Do you dry yearlings off?

Doug Hodges · #1 07/17/14, 06:58 PM

What do you do? Do you milk them for a full term or milk a little while and dry off. Do their teats get bigger if you keep milking or does it matter? I have 3 that I'm milking that are yearlings. None are huge producers. Thoughts?

**mygoat** · #2 07/17/14, 07:32 PM

I keep milking them, here. Though I suppose if they aren't good producers, I may opt to dry them off... but here that usually means cull list usually unles there are extenuating circumstances and I'd like a 2nd freshening to see how they are.

marusempai · #3 07/17/14, 07:43 PM

Their teats do get bigger with continued milking - I've only had Emerald for a little over a month, and I can see the difference already. Still annoyingly small, but I also have big hands. I make my eight year old milk her whenever possible.

southerngurl · #4 07/17/14, 08:05 PM

I keep milking them. Some say the length of that first lactation sets the tone for the rest. I'm not taking any chances

danil54grl · #5 07/17/14, 08:28 PM

I milk them for a few months than let them dry out. Their teats and milk sac gets bigger after each freshening period, but that is just me. I am not in it for profit and only have a hobby farm.

Doug Hodges · #6 07/17/14, 09:56 PM

Yes. I'm considering culling one of them but want to see the second freshening before I decide. Two are keepers. I just don't have enough experience with Nubians. I would hate to cause them to have shorter lactations because I dried them off.

Cannon_Farms · #7 07/18/14, 07:51 AM

I have found no ill effect in the lactations by drying them off a bit earlier, after 6 months of milking if your not giving me enough worthwhile or you want to be a bratt Im not fussing with you and you promptly stop getting milked. One of my first Nubians was a bratt and I just didnt fuss with her, shes been in milk now since 2-2013. BUT every goat is slightly different and you cant judge one by a few