# Drop in milk production-is this normal?



## littleflower (Mar 24, 2011)

I have a 4 year old doe in milk (the only one right now, actually) who freshened 3/4. The kids are all weaned-we separated her boys from her @ 8 weeks and she weaned her daughter herself. Anyway, I've noticed a drop in her production + am not sure if that's normal? At the beginning of this month she was giving between 14-16oz per milking (am + pm). Now she's giving around 12 oz per milking (and this morning it was 11 oz). I know that's not a huge drop, but it did surprise me somewhat. She's getting 2 1/2 C. grain (16%) am + pm (she tends to be on the thin side), and 1/2 C BOSS and about a 1 C of alfalfa per day, as well as plenty of hay and we bring them brush 2-3 x a day. I make sure I milk her out completely each time I milk, and she gets massaged and bumped to get out as much as possible. The milk seems fine-no clumps or blood- and she seems perfectly healthy (no temp, etc...). So I'm not sure if this is normal or if something's wrong...any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Is her doe still penned with her? Even though you think mama weaned her...she could still be allowing her to sneak a few sips in.

Also...what most of us don't realize with does who are nursing their kids, their udder may look large but it's never full...the mammary glands are enlarged due to the constant production and the kids nursing every hour on the hour, once she's allowed to fill for 12 hours and only milked twice a day, her mammary glands stop producing so often and they will shrink in size. Now if we had the time to milk a doe every hour of every day I'm thinking that there would definately be more yield. I have 2 does ATM that I milk 2x a day...I started 1x a day when their kids were 5 weeks old and each was giving 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 cups each morning...now at 16 and 14 weeks fresh...with 2x a day milkings I get 3 cups from the 14 weeker and 2 from the 16 weeker.....
The fact that your doe was feeding triplets til 8 weeks then just one kid would have dropped her production unless you were milking to take what the doeling wasn't....how long ago was her doe "weaned"?
Mine are Nigerians and each gets2 cups 18% plus 1/2 cup BOSS plus 1 cup Alfalfa pellets 2x a day as well as alfalfa mixed hay, browse and plenty fresh water and minerals available free choice.


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## littleflower (Mar 24, 2011)

Thanks, Liz...

The kids have been weaned for 4 1/2 weeks now...the boys went cold turkey @ 8 weeks, but her daughter is in with her. She could still be sneaking a sip or two, but the way mom acts towards her when she goes for a drink, I kind of suspect she's not letting her nurse at all (but who knows). It's really been in the last week and a half that I've noticed a drop...so 3 weeks post weaning. I guess this is the new "normal"? Do you think she'll keep dropping or will she hold pretty much steady until breeding?


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I noticed that the longer a doe is in milk...they do drop in production, mine usually start dropping at around 6-7 months fresh.


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