Irregular milking schedule?

Meg Z · #1 05/20/05, 05:15 PM

I need to know how irregular a milking schedule can be without putting the girl's health at risk. I ask because my fall schedule is looking pretty grim. I'll have grad school classes three nights a week, until 8:30, and an hour drive home. I would just move them to milking at ten am and pm, but on top of the classes, I'll have TA time, and they want some of it afternoons on the days I have classes, and some of it mornings/all day on days I don't!

The afternoons on my class days isn't a problem, but being in class from 8 am to 4:30 pm on the other days will disrupt the scedule I have going the first three days.

So. If I milk 10 and 10 on Monday, Tues and Wed, then 6am/6pm Thurs and Fri, and spend the weekend easing back to the M/T/W schedule, how much damage will that do?

AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Meg

okgoatgal2 · #2 05/20/05, 07:31 PM

oops

okgoatgal2 · #3 05/20/05, 07:32 PM

i used a 10/14 milking schedule when i had to...and while i'm sure it had an impact, i still got more than enough milk for our needs. production is sure to drop, but unless they are super duper milkers, it shouldn't hurt them....be better to arrange a more regular time-like a 10/14 schedule, or something similar, than that 4 hr switch every week. good luck. i guess telling them that the TA hrs need to work with your milking schedule won't work, huh?

Cheri · #4 05/21/05, 12:36 AM

Unless you really need all that milk you could always taper off to a once a day milking. That would keep them on a regular schedule and not have you hectic trying to be on time. We show our goats, but as the show season gets near an end we slowly switch to once a day milkings for the last one or two shows then dry them up for breeding. If they are not shown then there isn't really a reason that they cant be dropped to once a day milking. Just make sure you milk them all the way out until you want them dry.

dscott7972 · #5 05/21/05, 05:30 AM

I just went to a "mornings only" milking and of coarse the amount has dropped off I get more than I need. I think with the schedule you posted you'll drop in production pretty fast and be worse than just milking mornings or evenings only but I don't think the health of the does will be in jepordy (but I'm no expert on goat health either).

Meg Z · #6 05/22/05, 04:41 PM

Thanks for the input. I'll know by then how much milk we're using, and can judge if going to once a day will work for us. I'm not as concerned about the loss of milk, though, as I am any risk of mastitis or other nasties on my two girls. I'll dry them up before I let that happen! The schedule madness will last a year and a half, so I'll let this fall schedule tell me how to handle next year.

I sure wish they'd work around my milking schedule!!

Meg

chamoisee · #7 05/22/05, 07:18 PM

Do they have kids nursing? If they do you could easily go to morning or evenings only.

Meg Z · #8 05/23/05, 02:58 PM

Hey, chamoisee, not yet on nursing kids. I planned these births a bit on the late side, so they're due end of May/first of June. They're both first fresheners, so I wanted to wait until the end of school for me.

PS, I like your name...one of my Alpines is chamoisee colored.

Meg

chamoisee · #9 05/23/05, 03:21 PM

Thank you! It was the only Alpine color pattern that made a decent handle!

I suggest reconsidering bottle raising the kids, if you can. If CAE is the issue, maybe let the bucklings nurse? Because bottle feeding kids will be a task in and of itself....even if you use lambar buckets.

If you dam raise them, you can get enough milk and just milk in the mornings. Once they're 3-4 weeks old, you can shut the kids up at night and get all the morning milk, then let them out to nurse all day and evening, and no evening milking.

TexCountryWoman · #10 05/23/05, 04:50 PM

With my goats, I leave the kids on. They are now six weeks old and i milk twice a day. I separate the kids from the moms during the day and milk again in the evening after emtying them out in the morning as the kids can never handle what the does make during the night. I go to once a day milking when i get tired of twice a day milking. I tend to be irregular because of my own health reasons. I always empty my does completely and never let them go too long between milkings. Never had a case of mastitis. The worse i have done is simply shrink my milk supply. My arms stay tired and muscled from milking so I don't worry about it. (Lactic acid burn!) I worry about next year when the youngin's grow up and I will have six milkers.

Meg Z · #11 05/24/05, 08:53 PM

Everyone does things differently...I need to figure out what'll work for me <sigh>

I was planning on keeping the kids on the moms. All of my does and the dad came from CAE free herds, and this property hasn't had goats on it...ever, as far as I can learn, so we should be okay. (I'd know for sure if there was a vet around here who would deign to look at a goat!)

I may be trying TexCountryWoman's method, but since even with a June 1st birth date they'll be weaning by the time I start school in the fall, or shortly thereafter, it may not be much help. I actually can keep a proper schedule during the summer!

We'll see. At least I'll have the summer. And next year they'll be bred earlier.

Thanks for all info,
Meg