# When is peak milk production?



## Hobbyfarmer (Sep 7, 2011)

Well the triplets are just over 3 weeks old. They are super healthy. All are still nursing and eating grass/hay. I noticed a swelling on all their necks last week. It freaked me out but I figured I would keep an eye on it and see if it got worse. After reading posts today it looks like they all have milk goiters. Guess Dollie is doing a really good job as a mother.

Anyways until a few days ago I only milked the first week. This was to even out her udder because the kids would only nurse off one side. The other would overfill and make it difficult for them to nurse. Based on the convenience factor I'm letting her dam raise the kids herself. Originally I wanted to bottle feed but just too busy right now. 

So two days ago at about noon her udder was so full it would squirt milk, both sides, when she walked and she was looking very uncomfortable. I milked her out and got a cool 4.5 lbs. Since then I've been milking her once a day. She seems more comfortable. Is 3 weeks peak milk production for most does? Is she just over producing or are the kids weaning already at 3 weeks?


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

I believe peak is around 12 weeks. Many people start to seperate at night when the babies are two weeks old. This is my second set of triplets. The first set I seperated around 4 weeks and this set I am thinking between 3 to 4 weeks. So you can leave them with Mom all the time and be fortunate enough to get 4.5 lbs of milk or you can seperate them at night soon and milk out even more from her in the morning and then let the babies have her all day. It is a first step in weaning, and getting them to eat more solids. I think around 6 weeks I started feeding them calf manna when they got seperated to help them thru the night and they were really getting aggressive about nursing. This was last years triplets and they were all bucklings. They would push her 4-6 feet across the pasture by the time I weaned them at 8 weeks. Sorry I kinda got off your original question! lol!


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## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

Usually their peak milk production (for standard dairy goats) is around 6 - 8 weeks


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Peak for my ND girls is 6-8 weeks..... I'm thinking that at 3 weeks fresh, your Dollie is an exceptional producer to be so full feeding triplets! If she's producing, babies have full bellies and she's keeping condition I'd continue milking her once a day til you wean kids then up to 2 or 3 times a day depending on how her production is at 8 weeks, some does just aren't comfortable with a 12 hour fill...I'm currently milking my 3 month fresh doe 3 times a day because she just gets too tight on a fill thats longer than 8 hours and she's giving up 2 quarts a day


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