How long does a doe produce milk before having to kid again?

[iamcuriositycat]

I thought I knew the answer to this question--i.e., I thought they could be milked for up to two years. But when I contacted someone about purchasing goat milk, he said his goats are all dry at the moment. He has several dozen goats, so I'm just wondering: Does he have poor quality milkers, am I wrong about how long they can milk for, or is there some other reason (maybe he deliberately dries them every winter so he can have kids from all his goats every spring)?

I'm wanting to know because at some point I'd like to get a milk goat (we have two wethers right now), but I don't want to kid every year or have several months without milk every year. Do we need to have two goats in order to be milking most of the time?

 

[KellyHM]

It just depends on the type of goat you purchase and their capacity to produce milk. I believe some of the bigger breeds can be milked for more than a year, but milk production will fall steadily the whole time. Most people opt to have kids once a year so the milk production is increased. They should always be dried off 2 months prior to their next kidding, whenever that may be.

 

[ohne]

Two years is far to long for a doe to stay in lactation. I have never actually seen a doe stay in milk that long. I am sure it has been done I just havent seen it, not even on the dairies I know. I have seen cattle go that long, we have even had them on our dairy. Its only with cattle that get put on the do not breed list so that we can cull them, but they stay in the milk herd until their production drops below the threshold where they are not generating profit (very rare). By that point they will be very stale however. Standard lactation for test in 305 days, however a lot of people milk for an even shorter time frame than that. We freshened our does in February and April, two groups, and had everything dry by September this year. We started drying up after our last show of the year.

 

[julieq]

Most breeders dry up their does this time of year in preparation for kidding, not unusual at all. Some individual does will milk through to a second year from what I've heard, although we've never tried that with one of ours.

 

[Our7Wonders]

And some breeders stagger breeding dates to keep at least some milk flowing. For example breeding some does in September and the others in December. That way when you dry up your September bred does three months later in December your December bred does are still producing milk. Then when your December bred does need to dry up in March your September bred does are kidding and ready to be milked.

In theory this sounds good, but I've been told that because of the lactaion curve it doesn't usually work out as well as one usually hopes. I would imagine the success of it working would depend on the number of does you have and the amount of milk that they give.

 

[freemotion]

Occasionally you will get a doe that "volunteers" to continue lactating heavily. I have just such a doe, and ksalvagno has one, too.

A drop in production from three quarts a day down to 2 quarts in the second year is not an issue for me. But it likely is for a dairy.

Other does simply will peter off until it is no longer worth the effort of milking them. The second doe I milked this spring (first freshener) was down to less than a quart within 5 months, so I dried her off.

It can be a case-by-case basis, but you certainly can milk a doe for as long as her body will produce a reasonable amount of good-tasting milk and as long as her condition is good.

 

[poorboys]

I had one doe that could have went forever, it was hard drying her up, But I'm the one that needs a break for a couple of months, its nice not having to milk for a couple of months.

 

[Roll farms]

I have one in her 13th month right now...she has a hard time kidding so I decided to just milk her through the winter (to keep us in icecream) and let her kid later this year.

 

[chandasue]

I know of a togg breeder that is breeding for long lactations. I tend to agree with her on the reasons especially for home milkers: less reason to have to own a buck (and reduces costs of buck service), easier on the goat to milk through than to go through labor every year, less kids to have to find homes for... Everyone has an opinion though and it really depends on the individual goat. Some goats will waste away the longer you milk them. You don't want to milk one through that loses condition keeping up milk production.

 

[Roll farms]

I know of a togg breeder that is breeding for long lactations. I tend to agree with her on the reasons especially for home milkers: less reason to have to own a buck (and reduces costs of buck service), easier on the goat to milk through than to go through labor every year, less kids to have to find homes for... Everyone has an opinion though and it really depends on the individual goat. Some goats will waste away the longer you milk them. You don't want to milk one through that loses condition keeping up milk production.

Never sacrifice the doe's health for production. I had a doe who would literally shrivel up to nothing, she was so willing to produce. EVERYTHING, even 2 cups of calf manna per day on top of her feed, went into the bucket, while she just shrunk more and more.