Drying out my doe

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'll be breeding my lamancha doe next month so i'm going to start drying her off now so that she has a nice long rest... and her milk production is starting to go down so i think the time is right.

the thing is - i think this is going to be more stressful for me!

i'm using the "milk once a day every other day.... then milk just once a day, then milk once every other day" to gradually dry her off

i know that some people just stop milking but i dont think that right for us.

any tips?

 

[broke down ranch]

Well, if you are milking every other day then every day then every other day you are really sending mixed signals to her body. I think you should back off to just once a day for a couple of weeks, then every other day for a couple of weeks then not at all. Myself, I have heard horror stories of mastisis caused by milking infrequently so with my girls I drop off to once a day for 2 weeks then I stop. They are uncomfortable for a few days but that goes away pretty quickly...

 

[freemotion]

Total newbie milker here, too......can you not milk them out, too? I mean, milk less and less completely? More like the baby would as they eat more solid food? And then quit completely when you are down to......um.....I have no clue!

 

[ksalvagno]

I think that she meant that one day she milks once a day and then the next day she milks twice a day. Not sure.

 

[freemotion]

I read it as she now milks twice a day, so she will go to once a day. Then to once every other day, etc.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

I think you should back off to just once a day for a couple of weeks, then every other day for a couple of weeks then not at all.

this was what i was trying to say


but i dont think i had enough coffee to make sense
;-)

so it sounds like i'm on the right track???

i had also wondered about not milking her out all the way (same rationalization that a baby may not take it all)...but didnt know if that was ok or not

and so this is only stressful for me??

 

[freemotion]

No, I am getting stressed out with you....I will need to dry my doe out in a few months, assuming she gets pregnant as planned in December. If her condition holds, I plan to have her dry by the time she is three months pregnant.

So when do I start the process? A month in advance it seems?

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'm hoping for some insight too. i think just like everything there are a million different ways to do it. fiascofarms says that they dry them out when bred but many 'how to dairy with goats' says not to dry them out until they are 2 months til kidding! i'm not kidding!!! this to me sounds a little crazy but i can see it if you are in the production biz.

my plan was to have her dry a week or so before she is bred and just let her rest. we didnt want to 'push' her and since her production is decreasing anyway - at some point that quart-of-milk-a-milking is going to get awfully expensive.

so we are doing it, probably, early but we'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[ksalvagno]

I don't know the process for drying does out but everyone I know that milks goats does dry them off before breeding them. But none of them are big dairy either. They milk for themselves and some sell for animal use.

 

[skyesrocket]

The main reason for drying them out two months before the due date is so they will produce colestrum for the babies.
Mine get dried off every fall whether they will be bred or not...because I don't like to milk in the winter.