The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: fiestyredhead331 on October 12, 2012, 12:54:19 am
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Our milking nanny has been producing usually 2 litres of milk per day but in the last week that's dropped to about half a litre.
She has a concentrate mix supplemented with alfa in the morning, a full hayrack throughout the day then another couple of scoops of mix etc at night. She seems to be eating plenty and has a good appetite.
anyone have any suggestions as to why the milk yield has fallen so quick? :-\
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She's trying to dry off. The length of daylight hours tells goats its autumn, and is why she is beginning to dry up. She is preparing her body to become pregnant again. Are you milking her once a day or twice? Don't drop her to once a day if you want her keep producing through the winter. It does sound as if it will be a struggle to keep her milking right through.
Beth
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This is exactly what is happening to my milker - its been a sudden decline and from my point of view, a relief! :)
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Can someone tell Enid this please? Daft bugger won't dry off ::) :goat: :goat:
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All ours are dropping off now, two have come in season and are shouting all day , we won't be mating them this year to give them a rest after tripplets and twins last spring, We have 4 visiting nannies waiting to be covered, 2 of our own maidens to cover , 3 bt's turning up soon from Pollished Arrow, if he still needs our services. and 2 of our bts + 2 pure toggs ,
the yield has gone down from 15Lts to about 6Lts in the last few days.
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great thanks for that everyone, milking once a day at the moment. Is it worth trying to milk twice a day to keep her producing for a bit longer? not planning to put her in to kid this year.
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All of ours have dropped drasticly in the last week , They are all milking through some into their second year so looks like we may have to kid more of them than we wanted too :-\
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Mine has dropped from 2 pints a day to 1 1/4 pints a day over the last three weeks. I do plan on getting her in kid this autumn but hope the milk won't drop any more this winter, until I have to dry her ready for kidding.
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great thanks for that everyone, milking once a day at the moment. Is it worth trying to milk twice a day to keep her producing for a bit longer? not planning to put her in to kid this year.
If she has not kidded this last spring (or only had a single) you would be better to put her back in kid, with the amounts you saying she is giving she may not last all winter. If she has kidded this year and you are milking ony once a day, I wold continue with that, I wouldn't have thought that goung back to twice a day milking would increase her yield anymore...
But my ladies have also decided it's winter, yields have dropped, especially for the girls runing through.
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This answers a question for me, too. Mine have dropped quantity drastically in a short time in spite of eating well, looking well etc. I will keep on milking while it makes sense but perhaps they are expecting a hard winter and conserving their resources. I suspect animals know more than we credit them for.
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Ellie is still going great guns, Rowan is doing her best to dry off and I am doing my best not to let her :D
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This may be a stupid question but other than the billy collar (which is winging its way to me), how do you tell they are in season physically? Same as dogs? :innocent:
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This may be a stupid question but other than the billy collar (which is winging its way to me), how do you tell they are in season physically? Same as dogs? :innocent:
Sticky backend, swishing their tail, shouting without any other reason (some don't), mounting each other, being obnoxious at milking time, dropping milk yield just before...
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Mine flick their tails, shout their heads off and their milk yield drops the day before.
They've never mounted each other (i know other people's goats do) and it would be hard to tell if Ellie was being more obnoxious.....no, that's unfair, but she has 'opinionated' days which are not related to being in season ;)
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Sticky backend, swishing their tail, shouting without any other reason (some don't), mounting each other, being obnoxious at milking time, dropping milk yield just before...
lol with some of mine i can answer yes to all of those signs
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If she has not kidded this last spring (or only had a single) you would be better to put her back in kid, with the amounts you saying she is giving she may not last all winter. If she has kidded this year and you are milking ony once a day, I wold continue with that, I wouldn't have thought that goung back to twice a day milking would increase her yield anymore...
Agreed... Don't think going to twice daily milking will increase it any now. Increasing to twice daily milking in march will help encourage her milk to come up as the daylight will be increasing.
Beth
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Mine has dropped from 2 pints a day to 1 1/4 pints a day over the last three weeks. I do plan on getting her in kid this autumn but hope the milk won't drop any more this winter, until I have to dry her ready for kidding.
I let mine dry off about Nov / Dec, gives me a break and anyway I always feel cruel going in with cold hands :o :goat: (could do with one of these of a goat looking shocked ;D )
I find another thing about them being in season is they try to escape, or certainly play up more than normal, (but what is normal?) First time ever Cinamon jumped an electric fence this week - yes, she was in season. I had to tether her for a couple of days.
Mine often 'flick' their tails, but in season it's a definite and more constant rapid wagging.
Someone local once bought a goat off me, phoned me up (months later) and said there was something wrong with her, they thought she was in pain, I went straight up, and yes, bleating in desperation, restless, tail wagging, for a farmer I would have thought he's known, I've seen cows act much the same way.
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If she has not kidded this last spring (or only had a single) you would be better to put her back in kid, with the amounts you saying she is giving she may not last all winter. If she has kidded this year and you are milking ony once a day, I wold continue with that, I wouldn't have thought that goung back to twice a day milking would increase her yield anymore...
But my ladies have also decided it's winter, yields have dropped, especially for the girls runing through.
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she had a kid in the Spring and to be honest we're still learning so not quite ready to go down that road this year, we've also got another nanny and kid arriving tomorrow so am relieved to hear its not worth milking twice a day as we're going to have our hands full for a while!
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I'm keen for Savannah to dry up because she is a maiden milker and never kidded but always seems to come into milk by March! I worry that she is losing condition now and would like her to conserve her energy for winter.
Funny that you mention the naughty behaviour PHB - Savannah jumped our electric fence 2 days ago too! She was found in my newly established apple orchard eating saplings >:( she also tries to have her wicked way with poor Reggie, the wether who runs away!
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thanks for all the advice, yesterday turned out to be an eye-opener! She went into season and was acting like a lunatic (even our little cripple wether lamb got the once over :o but this morning she seems fine, a lot calmer and munching away outside and got a litre of milk into the bargain.
Her 2 new companions are arriving today so that should be fun :fc:
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My first goat went mad for a couple of days, loud bleating, trying to escape, etc but her daughter is much harder to tell. She only lasts for a maximum of 24 hours and isn't very loud. I'm watching her at the moment as I want to get her to the billy asap.
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thinking about putting her into kid but not til nearer December so she's not delivering at the harshest time here for weather and the vet won't get stuck in the snow if there's any problems, so a couple more daft episodes to endure before then ;D
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I think the best time here is late Oct/early Nov, in theory for better weather in early April.
Last year the first kidded the worst night of the year, everything in the barn was covered in snow, the wind came from an unusual direction and the barn had openings we'd never had a problem with before.
I think 2 weeks earlier weather had been glorious!
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well we had a good covering of frost through the night :(
up here, which is the very far north of the highlands (300 miles north of Aberdeen!) we tend to time our lambing for late March early April but some times even later, we always get the 'lambing snow' in April and have taken advice from the lady we get our goats from she recommends leaving kidding until around the same time. But saying that we have had some scorching weather in March/April so its just luck I suppose with a little bit of planning thrown in for good measure :)