# Once a Day Milking vs Twice a Day Milking



## kbluebkeman (Jul 22, 2013)

As I head down to the barn to do my milking I wanted to share some information on once a day milking vs twice a day milking.

Two years ago I bought a Nigerian doe from Sharon Peck of Willow Moon Farm who has a dairy outside Montpelier, VT. Her herd was made up of a large number of NC Promisedland Nigerians and I wanted to add some of those bloodlines to my herd.

While there I found out that the doeling I was purchasing had been sired by a buck named Rock Dolby who was being flown out to Oregon to another Nigerian dairy farm, Pholia Farm. At the time I thought that was "cool"......

Fast forward to Christmas 2012 and my daughter gifted me with a beautiful cheese making book written by Gianaclis Caldwell who is the owner of Pholia Farm. Because of the connection I visited their website and read an interesting article by Gianaclis on the benefits (yes benefits) of milking once a day. This convinced me to move to once a day milking as well. 

Pholia Farm is famous as an artisanal cheese producer. When Gianaclis' daughter went off to school Gianaclis investigated changing to once a day milking. One would assume you would lose half of your production/volume. Gianaclis (who happens to be an authority on the "science" of milk and cheese making..... which is one of the reasons I find her book(s) fascinating) reports back that initially the does dropped in milk production 25% but after several weeks regained some of that volume resulting in a decrease of 15-20%. Keep in mind though you are now saving a lot of time every day as well as decreased expenses in feed (which help to offset the lower production). What is fascinating is that once a day milking (OAD) resulted in an increase in protein (1%) and fat (2%). 20 gallons of milk from twice a day milking (TAD) produced 23.8 pounds of cheese but the same amount of OAD resulted in 27.2 pounds of cheese. 

Anyway I am throwing this out for any of you that are struggling with milking twice a day (I find it really improves my quality of life not to be tied to that type of a schedule). She also speaks to her original concerns about whether or not this might increase chances of mastitis which you can read about on her blog.

Gianaclis has an amazing blog about many many things related to milk, cheese making and goat husbandry. I believe the article on going to once a day milking is there on the right hand side down under recent posts after you choose the "blog" tab. 

Visit: pholiafarm.com

Well I am off to milk......


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## kbluebkeman (Jul 22, 2013)

I am going to bump this a few times so it gets "found"...... everyone is probably out getting ready for Mother's Day..... ;-)


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## NightHeronFarm (Feb 8, 2013)

We are switching to once a day milking because of Gianaclis's blog post. I am looking forward to picking up her book!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I'm glad to see that we aren't hurting ourselves with our once a day milking! We only milk once a day because it works for our schedule better.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I milk twice a day. It takes me less time to milk twice a day than have to sit and milk those udders once a day. I can't imagine how uncomfortable my girls would be with those engorged udders if I only milked once a day. I remember how I felt when "the girls" were engorged- pain central! 

Any time production drops, the butter fat and protein will rise, whether it be from once a day milking or just the normal production curve.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Totally agree. During peak milk production our girls would pop! 

Its perfectly ok to milk once a day if that works for you and you only need so much milk. But here, the time spent milking twice a day is a must. There just simply wouldnt be a reason to have high production goats that we only wanted half the milk outta.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I milk my kinders once a day, but they are smaller goats, and I only get about a 3 quarts from them total. They were also raised that way from their former home. My other 2 I am certain that I will have to milk them twice a day at least for awhile after the kids are gone since they give me almost a gallon in the morning between them, after I see a drop in production I might try once a day, but honestly it takes me 10 min to milk them both out, so with processing the milk and cleaning..., about 20 min to a half hour, so it wouldn't be a huge time saver for me. Interesting article though.


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

I don't milk my goats, but I've done my share of milking of cows back in the day. I can not even imagine how confused and miserable your goats must be by you only milking once a day. Milk production is based on demand - either by kids nursing, milking, or both. By milking once a day you are stimulating her to produce more milk, but by not following through and milking her twice a day you are telling her to shut down production and, at the same time, leaving her high, dry, and miserable.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I was worried about that too Jean. But ours seem to adjust quite well to the once a day milking. I've yet to see anyone get over full unless we're late getting to them.


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

I get the reasons behind doing it either way! We dam-raise, so we have the luxury of being able to milk once a day without our girls exploding, lol! We enjoy it very much. It cuts down quite a bit on cost, and time.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

MsScamp said:


> I don't milk my goats, but I've done my share of milking of cows back in the day. I can not even imagine how confused and miserable your goats must be by you only milking once a day. Milk production is based on demand - either by kids nursing, milking, or both. By milking once a day you are stimulating her to produce more milk, but by not following through and milking her twice a day you are telling her to shut down production and, at the same time, leaving her high, dry, and miserable.


This being said, should I start milking the kinders twice a day? They came to me with only milking once a day. I don't want them to be miserable. They are pretty full when they get to the stand at night. What would you suggest?


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

That would be up to you Janeen. Do you want to milk 2 x a day? Like I said, mine adjust and I'm guessing yours have too since they were already only being milked once. If you want more milk....then milk 2x.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Yeah, I don't need the milk that is for certain.. I just don't want them miserable is all.


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## LoriH (Jan 12, 2014)

my question is how and when do you go from 2x to 1x a day.


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

LoriH said:


> my question is how and when do you go from 2x to 1x a day.


With my kinders I just waited until they weren't quite full in the AM. The udder was squishy, then I knew to go to once a day. With my standards I don't think I'll be able to do that any time soon....


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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

Okay, so starting tomorrow I will have to milk Patti one of my kinders twice a day, her bag was big and tight tonight, so that kind of gives me an indication that she needs to be relieved more often then once a day..


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