Our main milker, Orange The Alpine, is milking through. This means that she is continuing to produce substantial quantities of milk although she hasn't freshened (given birth) in more than a year. She had her last kids in February of 2007, so it has been fourteen months since this milk cycle started. Alpines are *not* known for their milking-through ability. The norm is about ten months with a decline at the end, then a two month break to allow the doe to finish out her next pregnancy before kidding again.
Due to a variety of circumstances, Orange was not successfully bred in the fall of 2007 to kid in the spring of 2008. Her milk production had declined, but after Princess had her kids, Orange's milk production came up. Sympathy hormones??
Orange's production is well over half a gallon per day again, and that's good enough for us.
1 comment:
I would be very interested to see how long she milks. I am very interested in milking through. I don't have a buck and would like to not bred any more than I have to. I should be getting a new Nigerian Dwarf doe, first freshener in Aug. and am looking forward to seeing if I can get her to milk through.
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