Milking questions

[NH homesteader]

That is too cute! My daughter is very particular about not drinking store bought milk now, and she always wants goat milk. I don't think she cares which goat though!

I have heard such lovely things about Lamancha personalities that I'm looking to add one next year. Then I can make a mini Mancha (and probably keep it too... Then I'll need a second buck... Goat math!)

 

[OneFineAcre]

When on milk test 305 days is what is required... that is why people say 10 months.

10 months for any breed. Standard, Miniature, or Dwarf.

Keep in mind. A goat can milk for 10 months but out of those 10 months is the doe consistent? For example- I'll use a Nigerian.
Leaving out protein and butterfat and all the other stuff...

Doe A gives 3# day BUT after 3 months goes down to 2# and a month or 2 later goes down to 1#

Doe B gives 2 1/2# day and after peak goes to 2# but stays steady all the way through til 9-10 month mark.

Which would you pick?

I just plugged in random numbers... but the point is most of us for home use want a consistent animal. Not 4-5 months of milk in the pail and the other 5 not worth milking for.

HOW you milk determines a great deal as well. You learn what works for you and the goat. You may find a particular goat does better one way over another.

For us Millie (our unregistered Lamancha) is our go to goat.
We don't need to milk her. She has a single on her and her single is huge... she doesn't spend all day with her mom either. Once we dry all the other does off we will milk her. Her production will increase and she will take us through the winter and while everyone is kidding and we are feeding bottle babies. We have milked her a few times because we make certain recipes with ONLY MILLIE MILK! Her daughter, our Mini is just as awesome. As a FF she milked a full 10 months with phenomenal consistency. We had to FORCIBLY dry her off. It was a pain. Both her and her mom really don't need bred every year they will just stay in milk.

The good thing about DHIR testing is you can not only see how they do in one 305 period but year 1,2,3,4
It's equally important how much Doe B is producing when she is 7 or 8

You can also continue your test beyond 305 days

That is one of the reasons we bought Valiant
His paternal grand dam milked 1190
Lbs in 305 days an average of 3.9 lbs per day
But she milked 1398 lbs in 371 days
208 lbs in the last 66 days a 3.15 lb average

 

[Southern by choice]

The good thing about DHIR testing is you can not only see how they do in one 305 period but year 1,2,3,4
It's equally important how much Doe B is producing when she is 7 or 8

You can also continue your test beyond 305 days

That is one of the reasons we bought Valiant
His paternal grand dam milked 1190
Lbs in 305 days an average of 3.9 lbs per day
But she milked 1398 lbs in 371 days
208 lbs in the last 66 days a 3.15 lb average

That is what I like too.
I want to see the curve and how steep or not it gets.

 

[OneFineAcre]

So glad I asked this and I have so much to think about now! So what is a full lactation for a Nigerian? It's 10 months typically for a standard right? Or did I remember that wrong?

@Goat Whisperer that is awful!

@Southern by choice good point about recovery of milking. I hadn't thought of that. And... Next year when I want to get into meat goats I'll be researching all this about boers... Hmm... I am having a hard time finding kikos around here but boers are easy to find. Perhaps not worth it by what you say=1840]@babsbag[/USER] I'm interested to hear how it goes after this year! Every other day... Wow that's a new schedule! Ha ha

If Boers are easy to find in your area then that means there are a lot of Boers in your area
There is probably a reason why
Boers have more of an issue with parasites in the heat and humidity in the south than they would in NH
But even with the issues with parasites there are more Boers in NC than every other breed combined
Twice as many

 

[Southern by choice]

If Boers are easy to find in your area then that means there are a lot of Boers in your area
There is probably a reason why
Boers have more of an issue with parasites in the heat and humidity in the south than they would in NH
But even with the issues with parasites there are more Boers in NC than every other breed combined
Twice as many

Boers, when first imported were the "big" thing and the $ people paid was unreal. Just like anything it was all the rage.

Skip forward. In NC when we started in meatgoats and were just looking no one here had even heard of Kikos. Huh? What's a KI- KO?
It is as if those in NC didn't know there was any other meatgoat. Weird.
We researched, went to farms talked to breeders. It was the breeders honesty that had us go WHAT!


They would talk about expect to find one dead when you come out in the am... parasites are real bad... you need to deworm al the time... then came the feed issue. None of these goats foraged. They stood by for their grain (and lots of it) and hay... acres of land and they never went more than 50 ft from a feeder.
We knew we had to look at other breeds.

I ended up talking with Dr. Luginbuhl for a good while.
We went with the Kikos.

Now more and more are either crossing Kikos or Spanish in or moving to Kikos/NewZealand goats. I think the Boer is a great goat just not for our region.

@OneFineAcre is right, there are more Boers here than other meatgoat breeds but I think that more and more are now hearing about the other breeds and the tide is changing.
They have better reproduction, better wean weights, they can easily raise twins and triplets, very rare for kidding issues, have good resistance. Forage is a must though. They are NOT grain hogs or hay hogs... they prefer forage over everything.

Sadly many have no idea how to judge a good kiko.

 

[TAH]

http://www.lookoutpointranch.com

 

[NH homesteader]

@Southern by choice I had forgotten, I read that boers aren't good foragers. That's a big deal for me. We have 5 acres and my parents, who live next door, have 35 acres and most of all that is brush and woods. We also really like more natural breeds, heritage when we can (we have heritage pigs and chickens) so kikos sound like a better fit for us both practically and ideologically.

As for parasites it (typically) is fairly wet here so that's an issue too.
Thanks @TAH I will check them out!

Edited: I wrote 4 acres, we have 5. Not that it matters but it's bothering me that I said it wrong.

 

[Southern by choice]

I think the Boers do much better in drier regions. I certainly wouldn't discount the whole breed.

I also think management and breeding has a good deal to do with it.

We have been contacted quite a few times for Kiko does as well as our dairy does by those wanting to bring them in to their Boer herds. They want to use them as recips.

More on that later.

 

[NH homesteader]

I don't know what that means. Use them as what?

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Has to do with embryo transplants.

Southern will share more on that later as mentioned