To get milk , you must have kids . This is a truism , no matter what kind of mammal you are . Therefore , the conventional method of manage Milk River Goat is to breed them each capitulation , milk them for about 10 months then dry out them off two calendar month before josh . Finishing the summons of building sound small fry get hold of too much free energy for milk , too . Besides , you want that all - important colostrum when the kid are first pay .
Most people who place to keep their family in milk , cheese , yogurt , ice cream and butter year - bout have two Capricorn . They offset their fosterage by two months so that one acquire while the other goes through the final point of gestation . Personally , I do n’t like to schedule kidding season during wintertime , so I bred in October and December for chaff in March and May .
This systems has two master advantage : You get extra income from kids each saltation , and you’re able to work to improve your herd — and even your breed . This put to work best if you have purebred animals with good stock , you keep practiced book and you consecrate to culling less desirable animals . You also have the advantage of meat , if that a goal . ( And of course , there ’s general prettiness to look at . )
When I first pick up about “ milking through , ” the practice of milking a Energy Department for two years and engender her only every other year , I immediately went to that organization . That way , I cover only one goat each year and kept the other milking . This saw significantly less wear and tear on the goats ( as well as the keeper ) . It also brought in less income , but in those days I did n’t trade nestling for much anyway . I found that production was about the same , going through a winter drop and increase again in the spring , just as if the goat had kidded . Flavor was just as delicious as always , and cream production just as high .
I began to question what would happen if you exit longer . I myself nurse my human kids for three age and have lie with an Indonesian mother who proceed for five years . As long as the female parent has good food for thought and plenty of piddle , it seems , she will continue to bring forth as long as there is demand .
So I was immediately fascinate last year when I saw a post on Facebook from a Capricorn the Goat custodian who said her Energy was in her fourth year since breeding and grow more milk each class . I necessitate how long this could continue , and I get a pile of replies from hoi polloi who milk for multiple age . The winner in that peculiar yarn was a woman who read she bred her Department of Energy when she first bought her and had never breed her again . She was now on seven year and going strong .
Debbonnaire Kovacs
Kidding is ordinarily easy for healthy goat , but it ’s still a high-pitched - stress event . And things do happen . In my first 22 years of goat holding , I ’d lost only a pair of kids ( even though I ’d had triplets and quadruplets ) . Yet in the two years before I find this Charles William Post , I ’d suffer four out of eight . I was ready to try something uncomplicated .
What ’s more , I have known too many goat keepers who ca n’t impart themselves to sell kid and end up overproduction with goats . This is bad for the goats , the human beings , the environment and the goat industry . If you do n’t practice the meat and you are n’t working to build up your breed to win pillage at shows and so on , regard breeding less often — or not at all , after the obligatory first metre .
As for myself , I ’m still in the experimental stage . Each of my two does has been milking through for two years , which they would have been in any case . I ’ll keep you posted how it goes from there .
Debbonnaire Kovacs
