Putting goats into kid?

[katiieking]

Firstly, meet Penny (brown) & Pippa (white);

They are still young (though not sure of age!) but ideally I would like to put them into kid!

My question is, once they kid, is that them producing milk for life? I used to breed donkeys, and they dried up once the foal was weaned, what about goats? I don't fancy the idea of daily milking (I couldn't commit to that!) so won't be planning to breed them if they do keep producing milk!

Thanks!

 

[mulledwhine]

They are cute , they are just the same as any other milking animal, the only produce milk once the kid is weaned, then the milk will dry up.

I would love a couple of goats

 

[katiieking]

Ahh that's fab news!

I love having them, they are trouble, not going to lie, but they are so much fun to have around! Always doing something amusing!

 

[Pink_Lady]

They are gorgeous

 

[katiieking]

They are gorgeous

Thank you They were my 21st birthday present!

 

[Carefreegirl]

Aw how cute

We used to have toggenburgs, Toggles, Topsy, Patsy and Daisy are the four I can remember. We also had a couple of white ones - saanans ? (don't know correct spelling). Mum and dad used to sell the milk but that was back in the day when you didn't need government inspectors and 1000's pages of paperwork to do so

 

[debsandpets]

With goats so long as you continue to hand milk them during their kids time with them and carry on after the kids are weaned, they will possibly keep on producing for upwards of a year after weaning. They will need to be at least 2 years old before being put into kid also, and to use a billy the stud will probably want them to be cae tested before they let you use their male as well.
Goat milk unprocessed can be ............ Ummmm goaty in flavour - not always very nice if you are used to the processed / pasteurised milk available at supermarkets.

Other than that good luck and have fun with them, they look lovely

 

[Enfys]

Hi, what lovely goats. What sort of buck would you put them to?

I get all my goats from a dairy farm (milking over 400), so my breeding experience is from the milk production side of thing. The farmer is in the business of producing as much milk as economically as he can, so does are bred young.

Does are put with a buck on their first heat, usually before 1 year old.

Kids are taken off the doe at about 3 days old and go to the nursery barn where they are bucket fed on formula.

Does go to the milking barn and are bred once a year.

Milk production. A doe will produce milk for up to 18 months - two years if the demand is there (I am told) so, if you keep feeding, and milking the goat will produce milk.

If you cut the feed and stop milking when she has weaned the kids then she will dry up, just like any other mammal as you said.

I have an ex-dairy doe that is the most fantastic foster Mum, she will take any kid I put on her. She has probably started about 30 kids since I got her, she earns her keep, saves me a lot of late night feeding and a fair old bit in formula costs.

Goats are great, I like goats. This is Diamond and her two most recent foster kids Diamond had never been out of a barn in her life, it took her two weeks to step out of the door of my barn, and she has only recently discovered that grass, to her utter delight, is edible