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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 10/20/06, Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com> wrote:

> I know that there are some old time goat people on list. I'm hoping
> that the two milkers make enough milk to raise a couple of hogs over
> the summer and I'd really like to make some hard cheeses.
It depends on the goats. A high-producing dairy goat can give you 8 to
10 lbs of milk a day, which is enough to make about a pound of cheese
(a gallon of milk weighs 8.8 lbs, and it takes a gallon of milk to
make a pound of cheese).

If you leave the babies on them, you'll have to lock the does up
overnight and milk in the morning (or lock the babies up all day, and
milk at night) to get decent production. In fact, you should also milk
just after the kids are removed for the day to maximize production.

If you can, another way to increase production is to milk 3 times a day.\

My experience is, however, that you need to look at production records
and breed to great bucks to have a good milk supply. You can pick up
good goats cheap, but you have to be ready to eat the ones that
aren't.

Also, the biggest enemy of milk production is a retroviral disease: do
a search on CAE. It is worth the money to buy from a breeder who tests
and culls for CAE. If a goat has it, she won't be worth anything as a
milker, maybe not even good enough to raise kids (and she'll give the
kids the infection through the milk).

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head -- and don't
anyone jump on the easy jokes about *that*.

Marie