question about milking goats

[glenda]

Ok now I know this will sound dumb. But we are getting goats. They are just mixed breeds. Nothing fancy. HOneslty they are a mix of Nubin and bore. I am just wondering if they will provide drinkable milk.. This is why we are getting them. We have been told that they will be fine for what we want however they do not give as much milk as say a full breed would. Is this true??

[susanne]

one of my boer goat probably mix with nubian just kidded on monday. i'm milking her and getting about 2 1/2 pound of milk. still looks a little bit thick but i think two to three more days and we can drink the milk. i don't know for how long she will give milk. maybe not as long as a pure bred dairy goat.
milk from meat goats are a little bit more rich i guess.
susanne

[Helena]

You know what they say..."You can't drink the papers"...so you will be happy with your goats I am sure. I have nubians and a couple mixe nubians/saneens and they are wonderful milkers. Had pure breds in my day and really for the family a mix breed was just fine. Usually had more milk that we knew what to do with it. Just give her some good quality hay and a couple good scoops of grain and clean water and she'll do fine I'm sure. You could always have your farm vet check her out and give you some advice on worming etc if you wanted too. Get some books and read up on goats. That is the best thing you can do for yourself and your goat. Good Luck !!

[glenda]

Thank you so much. I was hoping you would tell me that... These goats are so sweet and well I just can't wait to get started...

Again thank you

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Are you going to put them up on a milkstand and try to milk them when you purchase them? If they have never been milked before, you may want to see if you even can milk them before you spend your money. A milkstand ready elephant is much easier on the patience than a bucking bronco Any mammal milk is fine for drinking, it's just eaiser to milk a goat who is tame, who is used to being milked, and who is converting calories from her grain into milk and not meat. Do they have extra teats that get in the way of actually milking, teats that have been cut off that leak? Have they been tested for CAE? Are they from a CL free herd? If they are used to nursing their kids and not being milked past the kids weaning, they will likely be very poor milkers come this summer.

You don't milk the papers, but you sure do milk all the other records (health, milk, genetics) from the farm you purchase from. Vicki

[trnubian]

I could be just biased since I do raise papered animals, but I don't think I am. From my experience and knowlegde of different breeds, I don't think a boer cross anything would give enough milk to warrent keeping. Boers are a meat breed and even though they look almost exactly like a Nubian, they, genetically, have very little in common. It is like comparing a huge angus cow with a little Jersey.

In fact to prove my point, the reason most boer people have Nubian cross animals is to bring milk into the herd so the babies grow better with the extra milk they get. Also, are these goats tame? A lot a boer breeders do not take the time to tame there goats. It can be very frustrating when you have to fight a 100 or more pound animal at 6 in the moring just to get it on the stand only to have it step in the bucket and ruin all your milk.

I would be very wary about this. I totally agree that a mixed breed will do fine for a family milker, but not a mix between a boer and anything. I am sure, if you look around, you can find a good couple of family milkers that will produce more milk for the feed you give them and you will probably have to pay the same or less for them. Also, they will most likely be bottle raised, this makes them tamer, and prevents a lot of unwanted diseases. CL is a huge problem for boers and I don't know of one herd that hasn't had a case of it at one point. That is not something you want when you are drinking that goat's milk.

I would do some research and look around a little more if it were me. You can get a better deal for your money and you will probably like the goats a lot better.

I hope I didn't offend you, just trying to help you out. I raise purbred Nubians and my top milker produced 16 lbs a day while still going out and winning shows. She is five and her udder is still up between her hock. That is another thing you want to look at. Does the doe's udder drag the ground, and if she doesn't have an udder yet, does her dam's udder drag. This can be very unsanitary for you to drink her milk and it will also be harmful to her. If it drags the ground or it is so low that she is constantly stepping on it or it is swinging really bad between her legs when she walk, she could VERY easliy get mastitis. And once that happens, there goes your milk supply and your productive goat. I'm not saying that your goat should have a show winning udder, I just saying stick with common sense. You want it above the hocks or just slightly below and you want more area of attatchment at the top than 2 inches wide by 3 inches long and that is the bare minimum. If it is a first freshener who's udder isn't very large, than you can take that down a little bit. Basically just use common sense and you should do fine.

I hope I helped you out.

[Freeholder]

You know, I would never have expected to be milking a half-Boer doe, but I am, and she's giving over a gallon of milk a day at about ten days fresh -- and it's good milk, too! She was milked last year by her previous owner, so I knew pretty much what I was getting. But I wouldn't say that being half-Boer is necessarily going to make a doe a poor family milker. My doe is out of a good quality register Oberhasli (an oops breeding -- they'd actually bred the Ober to an Ober buck, then that night the Boer buck jumped the fence and bred her, so they were hoping for an Ober kid right up until she kidded -- white is dominant, so there was no doubt who her father was), and actually looks more dairy than meat, though she is wider built and has heavier bone than a pure-bred Ober would normally have. She has good conformation and a nice udder -- I don't know if it would win blue ribbons at a show, but it's not bad at all. And she's an easy milker, and has a nice personality (which does matter in a family milk animal).

What I would look at in a half-Boer doe that you plan to milk is first of all, her mother (or the dairy half of the breeding). If her mother is a really good dairy animal, with a great udder and feet and legs, then there's a good possibility that the offspring will be decent. If the mother has a poor udder, poor milk production, and bad feet and legs, then you should pass, because she isn't going to improve the Boer breeding. Then look at the does themselves. Do they have dairy character, or do they look more like meat animals? If their udders are developed, do they look good? Are the teats the right size and well-placed for easy milking? How about their feet and legs (Boers are really prone to poor feet and legs)? From what I've seen, Boers tend to be rather placid (my experience, however, is limited), so if you can be there for the birth of the kids and get some birth fluids on you before you milk for the first time, you shouldn't have any problems (this makes the doe think you are her kid and she's less likely to fight having you milk her).

Purebred dairy goats are great animals, but crosses can have some advantages, depending on what you are looking for. They usually have hybrid vigor, making them healthier and hardier than linebred and inbred purebreds. Boer crosses can make good meat animals as well as dairy, if you plan to use surplus animals that way.

I also have Kinder goats, which are a wonderful mid-sized breed being developed from the unlikely crossing of Pygmies and Nubians. It has crossed my mind that perhaps the crossing of Boers with good dairy does might make another good new breed. I have a good doe, if anyone else is interested in working with me on this!

Kathleen

[debitaber]

AMEN, Vocki, you are so right. you have to make sure you can milk them before you buy them, or get ready to train them, and that isn't always easy. But yes, you can drink the milk. and it should be good.

[Barb Marks]

You have already gotten plenty of advice, but I still would like to share my story with you also.
I purchased a nubian/boer cross at 10 months of age. She kidded out at 13 months with twins (sold) and it never crossed my mind to milk her. We bred her again and she kidded at 23 months of age, twins again. This time I decided to milk her, seeing she has a nice bag. Currently she runs with a herd of 60 boer/spanish crosses (wild), but she always looks for me. All I have to do is call her name "Mickey" and she runs to the gate, I then take her in and milk her. She has huge horns, but is very gentle. Momentarily she gives me 5 pounds of milk a day (she kidded in November), and I just love milking her. She has nicer teats than my Alpine. The only reason I decided to milk her was one of my two Alpines didn't have enough milk to share with my family and her kids. We needed more milk, we don't like to buy cows milk anymore, and Mickey is just wonderfully filling in.
You will just have to wait and see how yours do, more than likely they will do great, and are a lot less complicated goats than purebreds.
Barb
Barb

[Maranman]

Well not much I can add here,you all have made some good points.It all adds up to what a person wants to go thru in training the does and Ect.One thing comes to mind is they need to be training now,if close to freshening.Feeding them on the milking stand,rubbing their belly,udder and teats and alot of attention helps. Thanks,David Sullivan.