# Milking Nigerians



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

How often do you milk your Nigerians? I just started milking this summer and found that I'm not getting any more milk by milking twice a day. The one girl's teats are very small and it is making for long time to milk. So I am only milking them once a day. I was just wondering how often other people are milking their Nigerians.


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## ChestnutGrove (Apr 30, 2009)

Twice a day. I also feed the horses and goats twice a day so milking every 12 hours fits into that too. My Nigerians are dairy goats just like my Toggs, Alpine and experimentals and they have the same 12 hour milking routine as the "big girls". 

Depending on the doe - you can increase the milk production by milking twice or three times a day. Quality of feed will effect milk production and increase milk production. But part of it is also genetic. 

One thing that makes a difference in milk production is - are you milking every 12 hours? By going over your normal milking times it will reduce milk production - I have personally seen this with other herds - they had good milkers but milked at irregular times and it effected the milk production by quite a bit. But sometimes you just cannot milk every 12 hours - so milking once a day at a regular time is fine - I have done it in the past so I can keep the girls in milk. But I notice a difference in their milk production.

I am real picky about orfice size - I can milk any size teat as long as it has a good orfice size! Give me a doe with a small teat size with a large orfice size over a doe with the perfect size teats and a small orfice size. I had a friend that I used to help milking her herd and she had this one stunning doe I was so looking forward to milking as her udder and teats just looked so nice - well it KILLED me milking her as her orfice size was so small - I thought I was going to be there forever (and she was the heavest milker!).


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I agree with Deidre, ND are a dairy goat and should be treated as such.
Teat size will sometimes increase with each freshening, orifice size does not, I milk twice a day at a 12 hour interval...4 am and 4 pm as my work schedule allows me to milk at these times. I will go to one time a day after they are 4 months fresh as this is when I start to see a slight decrease in yield and since I do dry my girls off the month they are bred it helps with that process..I have 1 registered nigi in milk now and 1 pygmy/nigi cross, I want the milk but I cannot afford to buy a "purebred" herd so even my "pets" provide for me and I can say that my crosses have had better udders and teats than some of the PB ND I've seen. I will have a FF ND next spring that I'm anxious to see fill out as she has some awesome milk lines.
I've also milked 3 times a day for increased yield, it works and I had no problem with that schedule...my goats are my life and I like it that way, I feed/milk before work, after work they get water, 2 hours later they are fed/milked then hubby is tended to( pretty bad when my goats are my first priority, lol).


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## logansmommy7 (Nov 11, 2009)

We are just beginning milkers here but found that if we switched to once a day milking the production goes WAY down, and fast. You have to stay on the schedule if you want to maintain the supply...


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

logansmommy7 said:


> We are just beginning milkers here but found that if we switched to once a day milking the production goes WAY down, and fast. You have to stay on the schedule if you want to maintain the supply...


Absolutely, schedule is the key! Goats are very sensitive to any variation with time, a half hour one way or the other is ok on occassion but letting them get a long fill then a short fill(ex. 14 hours then 10 hours) will definately affect the output.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I was milking twice a day but the one girl does have small orifices and it takes forever to milk her and I was only getting a cup of milk a milking compared to getting 2 cups of milk when I milk just once a day. I thought it was weird but that is the way it is working out for me. 

Now I do have to say that I started milking them at about 3 months after freshening. These girls are not friendly and I was debating whether to milk them or not. So after their kids were weaned, it was a week or so later that I decided to start milking them. I was doing it twice a day. I already milk an alpine twice a day and I do milk at 12 hour intervals. But I was getting so little milk out for so much effort and my hands were cramping up, so I went to once a day and found I was getting the same amount of milk from them and only cramping hands once a day.

I am going to order a milking machine because next year I should have about 7 or 8 girls to milk and It is taking me at least 15 minutes per goat to milk out about 2 cups of milk per goat and it only takes me about 10 minutes to get about 6 cups of milk out of my alpine.

This was my first year of milking and I'm feeling like it was more experimental than anything since I was slow to start milking them and now we have this horribly hot weather and they were first fresheners.


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## PznIvyFarm (Jul 25, 2010)

Darn you answered one of my questions - do i have to have 12 hours between milkings? I have been milking one of my NDs since Monday, and 9 am is working out best (esp after school starts, in a few weeks) I am just not a morning person, but then i'd have to milk at 9 pm (which may actually work out since kids will be in bed by then) Can i do that - do the goats care if it is late at night?

Also, how do i tell if I am milking her enough? (in other words, what does 'empty' look like) I had zero experience milking anything until the other day and i thought i'd have a few weeks of letting the kids do it before i started taking my share, (and only planned to milk once a day at least until kids weaned) but life unfortunately throws other curves our way sometimes, so i am getting the crash course in milking.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I milk my alpine at 9am and 9pm.


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## SDK (Jun 26, 2008)

twice a day..heck on some does i'd have to do it three timesa day. theres two types of nigerians out there, the ones bredfor heavy milk production, and ones that are more pet based bred for colors..

also if shes a FF then she wont make as much milk asshe will next freshsening ect


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## PznIvyFarm (Jul 25, 2010)

How long can i milk her before I have to rebreed? 

To be practical, all i wanted was the milk. She is not registered so her babies can't be sold for as much, so her value is as a pet (a useful pet :wink: ) I am also not in any rush to rebreed her even though the vet thinks next time will go better.


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## ChestnutGrove (Apr 30, 2009)

I have milked does for two years (including Nigerians) without a problem and the only reason I dried them up was to breed them. You want to dry the doe up about 1-2 months before she kids - drying up 1-2 months before kidding is typical for dairy herds. But how long you can keep them in milk depends on the doe as some will dry up on their own. In all theses years I have had only one doe do that and it was a Togg which suprised me as my other Toggs and Togg crosses I have owned/own are really good milkers - I did not keep that doe (she also had a poor personality)! 

People do milk their does for 2-3 years. My great grandparents milked their Toggenburgs for years with out breeding them. My grandmother was very disappointed when I bought Alpines instead of Toggenburgs as that was what she was raised with lols. (though I found pictures that showed they also had Alpines! I think Grandma favored the Toggs lols!) Now we have Toggs and my 11 year old lone Alpine lols.

I say go for it!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I typically keep my girls in milk for 7 months, but I have milked my pygmy/nigi cross doe for 26 months...I retired her as a breeder and just took what she gave as long as it was worth taking , amount wise.

Some Nigerians will go the entire 10 month lactation before being dried off 2 months before they deliver again...I choose to dry my girls off the month they are bred to give them a break before they need to feed kids, my girls are "trained" to the 7 month lactation period and typically dry on their own, the lactation period is for however long you wish it to be, the girls do decrease production the longer they are in milk but won't dry completely until they are not milked at all.


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## suzanne (Aug 20, 2009)

I just started milking my FF Nigerian this spring and am only milking once a day. I get two cups of milk each morning. I mostly started once daily because of the time it took (I am a newbie to milking) and the hand cramps. The hand cramps did improve with time (thank goodness!) and it also takes me less time to milk now. I like milking just once a day. It fits into my busy schedule and it is plenty of milk for my small family. I do plan to dry her up when I breed her again in October - both to give her a break and me a break from milking every day. I will be back to once a day in the spring!


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## silvergramma (Nov 9, 2009)

both my girls are now switched to once a day.. they give more milk now for some reason, could be the heat spell we just went through, one of the does has kids 4 months old and the other had a buck that would have been 2 months maybe 2 1/2 months now.. thinking its the heat here..


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