Extended Lactation Milk Records
|
I COPIED AND PASTED THIS PAGE. IT IS NOT ORGANIZED. I HOPE TO ORGANIZE IT AT SOME POINT.
|
The LaMancha goat is a breed known to have long lactations, but it doesn't guarantee it. Sadie will have had a continuous lactation for 6 years this spring 2015 and Moonbeam for 4 years. Although Moonbeam was giving 2 quarts a day, once a day milking, 8-6-2015 I have dried her up. She is showing her age so decided it was a good time.
They produced an average of 5-6 lbs. a day the winter of 2010/11, and have gone up in production, the spring and summer of 2011, to around 7- 9 lbs. a day.
The winter of 2012/13 I went to once a day milking, to have a break, and Sadie and Moonbeam are giving about 2 quarts a day each and going up some, as of 3/22/13. I expect more as the weather warms.
10/17/2013 both are milking 2 quarts a day each.
1-15-2014 Sadie and Moonbeam are still milking 2 quarts a day each.
2-7-2014 Sadie and Moonbeam are holding strong at 2 quarts a day each.
1-7-2015 Sadie and Moonbeam are at 1 1/2 quarts with a once a day milking. Some days they are 1 3/4 quart. If in heat they may only give 1 1/4 quart.
4-4-2015 Sadie is giving 1 3/4 quarts and Moonbeam is at 2 quarts.
7-2-15 Hot weather in the 90's for awhile. Sadie 1 1/4 quart, Moonbeam 1 1/2 quart.
7-3-2015 despite 97F today Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart and Moonbeam 2 quarts.
7-21-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 qt. Moonbeam 1 3/4 qt.
7-31-15 Sadie produced 1 3/4 quart. It was 103 degrees today!
>>>>Moonbeam is retired from milking. I have decided that since she is 9 1/2 yrs. old she should stop. I have started to dry her up as of 8-6-2015. See pic below.
8-10-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart.
9-17-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart.
11-14-15 Sadie is down to 1-1 1/4 quart lately. I'm not even using a quart a day so I'm fine with this.
12/12/2015 Sadie is down to 3/4 quart. She was way overdue for copper and vitamin D so I'll see how this effects her production now after dosing her today. She is also short cycling as usual and we are near the shortest day of the year. So we'll see if she picks up.
12/16/2015 Sadie went back up to a quart a day the last 3 days.
12/21/2015 Sadie gave 1 quart.
1/27/16 Sadie is still milking a quart a day.
4/5/2016 Sadie is still a consistent quart a day.
5/18/2016 Still a quart, what a good girl.
They produced an average of 5-6 lbs. a day the winter of 2010/11, and have gone up in production, the spring and summer of 2011, to around 7- 9 lbs. a day.
The winter of 2012/13 I went to once a day milking, to have a break, and Sadie and Moonbeam are giving about 2 quarts a day each and going up some, as of 3/22/13. I expect more as the weather warms.
10/17/2013 both are milking 2 quarts a day each.
1-15-2014 Sadie and Moonbeam are still milking 2 quarts a day each.
2-7-2014 Sadie and Moonbeam are holding strong at 2 quarts a day each.
1-7-2015 Sadie and Moonbeam are at 1 1/2 quarts with a once a day milking. Some days they are 1 3/4 quart. If in heat they may only give 1 1/4 quart.
4-4-2015 Sadie is giving 1 3/4 quarts and Moonbeam is at 2 quarts.
7-2-15 Hot weather in the 90's for awhile. Sadie 1 1/4 quart, Moonbeam 1 1/2 quart.
7-3-2015 despite 97F today Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart and Moonbeam 2 quarts.
7-21-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 qt. Moonbeam 1 3/4 qt.
7-31-15 Sadie produced 1 3/4 quart. It was 103 degrees today!
>>>>Moonbeam is retired from milking. I have decided that since she is 9 1/2 yrs. old she should stop. I have started to dry her up as of 8-6-2015. See pic below.
8-10-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart.
9-17-15 Sadie produced 1 1/2 quart.
11-14-15 Sadie is down to 1-1 1/4 quart lately. I'm not even using a quart a day so I'm fine with this.
12/12/2015 Sadie is down to 3/4 quart. She was way overdue for copper and vitamin D so I'll see how this effects her production now after dosing her today. She is also short cycling as usual and we are near the shortest day of the year. So we'll see if she picks up.
12/16/2015 Sadie went back up to a quart a day the last 3 days.
12/21/2015 Sadie gave 1 quart.
1/27/16 Sadie is still milking a quart a day.
4/5/2016 Sadie is still a consistent quart a day.
5/18/2016 Still a quart, what a good girl.
Just some production records on their extended lactation. Sadie has been milking since spring 2009 and peaked at 9 lbs. She has been consistant through 2010. I thought I'd take some weights to show her production starting September 2011. Sadie produced 8 lbs. 12 oz. Sept. 4, 2011. Sadie milked 7 lbs. 4 oz on December 5, 2011. Ebony has been milking since 2010 but I didn't record it. Ebony milked 7 lbs. on Dec. 5 2011. December 9, 2011, Ebony 7 lb. 4 oz. and sadie 7 lb. 8 oz. January 19, 2012 Sadie milked 7 lbs. 1 oz. , Ebony milked 6 lb. 13 oz. on a one day milk test that I did. Feb. 10, 2012 both Sadie and Ebony milked 6 lb. 8 oz. each. Feb. 28, 2012 Sadie milked 6 lb. 14 oz. Remember this is going into her 3rd year producing. I didn't test Ebony. This is despite cold, dark days of the Pacific Northwest. I am just going to keep milking them without letting them have kids. It will be interesting to see how many years they will milk. Many want kids, each year, and have a market for kids, but I don't want the hassle, and time without milk plus worrying about the kids getting good homes. Also the value of the milk for the two months dry period before kidding doesn't come close to what the kids would sell for since I have crossbred unregistered goats.
Ebony is up to 8 lb. 5 oz. on March 27, 2012
April 14, 2012 Sadie milked 7 lbs. 15 oz. and Ebony was 8.0 lbs.
August 14, 2012 Sadie milked 7lb 11oz. and Ebony milked 8lbs. 2 oz. December 09, 2012.
I dried Ebony up around January 2013. I believe Ebony had a parasite overload and that killed the lactation. This year 2014 I did a winter worming around Jan. 1 to kill any over wintering adult worms, Liverfluke, Lungworm and Barberpole worm.
Ebony is up to 8 lb. 5 oz. on March 27, 2012
April 14, 2012 Sadie milked 7 lbs. 15 oz. and Ebony was 8.0 lbs.
August 14, 2012 Sadie milked 7lb 11oz. and Ebony milked 8lbs. 2 oz. December 09, 2012.
I dried Ebony up around January 2013. I believe Ebony had a parasite overload and that killed the lactation. This year 2014 I did a winter worming around Jan. 1 to kill any over wintering adult worms, Liverfluke, Lungworm and Barberpole worm.
UPDATE- December 2, 2016. Sadie was bred November 12 2016 so I will see if she took, time will tell. She hasn't kidded for nearly 8 years so not sure if it will work naturally. Does who don't settle can be given hormones and that will possibly work but I'm not going to do that with her. If she doesn't settle naturally that's OK. Sadie is down to 20-24 oz. a day in milk production so I don't think she'll be producing much in 2017. So since she will be 9 yrs. old in 2017 this is the last best oppertunity to have her freshen.
Sadie got pregnant with a one time breeding. Even though she short cycled in the past.
Sadie went down to 8-16 oz. so I dried her up 3 mos. before kidding.
UPDATE 2/4/2018- Sadie didn't come in to milk very well and is producing about a quart a day through this winter. I think keeping her in milk with low lactation, for the last few years, set the pace for this lactation or she is getting too old being 10 yrs. now. So looking back at the milk records she did best the first 4 years of her lactation. So re breeding her at that point would no doubt be ideal, for her. But really I wasn't motivated to have a lot of milk to deal with again so I'm happy I did what I did and I learned a lot. With her production it is simple to feed her and I don't even use a quart a day. I have no storage space if I made cheese again. Because of low production I milk once a day and Josie at almost 10 mos. old is still taking some milk so I'm getting less than a quart.
Without going into details Sadie had twins but the first one was stillborn from another goat bashing her about 3 days before kidding. I saw the bash, Jasper was the culprit and he broke into Sadies area. I then saw violent kicking in Sadies belly. So it was evident the fetus died at that point. But I'm not sure if that affected her production. So maybe she'll produce the small amount for a good time period, we'll see.
Update 6/30/19- Sadie is still milking 20 oz. a day, once a day milking. I can't believe her kid Josie is over 2 yrs. old now.
Update 1/22/2020- Sadie is actually retired from milking since I am only getting about 12 oz. , but it does come in handy. It will be 3 yrs. April 2020 since she freshened. When a few goats die of old age I'll get another milk goat. I haven't lost any of my original goats and their offspring I kept, which is 9 total and they will soon be between 10-14 yrs. old except Josie who will be 3 yrs. in April.
Sadie got pregnant with a one time breeding. Even though she short cycled in the past.
Sadie went down to 8-16 oz. so I dried her up 3 mos. before kidding.
UPDATE 2/4/2018- Sadie didn't come in to milk very well and is producing about a quart a day through this winter. I think keeping her in milk with low lactation, for the last few years, set the pace for this lactation or she is getting too old being 10 yrs. now. So looking back at the milk records she did best the first 4 years of her lactation. So re breeding her at that point would no doubt be ideal, for her. But really I wasn't motivated to have a lot of milk to deal with again so I'm happy I did what I did and I learned a lot. With her production it is simple to feed her and I don't even use a quart a day. I have no storage space if I made cheese again. Because of low production I milk once a day and Josie at almost 10 mos. old is still taking some milk so I'm getting less than a quart.
Without going into details Sadie had twins but the first one was stillborn from another goat bashing her about 3 days before kidding. I saw the bash, Jasper was the culprit and he broke into Sadies area. I then saw violent kicking in Sadies belly. So it was evident the fetus died at that point. But I'm not sure if that affected her production. So maybe she'll produce the small amount for a good time period, we'll see.
Update 6/30/19- Sadie is still milking 20 oz. a day, once a day milking. I can't believe her kid Josie is over 2 yrs. old now.
Update 1/22/2020- Sadie is actually retired from milking since I am only getting about 12 oz. , but it does come in handy. It will be 3 yrs. April 2020 since she freshened. When a few goats die of old age I'll get another milk goat. I haven't lost any of my original goats and their offspring I kept, which is 9 total and they will soon be between 10-14 yrs. old except Josie who will be 3 yrs. in April.