We are in our first year of raising dairy goats in central New Jersey. We have seven wonderful does who gave birth this summer. We've started milking two of them, whose kids we've sold, and we'll begin milking the others as soon as their kids are no longer nursing. We plan to make cheese and soap from the milk. My partner went to a dairy farmers' field day recently, and the farmers milked their cows only once a day because they were using the milk for cheese and wanted milk that was richer in fat. My question is: Can we do the same thing with our goats? A secondary question: Will we find the milking gets easier in the second year after the does' bodies have matured more? All of our does were 16-17 months old when they g

-- Bill Hawley (info@silvermaplefarm.net), September 07, 2001

Answers

Milking only once a day will cut the amount of milk you will get. Butterfat is determined by several things, the breed, the individual doe, what they eat, and you will also usually get higher butterfat during certain parts of the lactation when the milk production is lower (at the start, and at the end). Depending on how much milk you want and the amount of time you have to milk would help you decide if you want to milk once a day or twice a day. Since you have several does, you may want to let the better milkers milk twice a day and the others only once a day. Am not sure as to what you mean if it will get easier. They will usually give more milk as a second freshener. If they are not cooperating on the milk stand now is the time to work that out. I have some that I prefer to milk over others, teat placement, size, etc. - that will not change as they get older.

-- Leslie in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), September 07, 2001.

I think in my "lack of caffine" state this morning I replied either to your post someplace else or someone with a similiar one. I remember something about the cow dairy ringing abell. So, to answer your question again in case it didn't post.... If you plan on using the milk to make cheese and butterfat you will need to consider milking 2x's a day. It takes a gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese. I have not heard about the Bf being more concentrated in this type of situation. the reason i say this is because we are on test. although Bf does increase and seems more initially, or later in lactation after they peak, it doesn't really become more concentrated, as least significanrly after lower milk yeilds.

I would not really play around with milking your does once a day unless you check for mastitis. You need to make sure they aren't getting full bags which need milking. You can try it and see, but I would only recommend it if you are going to dry them off. thats how we dry off ours, by gradually tapering milkings. You ahve to milk in order to stimulate the production, it not it declines.

Yes, does will be better milking in their 2nd lactations. As far as behavior on the stand. if you mean udder or teat faults then thats iffy. Some of the problems such as small tight udders with small teats will get better after the 2nd kidding in some cases.

Hope this helps.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.

If you wait until you sell the kids to start milking them, a number of problems can arise, including: mastitis, undetected until it has wreaked permenent damage to the udder, a lopsided udder, due to the kid(s) preferring one side to the other, no milk at all ( kids will nurse as long as the dam will let them, which with mine is until they get bred, and some does start to dry off as soon as they get bred!), and almost certainly reduced milk production and does that freak out when you touch the udders. I'm not at all against dam raising, but it is really important to get the does up on a milking stand twice a day, milk out whatever milk is there, a squirt or two or whatever, and feed them enough grain to keep them in good body condition.

I think you will find that a lot of things are different between goats and cattle, especially the feeding and when dealing with milk fever. I cannot see how milking 1X a day would increase butterfat, seems to me that it would only start the drying off process. If you want good butterfat, feed your does about 1/4 -1/2 cup black oil sunflower seeds with the grain every day. YOu can get the seeds at the feed store and it will give them nice coats too.

Will the milking get easier- do you mean the teats are small, or are they hard to milk even though the teats are big enough, or is it that the goats pitch a fit when you milk them? ( milking is really unpleasant when it's all three!!!) I think you probably mean the teat size. Yes, they will get bigger, but the process will be aided by your milking them regularly now. The milking seems to stretch and enlarge the teats, maybe from the milk being forced through them. However, some does will always have teeny teats, even after their second freshening. Get rid of that kind. Teats should be large enough to grab with at least two or three fingers and should fill up with a lot of milk, not the kind that have a meager, pinhole type stream. If the teats are large enough but hard to squeeze and milk, it could be mastitis.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 08, 2001.

Bill, I agree that milkfat depends on breed, diet, and genetics and not on how much you milk them. I have two Nubians and milk them only once a day. I milk them 2x a day for at least 4 months to make sure they have a good supply established. I have nursed 7 children over 14 years and transfer my knowledge of lactation to my girls. Physiology of lactation is the same. I know some may disagree, but i have never had a case of mastitis.Anyway I am not here to debate the issue of managing lactation, but to share what I do. My girls are heading into the last month of milking as they are due in December. I get exactly half of the milk production whn I go to 1x day about 1/2 gallon each. They are 3yo now. I agree with Rebekah that you need to work out the milking problems NOW, as it will get worse. Hope this helps, Cindy ps i gradually drop to once a day over a period of 1-2 weeks.

-- Cindy (ourfamilyfarm@msn.com), September 08, 2001.

Cindy is correct. Milking once a day or twice has nothing to do with mastitis, unless your does leak from their orifices while waiting for you to milk them (overfilling) then with an open orifice this could let bacteria in which could cause mastitis. Milk left in the udder only causes less milk, though there is supposedly a rare condition of a doe having an allergic reaction to milk left in the udder when over uddered. Has to be a rare thing if you have been to any shows :)

The biggest reason to milk twice a day, every day, for 10 months (or the first 100 days of their pregnancy) is so that the does will have long consistent lactaions for you for their whole lives. The worse thing you can do is to dry a doe after she has only nursed her kids for 3 months, or dry her to breed her 6 months later. It sort of fixes in her brain that this is all that will ever be asked of her, then you try milking her all summer the next year, and when July comes and you are down to a pint a milking, you wonder why!

Butterfat has nothing to do with milking frequency. It does have a great deal to do with breed, bloodline, feeding and what part of lactation you are talking about. Early and late lactation will see some very impressive butterfat in our Nubians.

Milking next year will be easier since you will know what you are doing, the does will know the milking routine, the teats will be longer and more mature, the does will be more mature and produce more milk. Next year with older does and more milk you will also want to milk once a day all the does nursing kids, to keep their milk supply up, to stop the lopsided udders, which are a pain to milk, and to watch your udder health. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 08, 2001.

Bill, I forgot, another very good reason to check the udders at least once a day, even when they are nursing kids, is just to handle the udders and make sure there are no scratches or cuts. I know that I have sat down to milk a doe that I knew would have only a few squirts due to two or three kids, and gasped when I discovered a big bruise, or a gaping cut, or some similar injury. The does were walking about as though nothing was wrong, if I hadn't sat down to milk them, I would not have known and been able to treat the wounds right away.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 09, 2001.