[poppy2012]

i am into the second year for milking, but i have a 4 month old baby and am getting very tired of waking up at 6.15 every day to milk, is there a set time i should milk by? daylight hours perhaps...its routine now, but im seriously thinking of selling her as im getting no rest, as caring for great granny too...any advice would be great!!!

[jaykay]

If you milk twice then try to space them roughly evenly. But no, you don't have to milk at a particular time. You are making life difficult for yourself unnecessarily!

I milk mine before I go to ?ork and in the winter that's in the dark, so by artificial light in the byre. I only milk once a day - I leave the kids on during the day until they wean themselves, I only milk in the morning, this system works for me.

So my feeling is you can milk at the time of day that suits you and if you don't mind getting less milk you can milk once a day too 

[Anke]

I think it is more important to milk at roughly the same time every day, so you could milk at 7.30am and then again at 7pm or thereabouts if that suits you better.
 
I milk at 6.30am (after a quick cup of coffee, without which I could not even attempt to do anything that requires some part of my brain to be operational...), so I can get the kids off to school in time, and try to be around that time in the evening too.

[jaykay]

Yes, sorry, didn't say that. As Anke says, the critical thing is a regular time, but one to suit you and it doesn't have to be so early 

[poppy2012]

that makes me feel loads better, somedays i have to take my older daughter to pre-school, so i find 6.45 the latest on those days for it to be done. i think i just needed confirmation that its all good! we have been milking twice a day to tame her up, but she is great now and hops on the stool every time ready for milking, she has her son a billy, who we have castrated and saving for meat, so she is being succled in the day, so perhaps once a day will be fine for us, the milk isnt essential at the moment, and plus trying to correct a defficienccy as it tastes slightly bitter, it is getting creamier, but still a slight aftertaste, not like our other milker Maisey. Do the guernesey goats have a fuller creamier milk?? never tasted milk from them!!
thank you guys...i shall sleep more now!!

[jaykay]

The way I do 'once a day', once the kid are 3-4 months old, is to shut them out from their mums overnight, milk first thing before I let the kids get to them. They always 'save' some for their kids' breakfasts 

Then the kids stay with them all day and drink what they like.

As the kids grow up and drink less, the mums produce less, so the once a day still works.

[Skirza]

The way I do 'once a day', once the kid are 3-4 months old, is to shut them out from their mums overnight, milk first thing before I let the kids get to them. They always 'save' some for their kids' breakfasts 

Then the kids stay with them all day and drink what they like.

As the kids grow up and drink less, the mums produce less, so the once a day still works.

That's how I do it - works brilliantly for us 

[sokel]

we do ours 7 am and 7 pm in the summer and 8am in the winter
for maximum milk yeild 12 hours between milking is best but if you dont need all of the milk you could alter your times unless she is a heavy milker.
some of our lighter milkers are only getting milked once a day at the moment

[ScotsGirl]

I was interested in the comment about taste. Is there a taste difference between breeds?  I have never drunk goats milk and worried it won't be pleasant.  Considering getting a few goats either for milk or meat but not sure I could take a goat to abbattoir. It doesn't bother me so much with lambs but think more interaction with goats would make it harder.
 
How do others deal with this?

[tizaala]

ScotsGirl, goats milk is no different to cows milk if it is produced correctly, there should be no goaty taste to it , if there is they need a shot of cobalt -mineral suplement, we find that the milk off our Toggies is creamier than the Saanens, the taste can alter slightly according to what they have been brousing on , just as in the winter cows milk can taste of silage. don't buy goat milk from superstores, find a goat person nearby and try a sample of fresh milk.

[Anke]

I was interested in the comment about taste. Is there a taste difference between breeds?  I have never drunk goats milk and worried it won't be pleasant.  Considering getting a few goats either for milk or meat but not sure I could take a goat to abbattoir. It doesn't bother me so much with lambs but think more interaction with goats would make it harder.
 
How do others deal with this?

Second the taste issue - creaminess seems to go down certain lines of goats rather than particualr breeds, Anglo Nubians tend to have higher butterfats than the swiss breeds.
 
as to eating them - it is more difficult to take the castrated boys to the abattoir, but it is part of responsible smallholding - bottle lambs can be quite difficult to. The quality and taste of the meat will make up for it!

[poppy2012]

yes - dont worry - the goat milk should taste lovely and creamy - our milker last year, maisey, was absoloutly delicious, i could drink it by the pint fulls!!! but im sure its just a deficience, im finding this past few weeks hard, hence not haveing forkes out the £35 for a drench as yet....so think that this is why the milk tatses funny!!

we have been seperating off the mum from the kid at night so get her full morning milk , which is only about 2 1/2 pints or so, but as her milk isnt drinkable in my opinion, i dont mind! then we have now cut out the night milkng as we were only getting 1/2  pint anyway, and only started so she could be tamed quicker, udders seem fine this eveing, so lets hope we dont get mastitis!

thank you guys for all your help, sometimes i dont know what i would have done without the forum and more experienced goat keepers regularly on hand!!

with killing goats, humm my first time, so i think its going to be hard, I say to myself thats its ok, because at least its been loved, eaten good food, and had a happy life, its not all bad. i think i will find it hard though, but naming him a name i dont like is helping i think!!!  also when you eat meat, it should be something we should all have to do at some points, but i imagine things like goats and pigs are quite different to lambs and chickens! theyre soo bloody clever!!!
good luck to you! worth every minute keeping our goaties!!

[princesspiggy]

when we milked our bagot, the milk was soo delicious and creamy, perfect for coffee. i just cant drink any supermarket goats milk / butter, even tho id love to.
id stick to a routine that suits u, aslong as the time is the same each day.

[Lesley Silvester]

I milk at about 11am and 9.30pm because that suits me.