Switching to Once A Day Milking - Drying Off the Goats


Bridget says, "Yeah, I could use a breather"

Now that it's officially the middle of December (time flies), we've started "drying off" the dairy goats. What does that mean? It means that in January we are going to stop milking for a few months and this is the first step towards making that a possibility. A week or two ago we switched from milking twice per day to milking once per day. If we were to abruptly stop milking altogether we'd risk the goats getting an infection, and even doing it slowly we still run that risk. You can just imagine their udders being full and no one to milk them, not a good situation. So we still milk, just a little less often. Over the course of December we'll also tone back the sprouted grains we're feeding and gently work their bodies out of milk production.

Around the end of December/beginning of January we'll stop milking completely and wait to milk again until the Spring when the goats "kid" (give birth). The three month break gives the girls a chance to rest and focus their bodily energy on growing strong and healthy kids for Spring. It's also colder outside, so the more of their caloric intake that they can keep within their bodies the warmer they'll be (putting on the holiday pounds and not feeling bad about it).

Our style of dairying is called "seasonal dairying". We try to have all of the goats "kid" around the same time in early spring (March/April). We'll milk from April through December and then everyone gets a break, including us. 

Seasonal dairying used to be the norm for milk producers. Most dairy farmers would choose the winter months for a rest. The grass stops growing as fast and it's really cold outside. Timing births for early spring also makes sense, since that's when grass growth is the strongest.

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The Benefit of Broomsedge

Broomsedge is listed as a "Noxious Weed" on the USDA website. It's a sign of low fertility and it's one of the most invasive weeds around. We have a ton of it on our farm. Several tons, actually. On our first visit to the farm last October we didn't even know what Broomsedge was. Looking out onto the fields we saw the image below:

Broomsedge in full glory

I don't know what this pasture looks like to the average untrained eye, but to my untrained eye it looked great. "Tall grass, something a goat would probably eat, fantastic." That was my initial reaction, I loved it. 

Over the next few months I discovered that the reddish/orage hue of our 4 ft tall fields were the result of broomsedge: A noxious and invasive weed that is a sign of low fertility. Not so great afterall.

Whether you've recognized it or not, Broomsedge makes appearances in our photos all the time. In fact, here's the last three photos I posted on Facebook, all highlighting the Broomsedge:

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Grazing in the Winter - Speed Up or Slow Down Rotations?


Willow grazing on a sunny November morning This is our first winter on the farm and the shift in seasons has posed a lot of new hurdles, including the grazing situation.

Over the past few weeks the pastures have slowly transitioned from bright, green grass to a brown, stemmy, seedy mess. The cows tend to seek out the green stuff, buried below the dead grass. The goats seek out cold-hardy “weeds”, such as rose, privet, cedar, and other small bushes/saplings. Both the cows and the goats are eating through their paddocks about two or three times as fast as in the summer. There's less available forage in each particular paddock and the animals need to eat more since they're burning more calories staying warm in the cold weather.

The rapid pasture consumption brings up the dilemma of rotating them through the pastures faster or slower. There's not as much good forage in the same amount of area, so you would think that rotating the animals more quickly would be the best idea. Generally, however, I would say that slowing down the rotation would be the best idea, if possible. You push the animals to get more out of each paddock and you also give the other paddocks a longer rest period. In the winter (and other slow growth periods) you want to increase the rest periods to encourage better regrowth and reduce pressure on the forage base. That's not a hard and fast rule, everyone has their own unique circumstances.

For instance, we have a small goat herd this year and lots of pasture that hasn’t been grazed in a long time, so I’ve been increasing the rate of rotation and waiting to feed hay. So far the goats are doing very well and we haven’t fed any hay on pasture. Depending on the weather I think we might be able to go close to the whole winter without bringing the goats hay. Another reason to rotate dairy goats more quickly is because you can't push them as hard as meat animals (i.e. beef cows or meat goats). The meat animals can be pushed to "do a job" on the pasture. The dairy animals have higher nutritional requirements (particularly during lactation), so keeping them on fresh pasture is almost always the optimal solution. That means I am moving the goats at least every other day (sometimes every day), whereas in the spring/summer I might go 5-7 days.
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