Milking after weaning?

nstone630

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While I am patiently (really impatiently but it's whatever :pop) I figure I'd pick your brains on after the kids are weaned. I was hoping to try milking her. Is that an option with a Boer doe?

If anyone has any experience (silly question with this group ;))I'd like to see what my options are.
 

samssimonsays

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A friend of mine has milked her boers and boer crosses. They just don't give off the quantity that a dairy breed does. She uses hers for soaps only so I am not sure how the taste compares. But the lady I got my Alpines from also has boers and boer crosses and she milks them and after all is said and done, she puts all the milk together. So there again, I don't know how it tastes in comparison as it is diluted with alpines milk. Some of them actually produce a lot of milk.
 

samssimonsays

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If you do plan to milk her, get or make a stand! I tried without for a while with my first and it was a NIGHTMARE even after she was trained to being milked, she would just cop an attitude. Once I built the stand, no more issues. Also, if you want to keep production up, try separating kids from her starting at 4-6 weeks old for 8-12 hours or so a day and milk her then let her have them back until they are weaned. That way she won't dry off while weaning them and maybe it will give you all some added bonding with her and the babies. This helped our bonding with our very wild, never handled 4.5 week old kid when we brought him and his mom home.
 

Latestarter

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@babsbag used to own (and milk?) boers and @ragdollcatlady (also currently does?) I believe. Not sure about anyone else off the top of my head.
 

Goat Whisperer

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I don't have any experience with Boers, but you could at least try to milk her. As the others said, it won't be the same amount as a dairy breed but its a start :)

I know you said you wanted her to do as much as the birthing/cleaning as possible, however, if you want to milk her I would be there right with her (if she will tolerate it). Hopefully, if you are around and close the hormones will kick in and she will "love" you too and have a little bit more of a bond.

I agree, you will need a milking stand! Especially with more wild goats.
Feed will also be your best friend. :D They seem to behave better and most goats will of course give more milk when they are well fed.

When we dam raised the dairy goats, I would separate the kids overnight once they hit the 2-3 week mark. Unless its extremely cold or the kid isn't growing well you don't need to wait any longer- NC winters are much warmer than Minnesota winters!

Just a warning- be prepared to have the snot kicked outa you :hide Thankfully goats don't kick like cows, but a determined goat can hurt you if you aren't careful. If she does this, don't be discouraged. The first time I tried to milk a goat was when someone needed some help relieving their kiko goats udders.
They had just been sold, and the kids hadn't been weaned yet so they had HUGE udders and were very sore.

Very wild goats.

First time milking.

My hands and arms were black and blue and the one goat would bite.
I got them milked though :th

After that I ended up with another diva.... Now all the goats stand nicely :love
 

TAH

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My friend milked her boer doe, she got 1-quart in a 1/2 a day. I tried her milk, way creamier than her saanen does milk. Other one of my friends had 7 boer that she milked, her highest producing doe milked 3-quarts a day so I know they can.

The hardest things for her was she had to feed them more to get a higher milk production so feeding wise she went back to milking her NDs.
 

nstone630

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Sounds great guys! Thanks for the info!

I'll talk to DH about the stand, I've looked it up online, seems he could build something for me!!
 

ragdollcatlady

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I do milk my boers occasionally. Especially when kids are weaned and udders need relief. I also used Baileys milk for my nigerian bottle kid when her mom was at the fair. On taste test, boer milk is just like nigerians, but not sweet. They do take alot of food to maintain and even more to give milk. Dairy goats are designed to put it all in the pail. I will milk my boers for our use if that is what I have in milk when I need it...and if they are tame;). Otherwise, I just milk what I need to.
 

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