Milking my goat twice a day?

[kailiecrissman]

I have a Saanen goat, and I have been milking her twice a day. Is there any way I can cut back to milking her once a day in the afternoon?

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Yes you can. I find that my girls give less, but not too dramatically when I go to once a day. Mine are ND though so you might find a bigger difference. Jane was being Jane and I couldn't catch her in the morning when the kids were in school and I had no help. So I just started milking her only in the evenings. Now that all the other goats come up 2x, she comes and stands by her parking space in the morning too and willingly gets on the stand when it is her turn. So now she is back to 2x. But I usually get everyone down to once a day in the evening for my convenience.

 

[kailiecrissman]

Did you just go cold turkey and one day only milk her once? I'm afraid I will hurt her, but I'm not sure how to gradually decrease to once a day.

 

[eweinHiscare]

When I went from twice-a-day to once-a-day milking it was for convenience and has worked well.

One day I only partially milked her in the morning, just enough to take the pressure off so she wasn't so uncomfortable.
Then milked her less than fully empty that evening.

After that I would find that she was full but all went well with just one milking a day.

Hope this helps.

 

[kailiecrissman]

Thank you for your advice and help!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

We go from 3 times a day for a few weeks to amp up production for feeding babies and for the fair, then two a day for most of summer, and then down to one once the school year starts up again. We go cold turkey on them. They are uncomfortable for a few days but then they reduce production and are fine.

 

[kailiecrissman]

This morning I didn't milk her, I'll keep an eye on her today and milk her this afternoon.
Thank you for your personal experiences they are helping me answer other questions that pop up when caring for goats.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I do the same ...for one day I milk out about half on the milking time that I plan to quit. Then the next day, they might be a tad uncomfortable, but not too much, by the third day we are good.