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06/09/11, 11:47 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: middle GA
Posts: 16,654
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Doe's milk production is way down.
Cookie, my little nigie doe kidded about 5 months ago and her milk production is almost nil lately. I thought it may be the heat affecting her, but Butterscotch, who kidded just 2 weeks after Cookie is still giving great. Any suggestions on what is going on and why her production is already dropping?
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06/09/11, 11:51 PM
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Caprice Acres
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: MI
Posts: 11,231
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I'd be interested to. I have the same issue with my French alpines. My 2nd freshener has always produced less than my 1st freshener (both 2 y/o), but she went from like 3.7 lbs to 1.5-2lbs... She was piddly to begin with, now it's almost a waste of time. Started with the heat, but she also won't eat her grain which has been EXACTLY the same as it's always been. *sigh*.
__________________
Dona Barski
"Breed the best, eat the rest"
Caprice Acres
French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.
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06/10/11, 12:19 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,638
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Genetics.
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06/10/11, 01:46 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: middle GA
Posts: 16,654
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I bought Cookie from Cannon Farms and although she never got the papers in, she assured me that she is from a top of the line dairy goat, so I don't think it's genetics.
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06/10/11, 02:55 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Oregon
Posts: 1,638
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I have "top of the line" dairy goats too. That doesn't mean every one is a top producer.
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06/10/11, 07:15 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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Genetics is an iffy capricious thing. There's always the chance that the one you buy is the throwback to the one dud in the family tree.
Is she a First Freshener? or.... does she have a history of short lactations?
__________________
Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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06/10/11, 10:10 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Perhaps one just handles the heat better than the other.
Sabrina is wilting in the heat......she starts hiding out in the shade by 10am & nothing, not even food well budge her to step a foot into the sunlight (its bad enough I had to ad extra water buckets in her shady spaces out she won't drink!) Was getting a gallon a day out of her (8-8 1/2lbs) and now she's averaging 6lbs the past 4 days....
Tootsie is romping and playing & doing just fine & milking right along.....her full sister Keys is more distressed by the heat even though she's shaved down & isn't in milk....she sits there panting while Tootsie chews her cud.
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06/10/11, 11:20 AM
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Enabler!
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: CO
Posts: 3,865
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When did you get her? If it was recent, the stress of the move, new place, heat and etc can all play a factor in a milk production drop.
Does she still have kids on her?
Or are you milking her twice a day?
I am not good at sitting there and milking them out, I am slow because I developed a bad habit with the small Nigie teats, I milk upside down. It hurts my hands after a while and I get tired, so if I did not kids on them I bet I would cause a drop in production. Are you having trouble milking the smaller teats as well?
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06/10/11, 01:35 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Thread drift....Thiablue...what do you mean you "Milk upside down?"
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06/10/11, 01:36 PM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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I want to know, too. I have very odd pics in my head. 
__________________
Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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06/10/11, 02:04 PM
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Enabler!
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: CO
Posts: 3,865
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No I am not standing on my head, lol or anything else that odd
When you milk your index finger and thumb is facing upward, with me I started doing my pinky facing up. So hold your hand the correct way, now flip it upside down. That was the bad habit I got into with the small teats  I am trying to break myself of it.
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06/10/11, 04:48 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Monroe Ga
Posts: 4,637
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sire:
MASTER CHAMPION BRUSH CREEK SF TALISMAN
SIRE CAESAR'S VILLA FD SUGAR FOOT *S
CAESAR'S VILLA PN FIDDLER *S X ARMCH CAESAR'S VILLA STS SUTHRN BELL *D
(8 X'S BEST UDDER, 8 X'S BEST OF BREED, 2003 NAT RES CH SR DOE)
DAM - CAESAR'S VILLA CBS ZELDA
STONEWALL'S MIDNIGHT COWBOY+S X MTN RETREAT'S ZAYNAB 2*D
***SHOW RECORD***
HEARTLAND TRI CAPRA SHOW 5/17/08 - 2X GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK, 2X BEST OF BREED
CVDGA SUMMER SHOW 6/09/07 - GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK (UNOFFICIAL LEG), RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION BUCK
HEART OF ILLINOIS DWARF CLASSIC 6/30/07 - GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK (1ST LEG), BEST OF BREED
WDGA STATE SHOW 5/19/07 - RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION BUCK AND 1ST PLACE
TRI STATE CLASSIC 6/2/07 - 2 X'S 1ST PLACE
TALISMAN IS ALSO SIRE TO THE 2007 WISCONSIN STATE FAIR 1ST PLACE JUNIOR GET OF SIRE (ANGEL, MORGAN, ZOE)
Dam: Creation Station Adina who is granddaugter to LTE Tsuga and I dont remember who else because I dont have her papers. Shes hard to dry up so I dont believe its genetics. My girls are down some as well..
How much water is she drinking? what is she drinking out of? Some plastic of metal can give the waters a funky taste making a picky goat not want to drink more than what she needs to survive. Might try adding strait salt or electrolytes to her
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I'm a goat person, not a people person,
De @ Udderly Southern Dairy Goats
we will be adding a new breed in the spring 
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06/10/11, 05:45 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: North Alabama
Posts: 2,111
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She still have her kids on her? I was share milking Letitia (Snubian)~ I milk her in the morning and her kid milked her the rest of the day. I didn't take the kid off at night because the 2 quarts I was getting from her every morning was more than enough (I have another milk goat too). Over night Letitia went from 2 quarts every morning to a 1/4 quart. I pulled her kid who was around 3 to 4 months at the time~ and she gave me 1 1/2 gallons milking twice a day. I was AMAZED how much milk her kid had been drinking and how it shot up over night! I sold the kid and I'm still milking Letitia twice a day (well actually I sold her to~ but she is still here so I milk her once a day and her new owner milks her in the evenings too) and she is giving about a gallon a day more or less now.
If she has kids on her maybe they hit a growth spurt.
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06/10/11, 08:16 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thaiblue12
No I am not standing on my head, lol or anything else that odd
When you milk your index finger and thumb is facing upward, with me I started doing my pinky facing up. So hold your hand the correct way, now flip it upside down. That was the bad habit I got into with the small teats I am trying to break myself of it. |
Ok... I just made a special trip to the goat pen to try this.....and even though I understand what your saying, I couldn't make this work.....even on tiny teats Tootsie.... You must get a video of you milking to share.... I was able to get a squirt out but it went all over my hand  Tootsie & Sabrina both stood there staring like I had lost my mind 
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06/10/11, 11:39 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: middle GA
Posts: 16,654
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cannon_Farms
sire:
MASTER CHAMPION BRUSH CREEK SF TALISMAN
SIRE CAESAR'S VILLA FD SUGAR FOOT *S
CAESAR'S VILLA PN FIDDLER *S X ARMCH CAESAR'S VILLA STS SUTHRN BELL *D
(8 X'S BEST UDDER, 8 X'S BEST OF BREED, 2003 NAT RES CH SR DOE)
DAM - CAESAR'S VILLA CBS ZELDA
STONEWALL'S MIDNIGHT COWBOY+S X MTN RETREAT'S ZAYNAB 2*D
***SHOW RECORD***
HEARTLAND TRI CAPRA SHOW 5/17/08 - 2X GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK, 2X BEST OF BREED
CVDGA SUMMER SHOW 6/09/07 - GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK (UNOFFICIAL LEG), RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION BUCK
HEART OF ILLINOIS DWARF CLASSIC 6/30/07 - GRAND CHAMPION SR BUCK (1ST LEG), BEST OF BREED
WDGA STATE SHOW 5/19/07 - RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION BUCK AND 1ST PLACE
TRI STATE CLASSIC 6/2/07 - 2 X'S 1ST PLACE
TALISMAN IS ALSO SIRE TO THE 2007 WISCONSIN STATE FAIR 1ST PLACE JUNIOR GET OF SIRE (ANGEL, MORGAN, ZOE)
Dam: Creation Station Adina who is granddaugter to LTE Tsuga and I dont remember who else because I dont have her papers. Shes hard to dry up so I dont believe its genetics. My girls are down some as well..
How much water is she drinking? what is she drinking out of? Some plastic of metal can give the waters a funky taste making a picky goat not want to drink more than what she needs to survive. Might try adding strait salt or electrolytes to her
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We're making sure they're getting lots of water. We have a plastic water trough from TSC, plus a plastic container in the barn we keep filled with water. I'll try adding the strait salt or electrolytes to see if that helps. She doesn't have any kids on her and we have a fan going all the time in the barn now to help with heat. She does go out of the barn, but is spending quite a bit of her time indoors right now. Butterscotch is still going strong.
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06/11/11, 10:03 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Missouri
Posts: 1,300
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The heat has knocked production down for me the last week. We have been abnormally warm. You can put fans on them that will help some. Plus it helps with flies. They just don't want to stand and eat as much when it get's to hot.
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06/11/11, 10:44 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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Yes, mine, too. I'm about a mile from Coso, and it's HOT! Production down ...ummm..... maybe 20% or so.
__________________
Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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06/11/11, 11:21 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Redding California
Posts: 1,967
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What is she eating?
Does she have a temp?
Is she chewing her cud?
She may be starting to get sick?
Im grasping at straws, but it doesn't sound right for her just to stop making milk...
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06/11/11, 01:50 PM
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Join Date: May 2010
Location: outside of Huntsville, Alabama
Posts: 908
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Production is down here as well and I'm blaming the heat. Which is not making me happy because production around here was already pretty low. 
-Sonja
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06/11/11, 02:03 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Monroe Ga
Posts: 4,637
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mine are not doing too bad but their bc is not as ideal as I would like it to be because its just too hot to eat.
Plastic sometimes can give water a bad taste see if you can try a new bucket made of metal which also over time can give a bad taste but if it works then youll know the problem.
Btw, for those of you that this may be practical for, I have a 40 gallon tank and I put 2 two liter bottles of ice in it for the really hot days, it does not quite last all day but it gets through till the sun lowers some
__________________
I'm a goat person, not a people person,
De @ Udderly Southern Dairy Goats
we will be adding a new breed in the spring
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