[Spiller]

We have a one year old Saanen type goatling who has never run with a billy and has now bagged up and is producing milk.  We are milking her as our milk goat has just sadly died. Does anyone know how long she may milk for?

[tizaala]

IF YOU START TAKING IT, SHE WILL KEEP GIVING IT

[plumseverywhere]

I choose to let our maiden dry up over winter to regain condition.  Each spring she bags up again and off we go 
We've just returned from a week away and her udder is double the size it was when we left - yay!

[Lesley Silvester]

Plums has a maiden milker who produces loads of milk every year without fail. She'll probably be along soon.

[Lesley Silvester]

We posted at the same time. 

[plumseverywhere]

  Indeedy.  Having come across as confident in how my maiden always comes up trumps each year, I have to admit that its always a huge relief when that udder starts to fill out.  A small business depends on her now 

[Spiller]

Thanks. All advice was gratefully received. 

[Beeducked]

How interesting!


My next door neighbour has recently acquired a couple of lovely goats from a  somewhat dubious source (admitted that they weren't well nourished and their feet were terrible) and ones of them is bagged up and lactating. She is pretty skinny and certainly doesn't look like she is about to kid and the previous owner said she has not kidded (but not sure how much I would trust that given the fairly poor condition of them before they got to my friend) but I was wondering how common that is?

[fiestyredhead331]

could be that she has kidded and he has sold on the kids and doesn't want to spend money feeding her til next time, especially if she's skinny?

[Lesley Silvester]

But why lie about it?

[Beeducked]

I did wonder about things like that but again, wondered why they would lie about it. From what my friend says they were more hopeless and out of their depth rather than deceitful. At least the goats have a good home now (and if she changes her mind I'd have them in a heartbeat!).

[Lesley Silvester]

I knew you wouldn't need much excuse.    What was it you were telling me about not having goats because you couldn't face getting up early enough to do the milking before going to work?

[Beeducked]

If it was just milking goats I'd be fine but it's feeding the ducks, sheep and pigs too. Then again if I had a goat I wouldn't have spent a fortune on feeding my cade lambs!

[Lesley Silvester]

Pluses and minuses everywhere. Do you have to do all the feeding or does OH help?

[Dogwalker]

If it was just milking goats I'd be fine but it's feeding the ducks, sheep and pigs too. Then again if I had a goat I wouldn't have spent a fortune on feeding my cade lambs!

Except you need the goat to kid early enough to have weaned the kids to have enough spare milk for the lambs.