Letting Milk Down

Oat Bucket Farm · #41 10/14/10, 12:25 PM

Its strange that they both have had it at your place but never before but I can't imagine what you would be doing wrong. Are they related? If so maybe its a genetic thing.

Pony · #42 10/14/10, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oat Bucket Farm

Its strange that they both have had it at your place but never before but I can't imagine what you would be doing wrong. Are they related? If so maybe its a genetic thing.

No relation at all. Both completely different farms. New gal is Snubian, the Nubian contribution from Goddard stock. Trub is one of Emily's, and we know that her gals are all good.

Is it the water? Corn? Most folks around here grow Reid Field Corn, though it's always possible there's GMO infiltration.

The stable is clean. I rake out the berries every other day or so, sometimes every day when they've been prolifically poopy.

Hay is good. Nothing hinky in the pasture...

So confused.

Oat Bucket Farm · #43 10/14/10, 02:56 PM

Boy you have me stumped. I don't have any experience with Goddard farm's stock but I hear its good stock and yes, Emily has good stock, wouldn't hesitate to buy another goat from her. Does Emily have any ideas on what my cause it?

Pony · #44 10/14/10, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oat Bucket Farm

Boy you have me stumped. I don't have any experience with Goddard farm's stock but I hear its good stock and yes, Emily has good stock, wouldn't hesitate to buy another goat from her. Does Emily have any ideas on what my cause it?

Nah, she's stumped, too.

I tried to google it, but there is so little reliable info out there on dairy goat management... I'd do better to go to the kid up the road who raised boer goats.

Alice In TX/MO · #45 10/14/10, 05:19 PM

I only feed corn in the winter when its cold.

Oat Bucket Farm · #46 10/14/10, 05:43 PM

You could try cutting the corn for a little while and see if it helps. I don't know if thats it or why it would cause it, but if nothing changes then at least you know its not that.

Pony · #47 10/14/10, 06:30 PM

May have to cut the corn anyway. All the lovely speculation by the govt and CBOT has driven the price through the roof.

This is harvest season, and the price of corn (usually $9/hundred wt) is over $11 right now. The fella at the MFA said he's never seen the price do this during harvest - it's supposed to go down.

<shaking head>

ANYway. I was using the corn to put some weight on the goats. Trub is putting too much into milking, and Beaux is putting too much into rutting.

CaliannG · #48 10/14/10, 08:43 PM

Not that this is scientific or anything, but one of my neighbors had troubles with her mini-Jerseys engorging. She took them off the corn and didn't have that problem again. ~shrugs~ Just one incident that I know of, but she seems to feel that it was the corn that was causing it.

She complained long and loud about how all the beef people around her told her that she HAD to feed corn, or her Jerseys would pretty much wither to nothing and blow away on the wind.

She said she was talking about it to one of the TAMU people, and he said giving extra carbohydrates to dairy stock increases milk production, and that if you wanted to add weight rather than increase production, you needed to add fat to their diet.

Again, I am not claiming this as truth, nor science....it is just one lady's experience as told to me, and it is not even with goats. YMMV. ~smiles~

Pony · #49 10/15/10, 09:28 AM

I'll give it a shot - couldn't hurt.

<sigh> This morning was fun. I think we're now looking at an early mastitis: little flakes when I strained the milk I was able to get out (about a cup, counting both sides).

So now the question is: How long do I have to keep the kids away from her now that I used the intra-teat medication?

coso · #50 10/15/10, 09:40 AM

I would not give the milk to the kids until you got her cleared up. Get Pirsue if you can, I put a whole tube in every milking the first couple of days then once a day for 3 days. Also give Naxcel 1/cc/50lb once a day for 5 days. When you give the infusion make sure you get that teat end clean with the alcohol pads they give you and don't put it in very far at all. 1/8 inch at most. Some I have to line it up just right and don't even insert.

P.s They do not like this at all.

Pony · #51 10/15/10, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coso

I would not give the milk to the kids until you got her cleared up. Get Pirsue if you can, I put a whole tube in every milking the first couple of days then once a day for 3 days. Also give Naxcel 1/cc/50lb once a day for 5 days. When you give the infusion make sure you get that teat end clean with the alcohol pads they give you and don't put it in very far at all. 1/8 inch at most. Some I have to line it up just right and don't even insert.

P.s They do not like this at all.

Funny how fast things can change overnight, isn't it? <sigh>

Thanks. I think this will be harder on the kids than on Muffin, and no, she did NOT like the infusion AT ALL!

All I could get was the amoxi-mast. Vets around here won't dispense Pirsue, nor will they give Naxcel. (Too cheap to stock it? IDK...)

I think I'm going to have to drive down to the Ozarks, and see the same vet you or Emily use. The guys up here don't really know dairy goats at all; small animal vets won't touch 'em, either. Best I can do is work with the guy who used to raise meat goats.

CaliannG · #52 10/15/10, 10:58 AM

Your feed store doesn't carry Naxcel? My co-op stocks it in the powdered version....real pricey, but it keeps well. (Powders stuff filling about 1/3 of a sterilized, glass bottle).

Pony, you should just move down here.

I know three good, Aggie vets that have, not only an actual clue about goats, but *experience*.

Not, only that, but the employees at the Co-op even know about goats!

When I was in there yesterday, looking for a lamb tubing kit, and they looked it up and found they were out of stock, one old woman approached me and leaned over in a conspiratorial whisper and said, "I don't know if you can even find them anymore, as it has been a long time since I have seen them, but when I had problems and had to tube my lambs and goats, I'd use one of the old fashioned douche bags that you can hang up in the shower."

~chuckles~ Even the customers have goat knowledge. LOL

Pony · #53 10/15/10, 11:09 AM

Ah, Calliann, I can't move any further south than where we are now. I married a 'Sota boy, and he thinks that NW MO is the Deep South. He already hates the Winters here because there is precious little snow - only ice.

Me, if I never see another snowflake in my life, I'm good with that. Winter is my worst time of year.

But even for the sake of my goats, I don't think I can move Minnesota Nick down to Texas.

Hmm... what are the raw milk statutes like down there? Just in case...

CaliannG · #54 10/15/10, 11:30 AM

~laughs~ You tell Nick that another Minnesota boy, a fantasy author by the name of Steve Brust, lives in Austin and has had NO trouble adjusting to Texas weather.

Although I once almost made Steve die of suffocation with a single statement. After many weeks of severe heat, a cold front moved in unexpectedly, dropping the temps about 30 degrees in the course of an hour.

An hour that I had spent in a grocery store with Steve helping him stock up the kitchen of his house. Out we come, me in my shorts, halter top, and flip flops, into the parking lot, when the wind picked up and caressed my mostly bare skin with a much cooler air stream than I expected.

"Brrrrr!" Says I, 'It's freezing! It must be 70 degrees!"

I had to help Steve to his car, he was laughing so hard. And the lack of oxygen nearly did him in right then and there.

I am with you, Pony, I HATE being cold.

The statutes are pretty common. I believe what we have is it's legal as long as it is a on-the-farm sale, or it is delivered to the purchaser? I am not super familiar with them, as I don't sell milk edibles. Vicki would be more helpful in that area, as I am sure she knows each and every milk statute by heart and can recite them backwards.