How do you milk around a nursing kid?

[elevan]

Does anyone who milks and dam raises have any issue with the doe letting down? I'm curious how you'd prevent the kids from getting an enormous meal after being separated overnight because the dam didn't milk out completely.

I find that "bumping" the udder in much the same way that a kid does is effective. Watching the kids nurse, I have also learned that the bumping needs to be firmer as the lactation progresses (in pygmies anyway).

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Does anyone who milks and dam raises have any issue with the doe letting down? I'm curious how you'd prevent the kids from getting an enormous meal after being separated overnight because the dam didn't milk out completely.

I find that "bumping" the udder in much the same way that a kid does is effective. Watching the kids nurse, I have also learned that the bumping needs to be firmer as the lactation progresses (in pygmies anyway).

& Nigerians!

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

I had a doe earlier this year who took a week to start letting down completely each milking after I'd already pulled the kids, even with vigorous bumping. I had to be careful not to let her hear the kids before milking or forget it. Even then she was darn good about withholding. I suspect that if I hadn't pulled the kids she would have continued to do so.

 

[helmstead]

I tried sharing once with my top producing Nubian doe, before we were committed to bottle raising our kids.

I don't recommend it.

The kids didn't thrive like they should have. They had slower growth and gain rates than future kids of hers that we bottle raised...