# Lamancha won't dry up...



## laurenlewis24 (Jul 2, 2013)

I have been in the process of drying my new lamancha doe up. She has been in one a day milkings for about 2 weeks now and she still hasn't dropped production enough for me to switch to every other day. I have cut all grain and she is only on a hay diet with alfalfa cubes during milking. Any tips on how to dry her up?


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## mjs500doo (Nov 24, 2012)

laurenlewis24 said:


> I have been in the process of drying my new lamancha doe up. She has been in one a day milkings for about 2 weeks now and she still hasn't dropped production enough for me to switch to every other day. I have cut all grain and she is only on a hay diet with alfalfa cubes during milking. Any tips on how to dry her up?


Sometimes the stand-tall ones you have to show tough love. Milk her out, infuse ToMorrow and let her be. You can forcibly dry them up as well. Just switch her milkings anyway. Once her body realizes she doesn't need all that milk she'll start working with you. I have never had a cow or goat refuse to dry up as you hear a lot. They need to work with you as well,

With the tough ones to dry, we infuse and let em go. Pull them back out in a month, strip out, infuse another treatment then let them be totally. I just dried up one of the cows named "Deloris" who was still giving 100#/day. This is one we'll have to strip out later and infuse again.

Everyone has their own technique I guess. If I were you I would just switch milkings to every other day. She'll get used to it. Don't give in either. Once you pick a plan stick with it and follow through. Go once/2 days then next week once/3 days, etc until she looks good.


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## nchen7 (Feb 25, 2013)

I hear feeding sage (not sure dosage) helps dry them out.


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## margaret (Aug 30, 2013)

Is she pregnant? I had a doe that wasn't pregnant, she didn't want to dry up. Just don't milk her. That's what we had to do. Definitely treat her for mastitis though.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

you can begin milking just enough out to carry her over til the next milking...her body will begin to absorb the extra milk...and will slow production. With heavy producers its not recommended to stop cold turkey..its way to painful for them..we will do as you are doing, go once a day milking, then every other day and so forth but with our heavy producers we do as I recommend..just dont milk them all the way out..do watch for signs of mastisis...I have neverhad a issue drying them up this way.


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

Funny, our last doe to be dried up was a Lamancha also. In fact we would still be milking her if we played by the "rules". But it got to the point where we were just like, YOU HAVE TO DRY UP! So we started skipping milking even though she was more then willing to keep going. You just gotta keep checking em to make sure nothing is wrong. They will be full and tight and if its to tight or leaking, you will need to milk. But skipping milkings is often times the only way to get the udder to understand, NO means NO


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## mjs500doo (Nov 24, 2012)

TDG-Farms said:


> Funny, our last doe to be dried up was a Lamancha also. In fact we would still be milking her if we played by the "rules". But it got to the point where we were just like, YOU HAVE TO DRY UP! So we started skippng milking even though she was more then willing to keep going. You just gotta keep checking em to make sure nothing is worng. They will be full and tight and if its two tight or leaking, you will need to milk. But skipping milkings is often times the only way to get the udder to understand, NO means NO


Agreed. Sometimes tough love is the only way they understand.


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## Rev144 (Jan 22, 2011)

When trying to dry up my Lamancha, I started milking only 1/2 of her out twice a day. Then after a week, I started only milking 1/2 out once a day. Then after another week, I milked only 1/2 out and every other day. Then went to only if she was huge , and then I only had to milk out a little bit to take the tightness away. I think it took a month to dry her up this way, but we did not have any mastitis problems and she was not too uncomfortable .


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## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

When I dry up a doe, I will milk them out 1/2 way twice a day, then go to once a day when they are not filling the udder full. I don't cut out the grain but feed a lower protein grain at half rations because my hay sucks. Once they are dry, I put them back on their regular grain.


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