drying up does and tossing milk?

[Our7Wonders]

At what point, when drying up a doe, do you toss the milk? I recall a post that said the milk gets MUCH stronger as it sits in the udder longer between milkings - so when should we begin tossing?

Curious, is it a taste issue only or is there risks from bacteria when it's in the udder longer?

We're currently down to milking once every other morning. Getting almost a quart from each of them. Another milking or two at that spacing and we'll push it out further - at what point do you stop? I'm hoping to have them dry by the end of the month.

Thanks,
Debbi

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I personally stop feeding grain and then continue milking for a few more days. Then I just stop milking cold turkey. After 5 days, I'll totally milk out the udder and toss the milk. There are many differing opinions on drying does, but I like the cold turkey method because it tells the udder to stop making milk. After 5 days the udder has stopped producing so I just milk out to give the doe less milk for her body to resorb.

 

[ksalvagno]

When the milk tastes bad, then toss it. I have a female that I'm still milking out and working on drying her off. Every week I keep adding another day and I'm at 11 days between milkings but she is still producing enough milk (about 4 cups last milking) that I need to milk her out. I have been working on drying her off since the beginning of October. I will see this weekend if she needs to be milked out or not. Her udder isn't looking like it is filling up so I'm hoping last weekend was my last milking.

I stopped feeding grain. I feed grass hay. I gave her sage. She is pregnant. Just one heck of a milker.