Proper Milking Procedure

[WILLIFORD]

I am new at this goat thing. I want to make sure I am making the right decision for my herd. I currently only have one in milk. I have received mixed feedback about stripping dry after milking. Some have said it can cause mastitis, or damage the udder. Other have said the doe will produce less if not stripped dry. So I welcome any input, or references to links or articles that could provide me more information to make an informed decision.
So again the question is, should I strip my doe dry when milking?

 

[mysunwolf]

Just be gentle with your stripping and you shouldn't cause mastitis. We always stripped after milking, then sprayed a teat disinfectant (Fight Bac in our case). I agree that they will produce less if not stripped as well. I apologize that I don't know of any articles on it, this is all knowledge from other farmers I know.

 

[Latestarter]

Not an expert/vet... I have 2 years experience milking 1 goat primarily, & hand milk out as much as I can then massage the udder and milk some more. I've never been able to get her completely "dry", and have never worried about it or had an issue because of it... Her production drops over time naturally (IMO). When recently freshened, she gives between 3/4 & 1 gallon of milk with 2 milkings per day. I've been milking her this time now for about 4.5 months and she's down to producing ~1/2 gallon a day with one milking in the am. That works for me as it's just me and though I love milk, I still am getting more than I can use. The dogs love it though as it benefits them. Folks tell me to make cheese... I'm not a big cheese eater. I need to get some wiener pigs to use up the extra milk and grow me some chops and ribs Maybe next year I'll get a couple of steer calves and milk more than one to feed the calves. Future steak and roasts to go with the ribs and chops.

I don't think had I continued to milk twice a day, that her production would have stayed correspondingly high. I could be completely wrong. I dropped to once a day because her production was dropping anyway. Some of the drop may be due to the very hot weather, some due to me selling the one kid she was feeding. Maybe it would have stayed a little higher... I don't want to milk twice a day, so this works for me. If I needed more milk, I have other does still nursing so could "steal" from them if I needed to. I know for real dairy folks on milk test and such, they milk more than once per day and do so for 300 days or about 10 months. I will dry my girl off well before the 10 month mark. I have no desire to get up at zero dark thirty to go out and milk in freezing weather. I'll let her use the energy she would have put into milk, to stay warm and grow her future babies

Now that you've had them for a while, how have you liked the milk? When I first moved here to TX I was driving to a dairy and buying raw cow's milk that was so much better than store bought. My Lamancha milk is just as good as that raw cows milk... sweet and creamy.

 

[WILLIFORD]

I love the milk. I have thought about going to milking once a day, but I only have one little Nigerian in milk right now, so I want to make sure I don't cause a drop in production. If my production did drop, it probably wouldn't be worth milking even once a day. I don't mind milking twice a day, but I work 12 hour shifts, so sometimes it takes a lot of self discipline to get out there and milk.