# Precocious udder (milker?)



## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

Precocious something. Does anyone have any experience with this? I have a three year old dry doe who started making milk about six weeks ago. I didn't breed her because I have too many to breed them all every year at this point, and I thought she deserved a break. Well, she got really fat, she was slim and perfect a year ago. Then she started making milk. 

So I'm milking her. She is up to 13 ounces a day, from one ounce on 11 June. I'm hoping she will keep making more and it will cause her to lose some weight before I breed her in the fall. I guess she has to be bred every year or milked through. I'm worried that she is too fat to make it safely through a pregnancy. She eats no more than anyone else, and no grain, other than 1/4 cup a day so I can milk her. She's an easy keeper too.

Her daughter is the one that is so tiny that she had a hard time kidding, her udder is lovely and she is easier to milk than anyone (all my kinders are really easy to milk), and she is making a lot for her tiny size. I'm milking her through this winter, hopefully she will not have this problem, but it seems possible. 

Anybody have a goat doing this?

Jan


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## myfainters (Oct 30, 2009)

ummmm..... how sure are you that she ISN'T bred? Have you confirmed with a blood test or has she been milking longer than 4 months? I know some bucks from heavy milking lines produce milk though so I'd think its possible.  She could have had a false pregnancy.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

She has been nowhere near a buck. She might have had a false pregnancy, one of my does did, but I tried to breed her and it didn't take. That one isn't making milk. She was fatter and is now not. This one, Triscuit, wasn't bred and was nowhere near a buck, and got really fat even though she wasn't getting that much to eat. She doesn't look pregnant, she looks fat. Triscuit is simply a precocious milker and an "easy keeper" - too easy. I gather it happens sometimes, and is most common with nubians and pygmies, and she is a kinder, a cross between them. My vet said sometimes they get horrible mastitis because people don't want to milk them and aren't paying any attention. It can be a problem. What he said really was "their udders rot off". That was cringeworthy. But not if you milk them. I'm going to breed her this fall and then milk her for as long as she will, which may be years. When she dries up I'll breed her again. But I need to get her thinner. Someone I know who has kinders said she knew of a doe that did this and ended up making two quarts a day. Don't know if it was a kinder or a nubian. But if she keeps making more milk it may help her lose weight, because she isn't getting any more food, so the more going into making milk the better.


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

Absolutely milk her! It won't hurt to skip a yr breeding her and just milk her till next yr as long as she is producing. It isn't at all uncommon for a doe to start in again producing without being rebred. Do make sure she gets her minerals. I give mine dolomite for the calcium/magnesium. Many people feed alfalfa for the calcium but I don't need the added expense and trouble and mine are on good pasture/browse.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

yep, they all get fresh minerals every day and alfalfa. Alfalfa is the biggest agricultural crop in New Mexico, sometimes you can't get anything but alfalfa.

Jan


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

Around here it is coastal bermuda grass hay. I don't need to buy it, have more than they can eat growing right here.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

The land around here where anything like hay will grow is so valuable that the only people who have much of it have had it for generations. Most of us latecomers have a couple acres and feel lucky to have land that can be irrigated. So I will always have to buy it. But I still feel lucky.

Jan


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

That is the main reason I left Colorado. I couldn't find any land with irrigation that was anywhere close to my price range. Water is the key. I hate the East Texas humidity, but at least I have land where something will grow. I couldn't even support one goat on the 40 acres I had in Colorado.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

Good for you! I have spent a lot of time looking at farms on the internet, but I really am too old to move to a new place, especially alone, which I would be. It gets pretty unrealistic to do that after awhile. So I will make the best of it here. It's overall pretty good.

Jan


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## CrossCreekTX (Aug 10, 2009)

Hope it works out for you there. Moving alone is the pits. I've done it enough and feeling too old to do it again.


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## lissablack (Nov 30, 2009)

Thanks, you too.


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