, I don't need that much milk, perhaps I could feed less concentrate and the doe would produce less. Let the hamster slow down, so to speak -- What do you caprinexperts think of that tack?

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), August 01, 2000.

Snoozy, depends on the does will to milk. If you take a good producing Nubian here at my farm who is milking 8 pounds, and decrease her feed, it will be a few weeks before she stops milking so much, in the mean time she will loose an incredible amount of weight and very quickly. Takes an awful lot of calories to put a gallon of 3 to 5% butterfat milk into the milk pail day in and day out, and a good milker will simply strip her reserves to continue milking. The real problem with hobby milking, just letting a doe nurse her kids for 3 months and then milking once a day for 3 or 4 more weeks, is that it teaches the doe that she is not expected to milk for a whole 10 months. Once again, if Y2K would have hit, though my does would have been thinner, they would have been milking still, while the does who are allowed to dry up early every year, you would be luck to be getting a cup, if that since you have preconditioned them to dry early! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 02, 2000.