Lactation length questions

Nubian ff kidded in March.
Lamancha ff kidded in May

I was getting about 3 quarts combined in once daily milking. Today I got about 1.25 quarts. It's slowly going down. Is this the normal rate of reduction?


The Nubian has been going about 6 weeks longer than the lamancha. Both are still nursing their single doelings throughout the day. I know the Nubian started giving less a bit ago and now the lamancha is going down, too.

I have my buck separate but he is in full stinky rut. To put him there with the does I will need to move his daughters and milk twice daily. My first season has gone well but I'm afraid to quit too soon. I just read the thread about shorter lactation due to the owner drying them off sooner so they don't get the full 10 months.

Actually I may be able to separate the doelings after we finish up a little fencing this weekend. Then let the does go for a friendly visit with the buck but it would be easier to just switch out doelings with the buck and leave him there for a few months.

When is the latest in the year you would move the buck?

Does everyone run into logistics issues around breeding time?

Breeding time makes me crazy; especially with three bucks and two different breeds of goats that I am trying to keep separate. Not only keeping the does in the right fields but keeping the bucks from killing each other when they are in adjoining pens.

As far as the milk, technically you should be able to get 10 months out of them but that also means that you have to breed at the same time or later each year. I don't push mine to 10 months, but I might change that when the dairy is done. I usually go about 8, sometimes 9. Every doe is different as far as how fast they dry off.

we are hoping to dry ours off by mid Nov- as that is when it starts getting colder here. We hope to re-breed in Nov and Dec 2015 to make kidding in April and May 2016. So 5-9 months of milking for our girls this time around.

We have logistics problems every day...., hopefully by weeks end we will have our second gate in place and that will make moving the goats around much easier!

Every animal is different

Are they near the buck?

What I would do is just watch for heat and put the doe in heat with the buck for the day

The buck pen is a couple hundred yards to the west. I can do the hand breeding but I haven't seen heat, yet. I could miss it and I was hoping for both to be March babies so I need to do something soon.

Is the decline I have seen a normal decline? Or should I be looking into the amount of feed/ worm load reasons?