# Your Milking Schedule



## MachoCabrío (Feb 4, 2009)

Hello, All!

I was talking to my neighbor today about kind of time it takes to commit to a dairy program. I'd like to ask the board...What's your daily schedule? i.e. 5:30am - Get up, 6am - milk (#) goats, 7:30 - go to work...

Does your schedule fluctuate during the year? 

For those folks who show goats...what is your milking schedule? Does it change depending on the show season? Do you have to train the udder like Rocky Balboa to get it in shape?

If you let the doe's udder overfill...what happens? Does milking regularly prevent mastitis?

Thanks and have a fine night!
Hecky


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

I milk twice a day and it depends on my work schedule when I milk. I work some days in the morning and somedays in the afternoon till night. So it varries when I milk


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

Thankfully goats are very forgiving. My milking schedule changes all the time. It's twice a day, but hardly ever the same time. 

When they first freshen I am very careful about it being about every 12 hours, but later in the lactation I get lazy. he he he


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

I love the dairy goats and that is what we would of bought if they did not have to be milked like that. I really mean it from the bottom of my heart, that is a lot of work and those of you that do milk, :hi5: I give you so much credit. I guess I would have to say then I am just to lazy. :slapfloor:


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## RunAround (Feb 17, 2008)

Oh I'm really lazy. I LOVE to sleep in and stay up late. That means I am usually milking at 10am and 8pm. Crazy.. I know.


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## MissMM (Oct 22, 2007)

I'll be watching this thread closely too...... from what I've been reading, they really should be milked twice a day for the goat's health and to maintain optimum milk production. As close to the 12 hour apart mark as it can be. 

I would really like to get some dairy goats, but with working full time, and hour and a half commute (total drive time) & the chores I have already, I'm not sure I can give the girls the proper care they need.....

Good luck to us both I guess!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

After my girls freshen, they raise teir own babies fulltime, I startd to separate kids at night around 4 weeks old. My work schedule( full time) is 4 days a week at 5 am to 2pm, Sundays it's 7 am to 2 pm. I do milk 2x a day every day once the kids leave..I will have just 2 does newly freshened this year though I am still milking a doe that will be a year fresh in a week...so I will have 3 does to milk...I'm up at 4:20 am...go out in my pj's to milk, get it all taken care of and in the fridge before I wash up and get ready for work...I don't "need" to be there til 5:15 and I'm a very short drive away. I will milk at 4:30 in the afternoon and the kids get put to bed around 8pm.

The days I am off work or Sundays, I still keep the schedule but will milk a third time later in the evening so I will still have a 12 hour fill for the morning milking.


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

When I am milking (which I plan to start again here soon - counting days) I milk twice a day as close to 12 hours apart as possible. However on the weekend during the summer (if I go out to the boat or something) I will milk my early one (usuall by 8 am) then milk again before I leave, and then when I come home (more then once have been a bit tipsy and milked). That way she does not over fill. I personally DO NOT believe in overfilling. I think that it is cruel and really, if you have to do that then why show your goats - and I have breast fed my kids - I know what it feels like and to me - that is animal abuse.

So yes, my typically schedule when I was milking 2 last summer was - up at 4:30, shower and get barn clothes on, out to the barn, feed, milk, put milk away, change, finish getting ready then off to work by 5:30 am. Home about 6:00 - milk, get dinner ready, do homework (if taking classes) feed dinner, and then the day starts over


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## goatiegurl*Oh (Nov 11, 2007)

Would it be ok to milk around 9 am and 7 pm, or is that to much time in between?


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## kelebek (Oct 5, 2007)

You should be fine with that- just watc the udder so that she isn't getting engorged!!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Allisons right there goatigurl! If you do the 12 hours apart and your doe feels extremely tight to where you have a hard time squeezing her teats, you might want to "back" up the time of the second milking by an hour or two, and then do a "strip" out milking later in the evening.

I've had to do this on occassion and after a few weeks I was able to go with the 12 hour fill....believe it or not, but the doe that "overfilled" was my pygmy Dolly, not even a "dairy" doe!


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## goatiegurl*Oh (Nov 11, 2007)

ok


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## fcnubian (Oct 23, 2007)

I milk twice a day. Usually 6AM 6PM, schedule may change though since I will have 4 does kidding, 4 does to milk and all those kids to feed with the lambars.


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## Cinder (Mar 3, 2008)

I milk twice a day as close to 12 hours apart as possible... never more than 1 hour off that schedule. I normally milk at 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. 

If I have something coming up that will keep me from maintaining that schedule (more than the one hour off) then I take several days and readjust the schedule by 15 to 30 minute increments. So, if I know I'll be gone Saturday night until 10:00, I move Thursdays p.m. milking to 8:45, Friday a.m. and p.m. to 9:00, Saturday a.m. to 9:30 and then Saturday night to 10:00. Then, I go backwards starting Sunday to get back to my 8:30 schedule. 

Why do I do this? Because I've heard so many horror stories about mastitis and don't want to cause it by a 'lazy' milking schedule. Now, check back with me in another year and I may be on the 'lazy' milk schedule... I've only milked for going on six months so it's been fun and I really enjoy it.... and nobody's gotten mastitis!


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## Amos (Oct 2, 2008)

6:30 AM and 5:00 PM in the winter, and 6:30 and 6;30-7:00 PM in the summer.

Its not going to kill your goat if your one hour late or early on accident once, your goats might be mad at you, and maybe confused/messed up though.


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## Sweet Gum Minis (Oct 6, 2007)

When I started thinking of milking I thought it had to be super early in the AM. But it really doesn't matter what time of day you do it so long as its only about 12 you allow her to fill. So since I am up early, but don't make it to the barn till about 8am in the winter months, then I would milk then. Course this year there's no one to milk. Summer though it will be earlier.


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## Nupine (Nov 13, 2007)

I just started milking like a week ago, Breeze is doing great. She is an Alpine, 2nd freshener, and is currently milking 7-8 pounds a day. I milk twice a day, I am trying to get closer to 12 hour intervals, 9 A.M. and about 7-8 P.M. She is pretty forgiving, but she is fed at 4:00 pm and starts to get anxious and cries starting at around 6 pm. :sigh:


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## rebelshope (Sep 21, 2008)

I am new at this but for right now I only milk once a day. I milk in the morning between 6:30-7:00 then I put the kids on for the rest of the day. I remove the kids around 8 - 9 at night


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## Sweet Gum Minis (Oct 6, 2007)

I am NEVER in the barn at 5 or 6 am unless a goat is in labor delivering babies. LOL My goats look at me like, "what do you want at this hour?" Haha! I make it to the barn around 8 or 8:30 on the cooler months and 7 or 7:30 during the warm months. Whenever it starts to get light outside I go out. Same with put up. I don't usually have anyone to milk in the winter. So I put the goats up when the sun is going down.


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## fcnubian (Oct 23, 2007)

I posted a while back, but here's my current schedule right now with 3 does in milk and 8 kids to feed.

I get up at 4:45am and start heating milk on the stove to feed the kids. I feed the two kids in the house and then go out and feed the kids in the barn. I bring the bucket/bottles back in and if there's time I'll wash those, if not, then I'll immediately go back out and get the girls milked out.

Aftering milking, I'll bring the milk in strain it, and put it on the stove to pasturize. Then I go and finish off all the chores for the rest of the goats and horses. 
Come in do dishes and finish the milk.


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