increasing milk volume/weight

[wannacow]

I'm not sure if I'm in the right catagory or not. Please move this if I'm wrong.

I have a 4yo nubian doe. When she freshened this year, February, she was giving 1 gal +. I bought her in Mar and have learned to milk on her. We had our problems at the beginning, but now we are doing very well in our routines and milking. My problem is she is now only giving a little less than a qt of milk a day. I free feed her grain and calf manna, she also gets alfalfa hay and grass hay. She's not out grazing yet as our fences aren't secure yet. I take her out for a "walk" as often as I can. Will her milk volume increase as she gets outside or am I stuck with only a qt/day?

 

[helmstead]

You're probably stuck - perhaps the change in ownership and environment was stressful causing her drop in production. Best thing to do is breed her back and try again milking her next time since she's now used to you.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

I would give her the alfalfa hay free choice along with the calf manna, but I would limit the amount of goat grain she gets to 2 cups per feeding. The alfalfa hay will make her milk sweeter and less goaty, btw.

 

[wannacow]

I'll bet she doesn't even eat 2 cups per day. When I milk, she picks out the calf manna and eats that. When there is grain in the pen, I rarely see her eating it. She wants the alfalfa.

 

[helmstead]

Basically it won't matter how much she eats. When a goat starts drying off, you really cannot get her back up. The mammary cell calls it quits, and it isn't going to come back until hormones tell it do.

Production down a day or two is one thing, this sounds like she's drying off to me.

 

[Chirpy]

I am just curious... do you milk once or twice a day?

I brought two does here several months after they had freshened and they both dropped production that year. They both went way down for the first few days but then both came back up although not to the amount they were giving at their previous home. They still gave over a gallon a day, unlike your girl. The next year when they freshened here they gave more milk than they ever had before... so I'm agreeing that the move and both of you learning about each other just caused her to lower her production. I doubt you can bring her back up at this point but you can always try to milk her multiple times (like 4) a day to see if that helps to raise her production. You would know after about a week of that if she is going to give you more milk.

 

[wannacow]

I milk her twice a day. I didn't know I could milk her more. I'll try that. I figured that the lesser amt. was because we were getting used to each other. I was hoping it would increase as she became more comfortable. BTW, we are both doing very well now. She's easy to milk and when we are outside, she grazes as long as I'm with her. She does not want me out of her sight.

 

[Ariel301]

The stress of moving, changing diet (if you did) and changing to a new person doing the milking (especially if you were not experienced at milking when you started) can make them drop production. When you milk her, be sure to "strip her out"--get everything she's got in the udder, don't leave any, otherwise you are signaling to her that she does not need to make so much milk because it's not getting used--but emptying her signals that she needs to keep cranking out milk because it's being used.

Once they start to go dry, it's hard to bring them back. She should be better next time around. I went through the same thing the year I bought my first does, they went from the gallon+ they should have been making down to a pint each because they didn't like the switch and I didn't really know how to make them produce right, I wasn't feeding them enough (sounds like you're feeding fine though) and was only milking once a day, not being sure to empty them, skipping milkings sometimes, etc. Then I went through another year of almost no milk because they all got sick, aborted their kids, and never came into milk right, but this year it's coming in about as fast as I can turn it into cheese.

 

[wannacow]

Thanks aeriel301. I make sure she's empty and strip her out. The woman I bought her from taught me. She also said "Apple" is her most easy going goat. I believe her. I think Apple was just torked that she had to move in with a "newbie". I would really like to keep her in milk until winter. We've been driving to get raw milk, and with the price of gas that is getting difficult. I don't know whether to buy another doe in milk or just be patient. I have a doeling also that is from a "megamilker" line, so really have no idea how much milk to expect next year. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Livinwright Farm]

Thanks aeriel301. I make sure she's empty and strip her out. The woman I bought her from taught me. She also said "Apple" is her most easy going goat. I believe her. I think Apple was just torked that she had to move in with a "newbie". I would really like to keep her in milk until winter. We've been driving to get raw milk, and with the price of gas that is getting difficult. I don't know whether to buy another doe in milk or just be patient. I have a doeling also that is from a "megamilker" line, so really have no idea how much milk to expect next year. Decisions, decisions...

You will learn quickly here, that the motto is:
One more goat couldn't hurt! (just ask Roll!)
But seriously, having another doe to milk can't hurt... in fact it will really help you to be able to have the milk your family needs for drinking, making cheeses, and making your own soaps. If you wait a little bit you might even get a doe that is off set in her breeding enough for you to stagger breeding/milking throughout the year(always having a doe in milk).