# How much milk do your Nubians produce?



## SANDQ (Dec 27, 2011)

How much milk do your Nubians produce? I am the only person in my area that has Nubians, so I have no-one to compare them to. The only info I have is off website's, so it would be nice to know from Nubian owners, what I could expect from mine.
2 does will be into their 3rd lactation when they freshen and the other 2 does will be into their 4th.
They are in the correct condition coming into freshening, they have all been BoSe 'd, vaccinated, wormed etc according to DGI management, when they are not out to pasture they get free choice alfalfa hay and we are now lead feeding to a minimum of 2lbs of grain a day when they freshen the end of February.


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## Ashley (Oct 25, 2007)

It can really vary. Some are pitiful producers some are very productive. Mine usually peak at 8-9+ lbs per day. I don't feed for heavy production like some do, though. The biggest thing with Nubians is getting an animal to keep producing, they aren't the best for holding a long lactation in general. And my yearlings don't usually make a lot of milk. But I'm getting them grown out better with more grain these days so we'll see if that changes.

You can check out ADGA pedigree website and look at the USDA data for different animals. It shows production at so many days into lactation for each year for those in DHIR, so you can get an idea for lactation curves and production changes from year to year.


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## Ziggy (Nov 13, 2009)

It is unfortunate that many Nubians have not been bred for production. If you are wanting good to great milk production then I would follow Ashley's advice and seek out stock with milk records. With your location USDA DHIR records don't mean much but surely there are some breeders in your locale who do record production. I would seek them out and see how they compare to yours. Maybe add a buck from a good producer into your herd.


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## SolsticeSun (Feb 23, 2013)

I can only speak to my personal limited experience. Last season my girls were both FFs. One peaked at 8lbs a day but settled around 5lbs for most of the season. The other peaked around 5lbs and seems to be holding steady at 4lbs a day now. The doe I lost prior to these two was a 4th freshener and she peaked around a gallon, held steady around 6lbs. 

The two that peaked around a gallon were both moved from their old home to my home and I attribute some of their lost production to that.


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## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

I don't put any weight (no pun intended) in the amount a ff milks. My worst milking ff is one of my nicest does and consistently milked 8-9#/day as a 2nd freshener. My best milking ff was conformationally a mess. Would have never held up as an aged doe. I expect my 2nd fresheners and up to milk 8+#/day.


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## cvalley (Apr 15, 2009)

Both FF peaked at 8lbs this year . Our 3 year old peaked at 11 lbs this year and 2650 lbs at 295 DIM -- steady milker . The 4 year old peaked at 13 lbs and at 284 DIM was 2310 ( in progress )but she is not as steady in production at the end of her lactation as the 3 year old. Looking forward to freshening this year with the two FF as they are the daughters of the 3 year old and 4 year old.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

My nubians generally peak at over 8 pounds. Even my first freshener last year was milking over 8 pounds at peak, and continued on with about 6 for a long time. (Heck, my kinder-type goats, 50% nubian and 50% pygmy, generally peak at or over 6 pounds...I had one kid a week ago and she's at just over 4 right now, without me working at milking her all the way out.)


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

my ff usually are 2 lbs to 10 lbs of milk at their peak. My Adults better milk at least 8, usually they are over 10-12 lbs a day at the peak, and are good milkers till they get older. sitting here with my doe pages I need to send in. Torrie who is 5 now on her 2nd lactation test was milking 11.6 on the 1st test day, on the 2nd 11.7, 3rd 12.0, 5th down to 9.1 7th test that year 7 .0 Of course this doesn't take into any count whether she was ill or bad grain or drought conditions. 
I guess I need to keep better notes!


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