A question for you with Mini dairy breeds.

[homebirtha]

How much milk do you minis give, on average? We have two Lamanchas and are making breeding plans. I'm intrigued by the idea of mini's.

[moonspinner]

One to two quarts/day is about average for nigerians.

[Laura Workman]

I'm milking two mini-mancha does, first generation. One peaks at about 7 pounds, the other peaks at about 10 pounds. Really. These does weigh 90 to 100 pounds, and are one or two inches taller than the Nigerians I had. They have long, level lactations and good, rich milk. They are easy to milk, having been fairly easily trained to the milkstand (by me), and they have good-sized teats. They keep condition remarkably well and seem to have very few health problems, as in no problems at all in the two years I've milked them. If you want to see them, visit my website (address below). Sorry to gush. I'm just really enthusiastic about these little milkers!

[homebirtha]

Wow, that's great. That's almost as much as I get from my full-size LMs. But then, they don't sound a whole lot smaller then my LMs either, so I guess that's not too surprising, huh? So next time, you breed them to another mini-mancha or back to a nigerian again? Do you try to get them even smaller eventually?

Originally Posted by Laura Jensen

I'm milking two mini-mancha does, first generation. One peaks at about 7 pounds, the other peaks at about 10 pounds. Really. These does weigh 90 to 100 pounds, and are one or two inches taller than the Nigerians I had. They have long, level lactations and good, rich milk. They are easy to milk, having been fairly easily trained to the milkstand (by me), and they have good-sized teats. They keep condition remarkably well and seem to have very few health problems, as in no problems at all in the two years I've milked them. If you want to see them, visit my website (address below). Sorry to gush. I'm just really enthusiastic about these little milkers!

[Laura Workman]

Well, no, they're not really a lot bigger than Nigerians. And I don't want them any smaller because I'd then have a hard time fitting my milk bucket underneath. Here's a pic of my girl that peaked at 10 pounds (second freshening). That's me beside her for comparison, and I'm five-foot-three. She's 50/50 Nigerian and Lamancha. When I breed her, I breed her to another 50/50 cross.

I did have one where I went with a 75% Lamancha 25% Nigerian cross because I thought the 50/50s wouldn't be big enough to have good production. That animal was well under the lower height limit for Lamanchas, but still too big for my taste, so I sold her. She gave a gallon as a first-freshener five weeks fresh.

[homebirtha]

She looks great! Yeah, I guess she's not so close in size to my LMs. Much shorter obviously. They're about 125 and 150, but the one is 125 is really skinny due to being beaten out of the feeders too often at her last home. So I guess that is a big difference. I am very intrigued by the mini dairy breeds. :-)