When you are raising goats for dairy, there is definitely a time commitment. Especially when it is time to start milking. Before you decide what milking schedule you want to be on, consider how much milk your family will need. Will you be drinking milk everyday? Do you need the milk for making goat milk soap? What about delicious goat cheese? Anyways, you see where I am going…the more milk you need, may change what you decide for your milking schedule.
When it comes to milking a goat, you have three main choices:
Option 1: Twice a day Milking
Your first option is to milk your goat twice a day with the kid(s) completely removed from their mom. This means getting up every morning and milking and then milking again every evening. With this, keep in mind that goats like routine and that the longest you really want to go between milking is about 12 hours. The pros to this are that you should get a ton of milk and increase your does milk supply. Some people will even do this to avoid passing any diseases through the moms milk to the kid(s). On the other hand, though, you will have to bottle feed the kid(s). There are pros and cons to bottle feeding, but that will require its very own post 🙂
Depending on your job or lifestyle, this option may be a little hard to achieve, but it will definitely give you the most milk!
Option 2: Once a Day Milking
Personally, this is my favorite option. Every morning I go out and complete my farm chores and then milk. It really does not add too much time to the morning chores that I already have to do anyways. AND, since the kid(s) are with the mom throughout the day, I have my evenings free to do whatever my family wants.
In order to do once a day milking, you will want to separate the mom and kid(s) at night, milk in the morning, and then reunite mom and kid(s) until night where you would repeat the process. Make sure the kid(s) have plenty of water and hay (and grain if they are old enough).
Here is an example of what my milk schedule looks like:
Day 1: 8 p.m. – Separate mom and kid(s). Again, make sure the kid(s) have access to water and hay. This process can be a little heartbreaking as the kid(s) will scream for their moms.
Day 2: 6 a.m. – 7 a.m. (you can do later – 12 hours between each milking is pretty normal) – grab the milking supplies and head out to milk your does. Once you are finished, you can release the kid(s) who will happily go drain moms remaining supply.
Day 2: 8 p.m. – Separate mom and kid(s)
* You do not have to follow this exact schedule, this is just the schedule that I like to follow *
Option 3: Simply Don’t Milk
If your schedule is really crazy, you do not have to milk as long as the kid(s) are feeding from mom. Once the kid(s) are old enough to wean, you may need to assist in drying your doe up in order to prevent mastitis. I definitely encourage checking your does udder even with the kid(s) on to make sure she doesn’t get mastitis or blow a teat.
What is your favorite milking schedule? If you milk twice a day, I would love to hear what you do with all your milk!