Milking a goat - not

[FoodKillah]

Quote:
ofcourse

and i believe they would milk her better than i would. They would just keep the goodies

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I always thought that you would have 2 "sheds" in the goat pen, one for the mamas and one for the babies. The babies don't sleep with the moms so in the morning you get fresh milk, but after your done you leave the baby with the mom during the day to nurse. Then if something happened and you couldn't milk, you just put them back together... someone correct my logic of it's wrong... but that's what I thought.

 

[ShadowRooster]

Babies are weaned at 6-8 weeks, then, if not milked, she will stop making milk. If you want to milk, she will keep milking for a while after. I never have milked my girls so I dont know how long.

 

[ShadowRooster]

Quote:
So now you would have to wake up and feed the babies! LOL

 

[mom'sfolly]

Its been awhile since my goat milking days, but if I remember correctly, a good dairy goat can be milked about 10 months after freshening. You would taper off before she kids again. I was a goat dairy girl, sort of, when I was a kid. The dairy man had a herd of about 10, and kept the babies off the girls so he could milk twice a day. I think if you keep the kid on, you have a bit more flexibility; but as I say, its been a long time since my dairy girl days.

 

[mom2jedi]

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Hey Cari, was just looking around your website and I really liked what I saw! Are you going to add goats eventually?

 

[sammileah]

i just started milking 2x a day I kept the babies on her during the day and milked in the morning. most kids will bucket feed pretty quick if you didn't want to bottle feed.
there is no reason you have to breed a goat if you don't want milk. does will still go thru cycles/heats but as long as no bucks around its no problem.

 

[FoodKillah]

Quote:
Well i think there is, we eat them around here, i think in usa you dont am i right?

 

[mom2jedi]

Quote:
Well i think there is, we eat them around here, i think in usa you dont am i right?

It's becoming more popular here in the States but certainly not as common as where you are. If you didn't end up wanting to milk the goats, you would still breed them for the meat kids and only have them lactating as long as they need to for the babies. The only reason to keep a goat lactating after the kids wean would be if you wanted milk, then you have to milk twice a day.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

This might be the place to mention there are meat goats and dairy goats and you might want to select a meat breed if you don't want to bother with milking. Dairy goats have been bred over generations to produce much more milk than an average mutt goat.
Milk production is a matter of food and supply and demand. If the mother has adequate nutrition, she will generally produce as much milk as the baby takes, and if it's twins, she makes that much more because the babies are taking it.
This is the principle used when humans interfere and milk the mother. They remove milk from the udder and the mother makes more. The whole process is a balance that can be swayed one way or another depending upon various factors.
A lengthy talk with a grandmother who has nursed many children would be very valuable in learning about the supply/demand balance and what factors into it and how it can be manipulated.