Okay, I have
heard of this....but never actually witnessed it in many years working with dairy goats on a day to day basis. A couple of months ago I noticed that my darling Fiona appeared to be developing an itty bitty baby udder. Not unusual of course....she is after all a dairy goat. She is the daughter of the world's best homestead goat (in my humble opinion). So why wouldn't she develop an udder early. But then I began to worry that maybe Frodo had bred her before we skeedaddled him out of the kid pen and into the buck pen. So about a month ago when I was pulling blood for our CAE testing....I had her blood checked for pregnancy as well. It was negative.
I have heard of precocious milkers. In fact, our buck Manny is from such milky lines that his sire War Chief had to be milked on occasion or he would develop mastitis.
I can not imagine how disgusting THAT chore was! But I have always heard that a doe can develop milk spontaneously without being bred. I've just have never actually had it happen.
Okay, you folks that read my blog and are not "goatie" type people will not appreciate this next picture. Fiona wasn't thrilled with me taking the picture.....but for the goatie folks.....what do you think? She's 7 months old and not bred.
This was her first time up on the milking stand besides for disbudding, tatooing, and hoof trimming...so I didn't want to upset her.....but sure enough....there were a few drops of milk in them there teats!
Now obviously we're not going to survive if that's all the milk she gives....but the fact is there was some MILK! I plan to put her at the end of the milk string and get her used to the routine for a week or so. If I see improvement by the end of the week, I'll keep going. If I still only get a few drops, then I'll chalk it up to hormones or something. By the way, I've never seen her behave as if she's in heat.....but you know how the does swoon over a good stinky buck and we've got 4 here.
As for Fiona, she loves the extra attention.....because she knows exactly how special she is. Please ignore the cobwebs in the milkroom and the dirty nose on the goat. It's hot, dry, and dusty here!
5 comments:
Is it possible, with her being at such a young age... that you would be able to encourage her to become a surrogate, in case you need one in the future? Physiologically - yes. But I mean... the emotional and behavioral training theory.
Not sure what you mean Weldr.....and despite my best efforts I can't leave a comment on your blog!
I've noticed several issues with my blog. And it's beginning to tick me off. My blog list was the issue on my end this morning. I think it's time to change the decor.
What I was asking was if you ever have issues where you lose a doe, etc., and end up with an orphan that would need a surrogate. Would this doeling make for a surrogate, considering she's going into milking so early? And does it work in your favor to work with her in some kind of training to encourage her to become a good-natured surrogate?
Its possible that she may be starting a PRecocious udder but its could also be hormones and her coming into heat. I had a doe that never showed many signs at all of a heat tillt he buck was with her and He was like "Hey yer a Purty doe!" Lol She almost always bred too. I would say Hormones unless you start getting more milk!
I thought Cobwebs were the "in" thing for Milkroom/Barn Decor!!!lol
Weldr, we pull kids at birth, never leaving them with the mother. There are several reasons for doing things this way, for 1 it is part of a CAE prevention program, another reason is so that we can sell kids early, and also it gives US the milk rather than putting it all into kids.
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