# Milking Once A Day?



## Dreaming Of Goats (Sep 6, 2010)

I know that a lot of people milk twice a day. Can you milk once a day? Because I have to get ready for school at 6:45 and I catch the bus around 7:15....so milking would NOT work that early!


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## Roll farms (Sep 6, 2010)

If you leave the kids on the doe, you can milk in the evening....once the kids are weaned she will slow down production enough that the evening milking alone should be ok.


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## Mea (Sep 6, 2010)

Dreaming Of Goats & Sheep said:
			
		

> I know that a lot of people milk twice a day. Can you milk once a day? Because I have to get ready for school at 6:45 and I catch the bus around 7:15....so milking would NOT work that early!


Of course You can  !!!

     Last year, Fall thru Winter, i milked once a day,  evenings, for pretty much the same reason as you.  ( not school, but because of work,) 

    This year, we have again shifted to once a day milking, but in the morning.  We cut the feed a bit, until we found the balance point... enought feed to make the ammount of milk we want... but not so much feed that would over-extend the does udders.

  At this time we do not need the quantity of milk that twice a day gave us, but i want the does to keep on milking.  We milked one doe almost two years straight, on the once a day schedule.

      It is sort of like a "challange" for the does to prove that they have "the Will to milk, and the strength to sustain it"  A doe that is willing to milk thru... gets extra Goody points in my book.


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## Ariel301 (Sep 6, 2010)

Yes, you can milk once a day. I do so right now because twice a day is too much for my hands that are recovering from surgery. 

But...you will only get half as much milk as milking twice a day, because less demand for the milk and longer between milkings equals does producing less milk. And I have heard dairy goat people say that if you "don't milk them right" (i.e. twice a day for the full 305 day lactation) one year, it can reduce their production the next year too...I don't know if there is any truth to that at all, but it's what I've heard. 

And, if you're looking at showing the goat, obviously the bigger/fuller the udder looks when you go into the showring the better...if she's only filling it half full, she will be less competitive. 

So, it is less work to milk once daily, but you get some drawbacks in return.


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## ohiofarmgirl (Sep 6, 2010)

i milk one of our does only once a day - works just fine. 


or you could just get up earlier. one of my buddy's milks at 4am
;-)


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## Ariel301 (Sep 6, 2010)

ohiofarmgirl said:
			
		

> or you could just get up earlier. one of my buddy's milks at 4am
> ;-)


My dairy sheep friend and my neighbor down the road both milk that early too! I've never been a morning person lol...I milk at noon and midnight when I am milking twice. My girls have gotten so used to that schedule that if someone offers them breakfast before 11 am, they just look at it and go back to sleep.


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## freemotion (Sep 6, 2010)

Ariel301 said:
			
		

> ohiofarmgirl said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I love you!  And I feel so much better about myself!!!    I have been known to milk at 10 AM and PM, now I am at the crack of dawn at 9 AM....

Back to the OP...Have you milked a goat yet?  Once you get it down, it goes pretty quickly.  If you are already out there doing chores, it will seriously add maybe 10-20 minutes, including filtering the milk.  You can get into the habit of setting everything up the night before, after you do the PM milking.


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## ohiofarmgirl (Sep 7, 2010)

all y'all are just burning daylight! ha!

i've been out there a couple times and have had to get the roosters up.

;-)


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## Hollywood Goats (Sep 7, 2010)

I am up an hour before the goats and chickens, and I have woken the chickens up


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## cmjust0 (Sep 7, 2010)

If I'm up at 7am, one of two things has happened:

A) I haven't been to bed yet.
B) The house is on fire.

Otherwise....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.


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## deboraharangel (Oct 6, 2010)

I remember one of the activities in our adhd boarding school  is "How to Get the Milk Out", our instructor explained it how:

Place your thumb and forefinger at the top of the teat near the udder. Squeeze gently, but firmly. This will keep the milk that is in the teat from back flowing. Now bring in your other fingers. First the middle finger, then the ring finger and finally the little finger. Bring each finger down a fraction before the next. Do it right, and a jet of milk will appear. Never pull down on the teats.

Use both hands, squeezing one teat and then the other in a rhythm. Keep at it until the udder is no longer full and you can no longer squeeze out any milk. Remove the pail and then wipe the teats again. If necessary, add udder cream.

And he advice to milk it once a day.


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## freemotion (Nov 1, 2010)

deboraharangel said:
			
		

> I remember one of the activities in our adhd boarding school  is "How to Get the Milk Out", our instructor explained it how:
> 
> Place your thumb and forefinger at the top of the teat near the udder. Squeeze gently, but firmly. This will keep the milk that is in the teat from back flowing. Now bring in your other fingers. First the middle finger, then the ring finger and finally the little finger. Bring each finger down a fraction before the next. Do it right, and a jet of milk will appear. Never pull down on the teats.
> 
> ...


This was a copy/paste from: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Milk-a-Dairy-Goat&id=1380048

Do I smell spam?


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## mabeane (Nov 1, 2010)

I milk every morning at 6:30AM.  We didn't need extra milk and I didn't need to milk a second time.  Come Spring however when the bouncing babies show up we will milk twice a day at least until Fall.


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