Hi everyone, i was wondering, after the does kid, should i wait until they pass the afterbirth before i milk them? I understood that to be correct but then i also read that it is good to get the colostrum in quickly. last year i waited until the does had passed everything before i miked them, and that left the babies with no first meal for up to a few hours. Is this okay for them to wait, or should i not wait for her to pass the afterbirth and just milk her when she is done delivering kids?

-- Susan (dsowen@tds.net), February 06, 2002

Answers

Response to When to milk?

Nursing, or handling the udder, stimulates oxytocin release, which in turn signals the animal to let down her milk. Oxytocin also has another job of stimulating the uterus to contract, thereby expelling the placenta. So there's no reason not to milk and get the colustrum into the baby quickly if you are there and it's handy to do it. And no baby animal is going to wait until Mom is done with everything, anyway! When they get on their feet they go for the food. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), February 06, 2002.

Susan...if I'm raising the babies just for meat, I'll milk out some of the colostrum into bottles and immediately feed to the kids to be sure that they get what they need. If the babies are to be sold as future breeding animals, I'll milk out some of the colostrum, heat-treat and then feed to the babies. But in either case, I NEVER milk out the mother totally for two or three days...to avoid a calcium deficiency in the new mother!! You can milk the doe whether or not she has passed the afterbirth. In fact, milking the doe before she has completely passed the afterbirth will stimulate hormones that will cause her to pass the afterbirth more quickly and completely! If I've given you some incorrect advice...I'm sure that someone with more experience will reply. Good luck!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), February 06, 2002.

Marcia, did I hear you right about heat-treating colostrum? Why in the world would someone want to heat colostrum any higher than normal body temperatures? Surely it would destroy all the benefits of feeding colostrum in the first place.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), February 07, 2002.

Heat treating is done to prevent disease transmission, namely, CAE. Check out this link to find out more about CAE. WSU-CAE

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 07, 2002.

I heat-treat the colostrum to 130 degrees in a crockpot and hold it at that temp for an hour. I've tried the thermos technique, but could never keep it at a constant temp. From what I've learned, as long as you don't heat the colostrum to 140 or higher, the antibodies will be fine! I also heat-treat the milk. I feel that pasteurization will destroy too much of the "good stuff" in milk.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), February 07, 2002.