What's a congested udder, is it a big deal, would you buy a goat who had one? I am interested in a doe whose owner says she had trouble with a congested udder but it is "loosening up well"
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Obviously, you can't expect any ND to make as much as a LM, so it depends on how much milk you need and if butterfat is important to you. Since almost all of our milk is used for making cheese, I felt like the LMs were just eating a lot more and giving me watered-down milk. But if your family drinks a lot of milk, an LM might be a better choice for you.
Well...I guess I have to decide if it is worth it to sell Annie in order to buy this La Mancha (per hubby can only get new one if I give one up)
I was feeling like it is not worth it to keep Annie for milking if she is only gonna give me a quart a day. Do you think it is a reasonable educated guess to think I might get a quart and a half a day out of her after the kids are gone? Even that is piddly I feel like. I really like Annie & not wild about selling her, but I am disappointed in her milking.
For the record Penny did not drop off when I sold her kids last year. Penny is the lesser of the two as far as the way her udder looks, personality, conformation, but she milks more at least so far. Maybe this is a new thread...
Sounds like they're on track to hit 20# by two months, which generally keeps me happy. Unfortunately, you may never know how much Annie is producing. In my experience, after about three days of a doe being separated from her kids (usually because the kids were sold), her production starts to go down. In her case, it could take that long to get her to actually let you have all of her milk. Sounds like she is doing a good job of feeding the bucklings though.
Deborah I weighed one of Annie's boys & got 16#, they are 6 weeks old. So according to your #'s that is not too small, correct? I have also been seperating her to milk, so they grew that much while not getting all she has all the time.
Well the pregnancy issue doesn't bother me because I am so impatient I send them off to Biotracking for testing anyway because I cant' stand to sit around and wonder if it took.
Annie's bucks are growing like weeds and they do not appear the slightest bit under fed. I think she is holding out on me. Her sister is a good milker- her previous owner said she was too. I guess the truth will come out when they are sold in two weeks or so? I'll try to weigh them and see where they're at.
I'm glad you mentioned that this is a la mancha, and of course, you can talk about her on here! Just be sure to mention the breed because there are some differences. Precocious udders are practically unheard of in NDs but fairly common in larger breeds. As production continues to improve in NDs, we will probably see more of them.
Precocious udders, high production, and mastitis seem to together, and in fact, my LM that had a precocious udder most likely freshened with sub-clinical mastitis, because it became a big, flaming case of clinical mastitis when we separated her from her kids for 24 hours for milk test when they were 3 weeks old. She also peaked at 2 gallons a day. Of course, there are plenty of good milkers that don't have that problem, so you never know what the future holds!
The annoying thing about precocious udders is that if you've bred a doe, you think she's pregnant when she isn't. :(
If Annie is only giving a quart a day, her bucks would be pretty small and not growing very fast -- like less than 10 pounds at a month and maybe 15 pounds at 2 months. They would feel lean vs meaty. What you describe as the difference between milking Penny and Annie sounds like Annie is holding back on you.
All things considered, would this info discourage you from buying this doe? Owner reports that she milked just shy of a gallon in the beginning, now down to 1/2 gal but owner had to much to do and cut her back to 1x a day milking. This is a La Mancha btw- I know those #'s wouldn't be realistic for a ND!
But I like my mini mancha so much & I am so happy with my kids by Miyagi, I am looking at another big girl for him. hope no one minds talking about La Manchas on the ND discussion.
Oh by the way, she did say that the issue is basically cleared up at this point- but she was just telling me that this did happen. This woman has been raising goats for more than a couple of years
I believe that she pulls kids & bottle raises but not certain. She said she has recently cut her back to 1x milking per day so I assume she was milking 2x a day in the beginning.
Why do you dislike precocious udders?
Also I wonder how this all applies to my doe Annie. Her udder feels meaty to me compared to my other two does which are soft and deflate well when milked. Annie's does not change shape that much when she is milked out. I know she had a history of mastitis at her prev home. When I seperate for 12 hours I struggle to get 1/2 qt out of her and she is 6 so that is pretty dissapointing. But when I put her in with her boys they suckle happily like they are getting a good nurse so maybe she is just not letting it down for me. When I milk Penny, a few minutes in to milking I feel all this new pressure descend into the bottom of her udder & the milk just flows. I never feel that with Annie. Suppose she is keeping it sucked up in there lol?
Udder edema doesn't last for two months, according to the textbooks, and I personally haven't seen that either. It is typically gone within a few days after kidding. What she is describing, however, ("it felt full of tissue more than milk at the top of the udder") sounds like a doe that is raising kids and won't let down her milk for YOU, which I see quite a bit, especially with first fresheners. If the owner has had goats for even a few years, however, I would think that she would recognize this. But maybe someone told her this was a congested udder, so she doesn't recognize what's happening? How often does she milk this doe? How often does she handle the udder? Is the doe raising kids? We're dealing with this in a couple of goats right now, and in one case, I can get the doe milked out, but my husband can't, so milking experience, technique, and patience are important. And if she has used an udder infusion, I could see that the doe might not be happy and relaxed when she is on the milk stand because that is not pleasant.
I personally am not a fan of precocious udders, but they tend to happen in does that are good milkers, which is why people put up with them.
This is owner's response to my ?s
Yes, her first kidding
Jan, have to check for the date (when she kidded)
She had a precocious udder, though she was not milked. So, I don't know when it started.
One side did not empty as much as the other, it felt full of tissue more than milk at the top of the udder. No tenderness, no fever, or signs of mastitis.
I dosed her up with garlic syrup, vit c, lots of massage with peppermint and a dose of today (mastitis infusion treatment, just because I throw the cabinet at stuff).
I still massage, she loves garlic syrup and vit c, so she gets that sometimes still.
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