I just attended a presentation on goats given by a man that I've known for several years. I have a lot of respect for his knowledge/experience on goats. He owns full-sized breeds, has never had Nigerians.
He has a farm and is extremely busy on the farm. He milks his does just one time per day. When I asked him about it, he says that he has experienced about a 10% reduction in production, but that the time savings for him more than justifies that drop in production (as he is then free to do other things on the farm).
I am now considering gradually switching to once a day milking, but would like to know if others here have tried that and, if so, what their experience was/is.
My two does both gave birth at the very end of March. I left the babies on them until the end of July and then we permanently separated them. I have been milking the moms 2x/day ever since then, and getting about 2 quarts a day total. If I went to milking 1x/day, a drop in production would not be an issue, as I really don't need 1/2 gallon of milk a day! However, I don't want to do this if this would not be good for the does.
Has anyone else tried this? Good/bad/indifferent? TIA.
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Thanks for that info, and I appreciate your numbers on the drop in production.
Still not sure what I will do. I might move to once a day this year & see what exactly happens. We are closing to breeding time anyway, so it might mean a few months of (gasp) buying cow's milk at the grocery store, but I'm curious.
Will post updates on what I find out, if I go this route!
We usually do it in the fall at some point, so the does have been in milk for six months or so. The production goes down somewhere between 30-50%. The better milkers only go down about 30%, while the less impressive milkers go down a full 50%. Gianaclis Caldwell at Pholia Farm also does once a day milking in the fall, and she hasn't had any problems with it.