Are the babies dam-raised?
Our 4 y/o gives us 2 quarts a day 3+ weeks since freshened, with a HUGE single doeling on her. We don't seperate them... this is our first milking goat and we're happy with that amount... maybe we'll seperate them, but it's working out well for us this way.

Susie

 

I was thinking of starting a similar post myself. Our almost 3 year old (2nd freshening) nubian has 3 week old kids. We are bottle feeding and getting anywhere from 9 lb. 10 oz. down to just 6 lbs. Majority of days are in the 8-9 pound range. I'm wondering why the wide variance?

And.....how often do you milk from the start? We started milking more often because we had extra babies we were trying to feed. They are gone now and we tried cutting back but then got a lot less milk.

 

I milk twice a day. My goats are Nubians. They are three weeks fresh.

Flower 5 year old fifth freshener 12lbs/day
Clover 3 year old second freshener 10lbs/day
DC 2 year old first freshener 8lbs/day

 

2 weeks fresh milking on only one side...50%Nubian/25%alpine/25%toggy....3-4 lbs a day.....her mom(freshened Wed.w/doeling) will give over a gallon but I think the toggy in her makes milk strong so I'm letting baby Faith nurse...

 

I have 4 Toggs-we're on test. The 2nd fresheners born in 2003 were 2410, 2250 and 2050 lbs- the last also raised a buckling so a couple of her tests were lower than actual production. The first freshener born in 2004 did 1740 lbs.
They give various amounts of milk per milking from 12 lbs to 4.8 depending on where they were in the lactation. They were still around 5-6 lbs each when I dried them off.

 

My Lamancha is 3 weeks fresh. She has triplets. Two are dam-raised and are left on her 24 hours a day. The third we are raising in the house as she was small at birth.

With the kids left on 24 hours a day and one milking a day, this doe gives 8 lbs a milk. She is a 4th freshener and weighs 100 lbs. Further into lactation and when the kids are weaned, she will give about 12-14 lbs of milk total with two milkings a day.

 

Two one-year old first fresheners (Nubians), 1 and 2 weeks fresh, respectively, giving 7 pounds and 5.5 pounds daily (these two girls are twins). The one with 7 pounds had twins, the other had a stillborn buckling 10 days early. I'd attribute the larger milking to double the kids? These two are petite little things compared to my other does! They are about 100 pounds each. The others are up at the 160 - 170 lb range...

Two two-year olds (Saanen/nubian cross and NOA Nubian). Both are 3 weeks fresh. The SaanenX is a second freshener and giving me 11 pounds daily - she gave me triplets this year. The Nubian is a first freshener and giving me 7 pounds daily for twins...she is also CAE positive and I'm not using her milk for the goats - the pigs and bottle lamb are getting it.

I have one more doe, a Saanen third freshener, who is expected to kid anytime now. She gave me 13 pounds daily last year and I'm hoping for a full 2 gallons a day this year (16 pounds) but we'll see.

I bottle feed all kids and milk twice a day.

-Sarah