For two weeks now we have been trying to start this overachiever drying up. She has been in milk for a bit over a year and half now. I have cut to no grain grain, no alfalfa hay, she gets one handful of alfalfa pellet mornin and night.... and btw she is REALLY pissed about this lol. I am def starving her just ask her. Anyhoo. She grazes and has good timothy orchard hay and that is it. But i am STILL having to pull milk from her every day. A few days i have been able to wait 36 hours but maybe two and it was raining those days. I milk only until her udder is not hard and even that take two to four cups.... she usually gives me a bit over half a gallon a day. She just wants to milk and milk and i want her to dry up so we can breed her for early next year kids.
Hahahaha! I have seriously thought of doin just that. But here is my dilema.... Bee will be bred for a ff. If she decides she doesn't want to be a mama then i can possibly give crickie her kids... crickie was feeding two not her own kids before she came here. Also we bought crick inn milk and i want to see kids from her. So i really wanna dry her off. Buut this whole overachiever has me rethinkin my plan. Lol!
I have one of those girls. Emmie..we tried drying her up and she's not having it! We get about half gallon once a day milking. Been in milk since Feb 2019. We have no plans to breed her so we decided just to milk her.
I had a very milky doe as well (actually a couple), I stagger,,,,, going to 1x per day, then 1x every other day, then 3 days etc. It definitely takes a while, but I was able to get them dry in about 2 months.
The absolute most i have been able to let her go is 36 hours so far. :/. And even when i milk her i only take enough off for her udder to not be tight. I have only done once a day even then.
Even our milkiest doe "dried up" 10 days prior to giving birth. Before then, I was having to milk her at least 1x/day.
They will generally start to slow once they are bred, we never wait to dry off before breeding. We prefer to give 8 weeks of dry time before freshening, but sometimes it's not possible.
Even our milkiest doe "dried up" 10 days prior to giving birth. Before then, I was having to milk her at least 1x/day.
They will generally start to slow once they are bred, we never wait to dry off before breeding. We prefer to give 8 weeks of dry time before freshening, but sometimes it's not possible.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Goat Spot Forum
1.8M posts
43.2K members
Since 2007
A forum community dedicated to goat owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!