Skipped a milking to help stretch the udder...yikes...where's the milk!!

Hmmmm, Tater and Red 2 year old second fresheners, would milk 9 and 11 pounds respectively had they gone from 9am to 7am, and yes they would be light on their evening milking after that, but then would bounce right back. Did she stress at all? Is she cold? I would wonder if you fed her the normal amount of grain when you missed the milking? Do you have any CMPK to give her for awhile? Is she getting her normal ration? Missing one evening milking does not dry up a goat! Vicki

 

but ??? were the kids on her prior?? just wondering and if this in itself would cause the drop in production

 

I had one goat that if she got too full she would reach around and take care of the problem herself! Yes she would suck her own teat, but she did it mostly on one side. Then it became a bad habit for her and down the road she went. Could your girl be doing this?

Anne

 

It sounds like she got stressed and absorbed her milk. I have a friend who showed one of her milkers one weekend this spring and after that the doe had no milk and soon dried up. It can happen.

I would try the CMPK as Vicki suggested. If your doe did this at home it is not likely she will make milk at a show. Good luck with her. I hope you can get her in the show ring.

Sara

 

I forgot to mention that if her udder wasn't ever full or tight, stretching her udder isn't going to help. That only works when they have super full udders at milking time and you want that udder to stretch to be able to hold more milk. If the udder wasn't full to begin with at 12 hour intervals then double bagging the doe isn't going to help her milk production or the amount of milk she can hold in her udder.

Sara

 

I, too, have a self sucking doe. Very frustrating.

 

Do you have other kids that she is penned with? Could she be letting them nurse?

Leslie

 

I have on occasion had to skip a milking for other reasons (have never tried to purposely stretch udders), and some does will bounce right back while others take a few days to get back up to where they were.

 

Well I for one will tell you if they don't get the alfalfa you won't get the milk just plain and simple
If I run out of alfalfa pellets you can bank on it that I will have half the production. I now make sure they get the alfalfa if nothing else.

 

Yes, one day I forgot to feed my goats their alfalfa pellets. :nooo One day.

 

I am feeding my goats 1/2 Dumor Goat Feed and 1/2 10% Sweet Feed from Tractor Supply and free choice grass hay. My Saanen is giving 10# a day. My Nubians are giving 7#, 5# & 4# a day. I know they need alfalfa but I just can't afford it right now. I realize they will give more milk, but they give all that we need.

 

I am feeding my goats 1/2 Dumor Goat Feed and 1/2 10% Sweet
..........................

Ok how much are both of these products and how much of this are they eating each day? Look at the products in these sacks, they are ground up whatever they want to put in the sack and it changes each and every time you purchase it. The Dumor goat feed is the same thing as the cheapest horse pellet at any feed store and at the feed store they are still in the $8 range. The sweet feed is nothing more than some corn, crimped oats and molassas to keep the chalf down from the crimped oats. most of the rest of the products are what is left when clean whole oats and crimped corn (cobs etc.) are milled and floor sweepings, yes floor sweepings.

If you are feeding 2 pounds per day of this feed you could feed 1 pound of whole oats. Although grass hay is fine, it does not contain the calcium milkers need, if you were milking boers or another breed that doesn't convert calories to milk you can do this for years with no problems. But even in dairy Nubians, the poorest milkers usually, they have more kids than all other breeds, so the trade off is less milk with more butterfat and more kids, or less kids with super high milk amounts....all of the above has to be done with calcium. Staving your girls of calcium like you are is going to eventually give you pregnancy diseases....metobolic disease....hypocalcemia during pregnancy and milk fever after in milk. Not this week, but eventually. The loss of one milker would pay for the alfalfa your girls need, the loss of a litter of kids etc...the loss of milk production.

So take it from somebody who does all this on a shoe string, you can't afford to rob your does of the calcium they need from some form of alfalfa, even if it is just one pound each a day or one flake. Only keep the amount of goats you can feed well.

With really good non red minerals with at last 1000PPM of copper, alfalfa in some form, your grass hay you could feed no grain and still have the same amount of milk and have better looking healthier girls.

Is not the Dumor goat feed medicated for cocci? Vicki

 

cargillanimalnutrition.com look under beef minerals and look at the Onyx they have a click down menu to see if someone sells them in your area or can get them...sold by Nutrena here....or bluebonnetmills.com Tech Master Complete

Even a pound a day each is better than none a day. Also look around for other alfalfa pellets just because a feed store doesn't sell them doesn't mean they can't get them. Vicki

 

Your minerals containg molasses and iron in that it make them red

Ingredients
Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Salt,
Cane Molasses, Soybean Hulls, Magnesium Oxide, Potassium Chloride,
Copper Sulfate, Yeast Culture, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate, Ferrous
Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Molybdate,
Synthetic Red Iron Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Zinc Oxide, Zinc Sulfate,
Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement,
Processed Grain By-Products, Mineral Oil, Artificial Flavoring.


Even look for a good dairy cattle mineral or horse mineral w/out the molasses

 

I have been feeding the Caprine Magnum Milk minerals for a few years now and I like the results. We don't have access to the same minerals that many of you in Texas do so this was the mineral I chose. I like what I am seeing.

Sara