What time(s) of Day Do You Milk?

The same books that said it HAS to be every 12 hours said you can adjust to daylight savings time by moving milking time over by 15 minutes for 4 days before the time change.
It did that the first time.
The second time I did nothing.

 

Mostly just complain a lot




...In all seriousness though, I go by the time on the clock. I have to be at work at 8:00 even if it we gain or lose an hour, which means I have to milk no later than 6:30, so I have to go by the clock and not the "actual" time. If you have room in your schedule to adjust to compensate for daylight saving's time and you want to, that's great, but otherwise they will adapt to being an hour off, as long as it's consistent!

 

In fall 2019, 4 days before clock was turned back an hour, I milked at 6:45, the next day at 6:30, the next day at 6:15, and the day the clocks were changed it was 6:00, but now called 7:00.
Does this make sense now?
In spring 2020, i acted as if nothing was different and milked at 7:00, even though the doe’s body thought is was only 6:00.
My does are not heavy producers. I came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter much, to do the jump of 1 hour.

 

March - Nov we milk 7 and 7. Sometimes we fluctuate half-hour but try to stick to that. Nov-Mar, if we are milking (we have 3 due in Dec then 6 in Feb) we will do around 7 and about 5pm. That is due to it getting dark here about 6ish, sometimes a bit earlier. We don't have electricity in the milk barn and I really don't like doing chores, esp milking, in the dark. We have a lantern but still. Once daylight gets longer, we start stretching out to 7pm.

We also milk test ours and they're heavy milk genetics. So they need to be milked twice a day, esp in the beginning of lactation. I go down to once a day when they are about 8 months into lactation to give myself a break. At that point most of them can drop, but yes, you lose a good bit of milk. You will get between 1/2 - 2/3 maybe of what they were producing.

Like above, you just need to pick a schedule and stick to it. Don't just milk when you feel like it. Going off schedule will cause problems. You will get a feel of what your does will tolerate. I know early in lactation, mine don't tolerate too much more than an hour late as they get way too tight. Late in lactation, I can vary 2-3 hours if something comes up, maybe more. But if you milk whenever and don't stick to a schedule, you risk losing production as well.