Lactaton Length

[andabigmac]

We bought a 5 year old Nubian last August that had kidded triplets in February. She gave almost a gallon a milking when I first bought her and has slowly waned down to about a quart a milking. The woman I bought her from said that she never milked her goats much past weaning because she did more showing than milking. She also had 37 goats to milk. I read on this forum that they give for as long as they did in previous lactations. Anyways, my question is can she be trained out of short lactations? Will she keep giving longer each year if I'm persistent? We've already been through her trying to wean me (laying down on the milk stand, trying to put her foot in the bucket, etc) but we're past that hurdle. She's also fat. She's on a diet but that isn't helping her "fluffy" arm pits. I'm toying with drying her up and putting her on a diet before she gets rebred but I don't want winter babies so I don't want to breed her until November. Any thoughts or ideas?

BTW her production isn't dropping for health reasons. Her fecals are good, she's utd on shots, has free choice baking soda, kelp, Right Now Onyx, and is copper bolused. She's due again for another bolus soon. But that's about it. She's CAE, Johnes, tb, and Brucellosis negative also.

Oh, one more question. Is orifice size hereditary? If it is, is it from the buck or does side?

[Alice In TX/MO]

I'd milk her THREE times a day whenever it fit in my schedule till New Years Day at least. Keep pushing lactation if you want it to hang in there.

How much and what are you feeding?

The heredity factors are pretty much a crap shoot. Yeah, they are hereditary, but each individual offspring only has X percent of getting any characteristic.

This page has a neat chart about heritability:
http://www.luresext.edu/goats/traini...ement.html#her

[mekasmom]

She had triplets in Feb this year and you are still milking? Or Feb last year? It would have to be this year, yes?
I wean late July-Aug to let the girls fatten up before breeding in the fall. Plus, that way you aren't milking in the hottest part of the year. But everyone does things differently. Some people don't wean until the does are bred again. And sometimes I just kept one doe in milk until Oct/Nov to avoid milking multiples in the heat. I mean, once the freezer is full of milk for the season, I just didn't need a lot because I knew there would be more come Jan/Feb or so.

As far as diet and rebreeding.... I wouldn't drastically reduce food availability before she breeds this fall. You might simply cut out grain and offer more hay until she is bred. Then, after breeding while she is carrying kids, I grain, but, again everyone has different ideas on that. Some people only grain during milking.

[andabigmac]

We free feed alfalfa and the grain I feed is a mix of 4 parts oats, 2 parts barley, 1 part corn, 1 part boss. My girls wont eat alfalfa pellets. Grass hay is almost impossible to come by here. I live in the high desert so if a farmer grows something it will be the thing they can make the most money off of. Grass also doesn't just grow here. We're working on our pasture which was just an overgrazed sand lot when we bought our place.

Tilly is pig fat. My other goats are all at good weight. If I were to dry her up it would be to put her on a diet. She honestly has fat rolls. I only grain during the winter if they have problems holding their weight or if I'm milking them. I've been dropping her grain amount as her yield drops. I read on here that alfalfa makes milk but grain keeps body condition. I haven't been that generous with her grain because of her weight. She is definitely conditioned!

I have three other goats I'm milking but her milk is the creamiest and our family favorite. I have a snubian(ish) that has a long lactation that hasn't dropped in production at all. I will probably milk her through if she'll let me so having milk isn't the problem. I would like to breed for longer lactations and was basically wondering if long lactations were a nature or nurture type situation. Is it environmental or genetic. If I'm beating a dead horse by trying to lengthen her lactations then I'll dry her up. If not then I'll put in the work. I was just wondering if I could retrain her to have long lactations.

Alice- I didn't see lactations in the list on that web site. Would it be yield? I was laughing at the fat depth one. I'm going to have a bunch of fat little babies waddling around when I breed her.

[KrisD]

In all mammals milk is supply and demand, the more you milk (demand) the more she will supply. Yes you can retrain so to speak, her body to keep milking. Years ago I bought the worst milking doe on the planet. At her best she only gave a qt a day. I milked that doe every time I had a spare minute, even if it meant only getting a few squirts at a time. If I walked out to water the horses I milked, fed the dogs, I milked etc. The second time I bred her (her 4th freshening) she gave me close to a gallon a day and she milk almost 2 years straight with out being rebred. I fed her well and milked as often as possible. It signals her brain and udder to make more milk because she has someone who is hungry. I milked her right up until about 3 weeks before she would kid. I do NOT do that with anyone else but I was trying to get her production up and her lactation longer. It works but it does take a little more effort.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I don't think drying her off is a solution to being fat. That milk is taking calories, so that's a good thing!

HOW MUCH grain is she getting per day? If she has fat rolls, it's WAY too much. Sorry.

I think "yield" is the total milk production for a given lactation, which is *usually* figured on ten months, more or less.

We can't tell you for sure what will work on this doe. It's going to be trial and error, unfortunately. We can tell you what some of the factors that influence production are and what we would try, but we don't have the magic answer. Darn it.

[andabigmac]

She only gets a cup a milking. I sprinkle some into a feed bin with rocks and bricks in it a little at a time to keep her busy while I milk. If I dried her up I would move her and a buddy to the isolation pen so she couldn't have access to free choice alfalfa all of the time. I would hate to take away the free choice alfalfa though because everyone else looks good. Should I try just putting her on straight barley or something with less calories than boss and corn when I milk? I worry about her getting pregnant and then kidding if she's over weight. She was chubby when I bought her but she was putting out a lot of milk so I wasn't that concerned. I figured she'd slim down as her lactation went along. I figured wrong.

[andabigmac]

I bought her in April not August. This month is August. I was having a moment. Sorry.

[KrisD]

Okay well BOSS and corn have a lot of calories by themselves, which is why they are recommended for thin goats to help put weight on. I would use something with less calories. Like whole oats, or rice bran in small amounts, no sweet feed. Some goats are just pigs and will eat till they burst practically. As Alice said we can tell you what we would do and what works for us but it doesn't always work for everyone.

[Alice In TX/MO]

No corn. I'd cut her to 1/4 cup BOSS to keep her shiny and 1/4 cup oats or barley, as you have that on hand. Basically, enough to keep her nose in the feeder while you milk.

[andabigmac]

I'll try that. Thanks for your help. Wish me luck...