# How much milk do you get from your doe when milking once a day



## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

We have Nubians and will be milking them soon. Three are pregnant. I had milked the first doe last year and she is due in about two weeks. I milked her once a day and got between 5-6 cups in the morning. This will be her third freshening and I am hopeful I will be able to get a little bit more milk from her. I can only milk once a day. 

Anyway, I am wondering how much milk do you get from your milking goats? One of our Nubians was bred to a ND and we are hoping to milk a mini Nubian in a couple of years. 

I am wanting to continue to improve my milking lines to get more milk from my does. Both my ND and Nubian bucks comes from good milking lines. I bred my ND buck with one of the Nubian does and I am hopeful for a high producing mini Nubian doe  

I am wanting to get one ND doe as well, but what amount of milk can a good milking line ND doe give if milking once a day? Can it be between 3-4 cups in the morning? I hear ND typically give 2 cups of milk, but I'm suspecting that's from a doe without strong milk genetics.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

My Oberhasli gives me half a gallon once a day. I would expect around half a gallon from a full size doe.


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

ksalvagno said:


> My Oberhasli gives me half a gallon once a day. I would expect around half a gallon from a full size doe.


Oh wow! That is a lot. I wonder if my Nubian should have been giving that much. She is more balanced with minerals this time around and am hoping that will help her.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You would want close to that. Maybe next time around she will.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

I had 2 FF Nubians last year. One did a gallon a day at peak, the other did about 3/4 gal./day. The gallon a day milker was a 3 year old. The other one was about 18 months. I wish now I had waited another year to breed the younger one. She is a smaller doe, and I think she put everything into the milk bucket instead of into growing. I dried her up early.
Those amounts are with me milking 2x a day...I don't know what they would have done if I'd only milked once a day. Probably about half.
Feeding is key. I found you get a lot more milk with fresh browse and supplemental alfalfa, plus feed on the milking stand.


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

Wow, those are excellent amounts. 

I'm hoping for better amounts this year. I plan to continue with chaffhaye, but I will try the kalmbach organic goat grain in hopes for more milk. 

Is two cups in the morning enough during milking?


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

I am still figuring out optimum feed to milk ratios. They are different for each goat. You can always gradually increase her grain ration and see if she can give you more milk. There was an interesting article I found that talked about how a doe produces milk for the first several weeks out of her body's own reserves, that she actually can't eat enough at first to keep up with her milk production. That's something to keep in mind for your feeding program. I'll see if I can find that article again and post it here.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Ok, so I can't find the article I mentioned above, so don't quote me on that! My brain is tired from 2 am kid feedings, so I may not be remembering correctly. Here is another resource, though, that I reference from time to time when I need to brush up on something. I don't follow the feeding guidelines mentioned here exactly, but I do try to keep them in mind. 
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g3990


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

To clarify, you’ve been milking without giving grain or other concentrates/energy food? That might explain the low milk volume. Did your doe maintain her weight on that feeding schedule?

I only milk my Nigerian Dwarf goats once per day. They get as much grain as they can eat while I’m milking them. I was getting 5 cups from my mature doe per day at peak, one quart from my ff, and a quart each months later when I dried them off. I have good milking lines. 

The first goat I ever owned was a poorly bred unregistered doe that gave us 2 cups per milking.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Most of my goats average about 2 quarts. It might go down to 5-6 cups in dead of winter, but it always pops back up as we get on toward spring. I've had some that gave 3 quarts on a once/day schedule, and one that would give almost a gallon. I don't like having goats with more than a 3-quart capacity though. My goats live a very active lifestyle on brushy acreage and I tend to see torn teats and udders if those udders aren't high and tight. A goat that has close to a gallon capacity has more chance of getting injured and of developing chronic mastitis from running around with a huge udder flopping between her hind legs. So I tend to sell the high producers and concentrate on keeping goats that produce enough for my personal needs (which is about 2 quarts/day on a once/day schedule), but who can stay healthy on a "free range" management style.


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

singinggoatgirl said:


> To clarify, you've been milking without giving grain or other concentrates/energy food? That might explain the low milk volume. Did your doe maintain her weight on that feeding schedule?
> 
> I only milk my Nigerian Dwarf goats once per day. They get as much grain as they can eat while I'm milking them. I was getting 5 cups from my mature doe per day at peak, one quart from my ff, and a quart each months later when I dried them off. I have good milking lines.
> 
> The first goat I ever owned was a poorly bred unregistered doe that gave us 2 cups per milking.


OH WOW!! That is so amazing, I would love to have a ND giving me that amount of milk. My Nubian gives that much.

She does get as much grain as she wants at the stanchion. She eats about 2 cups mixed with chaffhaye. Maybe I shouldn't have given her chaffhaye mixed with the grain? The grain is local. He grows all the parts of the grain himself and grows it organically. It's a mix of corn, barley, and lentils. There may be one other ingredient in there. I was considering mixing that grain with Kalmbach organic goat grain PRODUCT REFERENCE (kalmbachfeeds.com) this year.

They also have about 3 acres to graze on, but it's mostly grass. They also get good quality hay that is alfalfa/grass or clover/grass.


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

Damfino said:


> Most of my goats average about 2 quarts. It might go down to 5-6 cups in dead of winter, but it always pops back up as we get on toward spring. I've had some that gave 3 quarts on a once/day schedule, and one that would give almost a gallon. I don't like having goats with more than a 3-quart capacity though. My goats live a very active lifestyle on brushy acreage and I tend to see torn teats and udders if those udders aren't high and tight. A goat that has close to a gallon capacity has more chance of getting injured and of developing chronic mastitis from running around with a huge udder flopping between her hind legs. So I tend to sell the high producers and concentrate on keeping goats that produce enough for my personal needs (which is about 2 quarts/day on a once/day schedule), but who can stay healthy on a "free range" management style.


That sounds like a great situation!

The previous owner of this doe said she gave 3/4 gallon as a first time freshener. He milked twice a day though. He told me that I should get about 1/2 gallon easily. I don't think I ever reached that, but I wonder if I need to be giving her and the other does who soon will kid higher energy feed options.

The previous owner gave grain mixed with beet pulp. I used beet pulp for a short period of time, but it was the pellets and they had very loose stools with that, so I stopped.


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

*Production Parameter* *Value*
SG 
Registry PB
Fluid Merit $ -5
Lactations 1
Average STD Milk 1176
Average STD Fat 79
Average STD Protein 50
Milk PTA -73
Fat Reliability 37
Fat PTA 1.4
Fat % PTA 0.30
Protein Reliability 37
Protein PTA -1.7
Protein % PTA 0.06
Milk, Predicted Producing Ability -108
Fat, Predicted Producing Ability 43
Protein, Predicted Producing Ability -24
Percentile Rank 36


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## FMW (Jul 1, 2020)

Also, here are her milking values from the previous owner. I found her information through the adga website.

It looks like she gave about 1176 lbs as a FF. What are your thoughts about these values?


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## singinggoatgirl (Apr 13, 2016)

I’ve never done milk test, and don’t know anything about those stats you posted. What I do know is this: There are Nigerian Dwarfs that make more milk than your Nubian doe. The Nigerian Dwarf breed leaders made over 1400lb milk in 305 days. The top producer in 2019 made over 2000 lbs in 305 days. The average ND makes 795 lb per 305 days. 8.6 lbs is a gallon. 

I’ve never owned a standard sized goat. You can definitely try offering more grain and see if she give you more milk! A starting guideline I heard was 1lb grain/concentrates for every 3 lbs milk. You can slowly increase her grain to challenge her and see if she will make more milk. Keep increasing grain until she stops making more milk in response. 

Ok, I looked it up. The average Nubian milk production is 2018 lbs milk in a lactation, which is often 305 days for milk test. That’s an average of about 3/4 gallon per day, probably on twice a day milking. That is about 6 cups in one milking. The range for the breed is 510-3840 lb milk.


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