I was wondering if anyone milks just once a day? If so how does work for you? Any problems? Pros? Cons? I love milking, but having a full time job and help my husband farm after work. Leaves me with very little time. If anyone has any input on once day milking please let me know.
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That is cool though Deborah! I have often thought that sometimes it seems to work that way. It's almost like, I have this much room to hold this much milk and if you don't take it that's all there will be, but if you get it out, I will make that much more for you! Wish it was always like that, and if you take it 3 times a day I will do it again, Wouldn't that be nice! LOL!
I have done this with a few does -- usually because I thought they were close enough to drying up anyway, but then they just kept going and going. They had been in milk for six months or longer. Of course you will have various degrees of success with different does. I had one doe that was giving two cups a milking twice a day, and she was the only doe left in milk, so I went to once a day, and she kept giving 2 cups at that one milking, and when I had other does freshen a few months later, I started miking her twice a day again, and she went back to 2 cups at each milking. I would not expect most goats to do that though.
Most people who milk once a day usually do so while the kids are still nursing. They lock the babies up at night, milk the doe in the morning, and then let the kids milk her throughout the day.
After the kids are weaned, you run into the problems that Rachel listed, the main one being that the milk supply doesn't stay high. When the udder stays really full and isn't milked out, the production drops. It's a supply-and-demand situation. The pressure in the udder caused by the fullness and lack of demand for their milk signals them to make less of it. So at first your does will be uncomfortable and their udders will be very full, but eventually they will just not make as much because they will only make as much as you take from them.
If you really need to switch to once a day and can accept the production drop, start it gradually. Move whichever milking time you want to stop closer to one you want to keep. So if you only want to milk in the morning and are milking at 7am and 7pm now, start milking at 7am and 6pm, etc, until your milk times are close enough together that you can stop milking the second time. How quickly you can make the change really depends on your doe's production and how quickly they adjust.
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That is cool though Deborah! I have often thought that sometimes it seems to work that way. It's almost like, I have this much room to hold this much milk and if you don't take it that's all there will be, but if you get it out, I will make that much more for you! Wish it was always like that, and if you take it 3 times a day I will do it again, Wouldn't that be nice! LOL!
I think that it would be safe to assume that if you do this that they will also dry up a lot quicker too!
Most people who milk once a day usually do so while the kids are still nursing. They lock the babies up at night, milk the doe in the morning, and then let the kids milk her throughout the day.
After the kids are weaned, you run into the problems that Rachel listed, the main one being that the milk supply doesn't stay high. When the udder stays really full and isn't milked out, the production drops. It's a supply-and-demand situation. The pressure in the udder caused by the fullness and lack of demand for their milk signals them to make less of it. So at first your does will be uncomfortable and their udders will be very full, but eventually they will just not make as much because they will only make as much as you take from them.
If you really need to switch to once a day and can accept the production drop, start it gradually. Move whichever milking time you want to stop closer to one you want to keep. So if you only want to milk in the morning and are milking at 7am and 7pm now, start milking at 7am and 6pm, etc, until your milk times are close enough together that you can stop milking the second time. How quickly you can make the change really depends on your doe's production and how quickly they adjust.
I know that there are people that do it, but personally, I wouldn't.
The only *real* pro in my opinion, is less work for you. (at the expense of all the cons above)