# precocious milker



## rhondal (Apr 12, 2010)

I have posted before about my 2 year old nubian that is in milk on both sides, no fever, not off feed and acting funny in any way, milked her out and the milk looked normal. It was suggested that she is precocious milker. Well, my kids are taking them to 4-h fair and i had to know which class to enter. One class was for doe 2 and over that had kidded and 2 and over dry doe. Called the person on charge of the dept. and they called their goat vet who said goats do not lactate unless they have kidded and that she has dry mastitis. i have been look up info. and it seems that precocious milkers is not entirely uncommon. Confused! Thanks everyone


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

The vet is unfamiliar with precocious milkers. I have had a young doeling come into milk before she was bred. She was not a full blown milker with 8 pounds of milk, but she did have milk in her small udder.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

It's junior doe classes and senior doe classes, kidding has nothing to do with moving into a senior doe class. If you are milking her regularly than she would go into the under two milking class, if you aren't milking her and she hasn't kidded than she is in the appropriate class for her age, in the junior doe, (dry) class. You could invite the person in charge to come to the forum or contact one of us? And I have even had other folks vets call me 

Also please read your PM I sent you. Vicki


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

I had a precocious milker here, TONS of confusion on this topic for sure... some said you can keep milking and bring them fully into milk, others said no, you'll ruin her for life as a dairy goat... it was SOOOOO confusing... I erred on the side of "do no harm" and did nothing. 

It happened twice, when she was an unbred yearling, when other herdmates kidded. She's always been a very strange goat, mimics others' heats, took me the longest time to figure out what was going on with her. On the other hand, if every goat was as sweet and cooperative as her my life would be SO easy, lol.

She was in an online virtual show last year, and had a little udder but I wasn't milking her and she correctly went into "Dry Yearling" or similar named class.

Now she's 2yrs 3 mos and kidding as FF finally today! And she's uddered up and looking pretty good! Better teat angles than her twin, hurray! I chimed in on Michelle's "FF Kidding Noise" thread about her... I wonder if all kids born today will suddenly get webbed feet... they need them... we are having quite the Deluge here today...


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

Of my two sister does, one is precocious and had a little udder very early and the other has always been flat as a pancake with her udder. The precocious does kid I have has a little udder since a youngster. A nubian doe I had in the 1970's was precocious and I milked her through but she didn't hold up as good as my PU doe I have now maybe it was the lack of copper). Anyway I am going to compare production with my PU doe compared with my non PU doe, who is due and uddering up now which I will milk through also. Since it's been said PU's milk better, longer?


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I had a buck with an udder that produced milk. Most of his daughters had PU and were super producers. It was fun explaining the udder at the shows, but once the judges figured it out, the kids did very well. When they finally matured and kidded, they did great for production. I never milked them through.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

quote author=dragonlair link=topic=14880.msg159388#msg159388 date=1275159373]
I had a buck with an udder that produced milk...[/quote]

wow, now that could be a dual purpose goat, eh? 
did the milk taste bucky?

interesting thread...
so far the former PU, now FF looks better than her twin sister, but we'll see.

Laverne, let's stay on each other's radar with this as we'll both have twin sisters, one with PU. Hardly a scientific sample but maybe interesting anyway. Mine were both bred to the same buck, doubtful that matters, but its one less variable.


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

That would be interesting Lacia. I'm hoping the flat ff 2 year old will hold up as good as her sister.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

"flat"?

this 2yo FF is the one that had precocious milk 2x as a yearling... her twin that was yearling FF, now 2nd F, is not a perfect comparision due to the different breeding ages, but still interesting I think.


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

About the two twin sister's, the PU one kidded last year and is still milking. I didn't breed her again so she is milking through as a ff. The flat uddered sister had a miscarriage about a month into her pregnancy. I accidentally wormed her so I think that made her miscarriage. The two sisters were bred about the same time. So I didn't get any kids from the miscarriage one. So I bred her this last winter so she will be a ff as a 2 year old in about a month. So I think I can compare the two since I will be comparing them as ff's So it will be interesting to see if she will drop significantly more than the PU doe during an extended lactation especially next spring since my PU doe has almost the same production as last year being milked through.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

wow, same amount milking thru, that's great! 
how much is she giving you?


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

She topped at 9 lbs last year but was around 8 lb. and so far she is steady at 7 lb 12 oz and sometimes 8 lbs.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

they are full size?


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

yes, they're about 160 lbs. I think I read one of yours was 90lbs and milking 6 lbs.?


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

I have a 65 lb FF milking 5.7-6.3 lbs/day the past 3 weeks!! Did 6.1 on her official DHIA test day, right on her average. She'll be 6 wks fresh tomorrow.

I keep hoping some ND breeders will chime in about how much their good ND's do since she's 3/4 ND and 1/4 LM. I don't know how long she can keep this up... curious to see how long she persists, that's the downside of many ND's I think?

The other was close to 90 lbs when she started, she's definitely losing weight and her milk is dropping a little, she gave me over 8 lbs several days over weeks 2-4 but average is down to 6.5-ish now and she's at almost 10 weeks fresh.


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## Laverne (Apr 4, 2010)

Lacia, that is such good production for the body mass of your does. So I'll see if my PU doe will have moderate production but more of a level lactation. Her mother was up to 12lb 14 oz last year and she was hard keep weight up. Not that her production was super high but it seemed like it may have been for her body mass, 160 lbs. It was a pain though because I was milking her 3 times a day during that high. I didn't feel that her capacity was good enough to hold over 2 quarts at a time. So I'd rather have around a gallon a day milker. I also worry about the possible metabolic problems of a super producer, they have to really be managed well. 
My PU doe keeps her weight up good if I feed COB, because of the corn. She'll lose if I have her on plain oats. I tried the oats cause the corn is probably genetically modified. I'm not doing organic yet.


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## LLB101 (Sep 29, 2009)

sounds like were sorting out a lot of the same kinds of questions... what is good production for our size does and healthy metabolism and feed choices. I think my milk does vary quite a bit because of feed changes due to what's available, and I'm trying to get a way to quantifty that better. 

Your observation that its partly about the corn, I wonder about that, I've been out of corn recently and the organic COB I got this time looks like whole barley and dust, so I've been scrambling and mixing feeds a bit. Production may have gone down since I ran out of corn, I'll see if I can find the date on that, it would be interesting to know.


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