To dry-off a doe

[LaManchaPaul]

Can a doe dry herself off? Suzie LaMancha, ff on 3/16/09; gave almost a gallon a day at peak; adopted a buckling (now headsire) for eight weeks and continued to produce summer and fall. Sweet.

I milk her twice a day. She gets two lbs /day of 16% grain on the stand and lots of perennial peanut hay . She bred again on 9/2.

According to a goat-breeding spreadsheet that I picked up from a website somewhere I should dry Suzie off on Dec. 1 for a 1/30 due date. Her production dropped down to a quart a day when she went into heat and hasn’t picked back up. Well, yesterday that dropped in half. If that continues, then it isn’t worth the effort because I have two Saanen giving enough milk to meet our needs.

I was just wondering if it is normal for a doe to stop producing after breeding. I’ve read on here about drying off a doe, and just to milk her enough to reduce the udder; but Suzie had almost no milk yesterday, certainly there would be no pressure on the udder when it is time to dry her off.

As a dry doe, she wouldn’t be on the milk stand and wouldn’t get any grain except snacks. Without high milk production perhaps she shouldn’t get the 2 lb of grain. Thoughts?

[nehimama]

Sounds to me like she is drying herself off. If it were me, I'd let her go ahead. Like you, I have other does still in production. A couple, in fact, that are problematic when it comes to drying them off in time for their 60 day rest before kidding!

Just my 2 cents.

NeHi

[jil101ca]

My does have done the same, since being bred their milk production has dropped by half. I have also been wondering if I should cut their grain back seeing as how they are not producing as much. I don't need to dry them until Dec/Jan