How to increase milk supply??

[Georgiamainers]

We have two first time freshener goats. The Togg is only giving us maybe 8 to 10 oz. twice a day (sometimes way less.) We feed our 8 month old baby boy the milk and need more than that!
The kid is still with mom full time and I plan to separate them at night this coming weekend @ 2 weeks age. He can stay with her after a.m. milking.

Any tips are appreciated. First time for us.

BTW the mom gets a quart yogurt container of feed 2 times a day. here http://www.nutrenaworld.com/nutrena/products/more-species/goats/index.jsp

 

[julieq]

I don't have any experience with leaving the kids on the doe and milking at the same time, as we bottle feed, but if we want increased milk production then we milk three times a day for awhile. Some of our cow dairy friends milk three times a day and get really nice production out of their cows (not that I'd want to do that full time with our goats!)

 

[ksalvagno]

Make sure they are getting enough food and water too. Alfalfa hay should help increase milk production a bit.

 

[Roll farms]

You can try adding BOSS or calf manna to her feed, too.
Alfalfa usually 'does it' for our does, too.

 

[julieq]

I should have added that we also feed alfalfa, in fact that's all our ND's eat as it's cheap here in cow dairy country! Also, we pretty much challenge feed our does on the milk stand. They get to eat grain the entire time we're milking.

 

[mistee]

i plan on starting mlking for the first time this sat.. not sure how it will go ,, sure the girls arent going to be happy at first,,lol... not sure but i thought i read somewhere barley can increas milk,,, dunno,,lol..

 

[freemotion]

Some does are really good at withholding the milk for their babies. Try spending more time washing her udder with a warm rag and massaging as you do....more than just to get her clean, to stimulate let down of milk. Also, gently but firmly bump your fist up when you think she is withholding like her kid would do.

I only got about 16-20 oz from my ff Nubian/Alpine/Boer doe last spring when she was feeding her single ginormous doeling. I separated at night and milked AM and milked her dry....then when I put her back with her kid, the baby would butt her udder and milk would spray out several feed and often got my glasses all spotted......2 minutes after I'd milked her dry! They have strong instincts.

Keep trying, be persistent. If you have two milkers in the family you might try having one person milk one teat while the other milks the other teat if that goes faster. The faster you can milk, sometimes the more you can get. It also took me about 15 min to get those meager ounces, whereas I could milk 3 quarts from my other doe in about 3 minutes.

If you really need that milk for your own baby, you might have to get that kid onto a bottle of store bought whole cow's milk so you can have all the goat's milk for your baby. Then you can add any leftovers to the buckling's bottle so he gets at least some of the good enzymes and beneficial bacteria in the raw goat's milk.

Chopped veggies can make a difference sometimes, too. You can have friends save food prep scraps in their freezers. The goats will eat them frozen, thawed, or partially thawed. Just chop 'em up or they will fling them all over in their attempts to eat them on the milking stand. Learned that one the hard way.

 

[phoenixmama]

I say put the kid on a bottle...transition it from the goat's milk to store-bought whole milk. Many dairy goat people around here get them right on a bottle from birth...and allow the kids to access their mamas through livestock panels so they aren't "alone" but look to people for milk, not mama.

If you are going to pull the kid from it's mama, I think you should just do it cold turkey and not take the kid in once a day to be with the mama. I think that is just delaying the inevitable. And be prepared for lots of yelling...

JMO, good luck!

 

[Georgiamainers]

My parents own a cow dairy right down the road from us. Maybe feed buckling the raw cow's milk and take doe's milk for my own. I just don't want to run into any health problems, kwim?? Raising buckling (soon to be whether) for meat (if our hearts can handle it.)

Separated him from his mom today to bring him in the house to play with the children. My daughter brought him back to the barn and somehow the mom had jumped out of her stall and was coming down the barn attic stairs looking for her kid!!!!!! How the heck she did that I do not know. Need to set up a spy camera.

 

[20kidsonhill]

My parents own a cow dairy right down the road from us. Maybe feed buckling the raw cow's milk and take doe's milk for my own. I just don't want to run into any health problems, kwim?? Raising buckling (soon to be whether) for meat (if our hearts can handle it.)

Separated him from his mom today to bring him in the house to play with the children. My daughter brought him back to the barn and somehow the mom had jumped out of her stall and was coming down the barn attic stairs looking for her kid!!!!!! How the heck she did that I do not know. Need to set up a spy camera.

It is my understanding that raw cows milk isn't as good for the goats as the store baught milk because of the homogenizing(spelling) process. something to do with size of protein particles.

other people on here could tell you more about that.