Question for those that mild AND dam raise

[GLENMAR]

For a while now I have pulled kids at birth , bottle fed and milked. I did this for a few reasons.
1. Maximize does milk volume and extend lactation.
2.Kids are more friendly.
3. Make cheeses and other dairy products from the milk.
4.Easy to monitor udder and kids feeding habits.

This year I decided to take a break and not breed any goats. All that bottle feeding and milking is a lot of work. (I also work off the farm 60 hours a week).So here's the questions for those of you who do it differently.

I know that you can dam raise and still milk by separating the kids.

1. What age do you do that??
2. For how long? Within sight of the moms or not?
3.What kind of volume can I expect?
4.Do you just milk once a day?
5. Can you keep the doe in milk after weaning?
6. What are the post weaning volumes like.


Give me all your knowledge. I need to make a plan for next year.


thanks

 

[Wehner Homestead]

This is my first year with Nigerians so I’ll tell you only what I’ve learned thus far.

Based on kid(s) weight gain...no definite number, just gaining well, kid(s) can be removed for 8 hours a night. Most will say definitely the case at 2 weeks for removing kids for 8 hrs.

We’ve only had one for kid here thus far. She’s a 2F, trips both times. This time she had two huge bucklings and a tiny Doeling. She wasn’t gaining as quickly as they were so we pulled the boys for 8 hrs/night but left her. She’s now decently caught up with them but we are continuing to let her stay with the dam so that she doesn’t get pushed out every chance she has to nurse (as we see happens otherwise.) We will wean the boys at 8 weeks and leave the Doeling until 12 weeks or so. (I’m getting a Doeling to pair her with so she won’t be alone when weaned.) We will milk twice a day when the boys are pulled for good. We milk in the mornings now and get about 2 cups without emptying her competely, then put the boys back with the herd.

There is a pen within the pen for the kids to stay in overnight. It has hay, water, and a bit of feed for them to nibble on. We are still working on our set-up but the current walls aren’t tall enough so we will make our permanent walls taller.

I’ve read that dam raised aren’t as friendly. Apparently the triplets, the four does I have, and one of our bucks didn’t get the memo. They are all very social. There are a few pieces of the puzzle that I don’t know about our other buck. Anyway, the triplets come climb on us and want to be held and cuddled. They love our three human kids!

As far as lactation after milking, I bought a doe in July that was in milk. Her buckling was pulled four days before I got her and she was only milked once a day all four of those days and not at all while he was nursing. She gave us 1.5-2 cups average twice a day. I didn’t think that was too bad for a FF that had a single and wasn’t milked during nursing and then moved two states away to someone that had never milked a goat before. (At least not to obtain the milk. Relieved some pressure on a few Boers in the past but that was just sprayed on the ground.) This doe is due the first week of April and I had to work hard to dry her off! It seriously took a month of hard work for me.

I have another doe that had twins last April, FF. I bought her in Nov in milk. She stressed like crazy over being moved and dropped her production to 1.5 cups twice a day. She was giving closer to 3.5 cups once a day before being moved. I plan to breed her for fall kids.

The sire of the triplets has a littermate sister that is still milking at 660+ days in lactation as a FF, once a day milking. I’d like to do some extended lactations as I’m not into goats to sell babies, I need the milk for my daughter.

That’s all I can think of that’s relevant to your questions for now. I will tag a few people that might have more insight.

@Southern by choice, @Goat Whisperer have done some Co parenting and may have some recommendations.

@OneFineAcre dam raises I believe but I know they milk so I’m interested to see what he can add.

@Hens and Roos does dam raising and milking when possible.

 

[GLENMAR]

Thanks for your input. Hopefully others will chime in too, so I can make a plan.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Back when we dam raised, we would separate the kids overnight, once they were two weeks old, and milk 1x daily. Kids were kept on the other side of the barn, in stalls.

Our dam raised kids were always friendly too.

Length of lactation should be about the same as long as you are milking consistently.
I don’t remember our exact production when dam raising, but it was plenty to make cheese with. You can continue to milk 1x a day once the kids are weaned, or go up to 2x a day. If the does are really heavy producers you might need to lower the production if you only want to milk 1x a day with no kids nursing.

Dam raising is pretty simple. Our biggest issue is that some of the goats fight being milked when they are raising their kids.

 

[GLENMAR]

Many of mine are used to being hand milked, so that should not be a problem. Usually I get a gallon a day on once a day milking.
I'm thinking of I freshen 5 then I may be able to get 3 gallons a day and still take a break if I have to work an early shift and just not separate them that night.
Does that sound about right??

 

[Hens and Roos]

Last year we had 4 does we could milk. Several of the does had just one doeling to feed as we weaned the bucklings probably around 6-7 weeks old. With how crazy our work schedule was and not having a good area to overnight the doelings we shared the milk. For the most part we milked twice a day to help keep the milk supply going. It seemed to work pretty well for us-not sure how this year will be handled guess it will depend on how many bucklings and doelings we end up with.

Our does didn't have a problem with us milking them and feeding their doeling- we try to make sure that we are present when each doe kids so that its just a normal thing to the doe that we are milking her.

I don't think there is just one way to make this work- see what works for you and make adjustments as needed.

 

[GLENMAR]

6-7 weeks seems young to wean. We feed ours until they are 16 weeks old.
Yes. I will just have to try it and see if its worth it, or go back to my way.

 

[Hens and Roos]

we have Nigies and the bucklings can mature early.

 

[GLENMAR]

wow. I wish my Nubians did. Then I would not be thinking about dam raising. 4 months of feeding gets LONG.