# Increase Goat's Milk Production?



## grannieb (Dec 1, 2008)

We heard that brewer's yeast might help with our goat's milk production. Does anyone know if it actually will help and if so how much do we give them?

Any other suggestions? We currently give them Dari Gold cattle feed (manufactured by Southern States) along with free choice bermuda hay, free choice loose mineral and baking soda, and also add about 1/4 cup of BOSS to a 1 1/2 pounds of the feed.


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## DQ (Aug 4, 2006)

is the cattle feed a _dairy_ ration? if not you need to get some calcium in her diet (and I mean alot of calcium, not just a few tums) they can get it by way of alfalfa (hay or pellets) or a dairy ration. it takes calcium to make milk and in high productive does to keep them from using up there calcium reserves to make milk and becoming very ill. wheat germ will not help increase the calcium in her diet and if that is lacking it should be your primary focus.


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## grannieb (Dec 1, 2008)

DQ: Thanks for your reply! The feed is a dairy feed. Do you think we still need more calcium?


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

How big is the goat, and what breed? How many times has she kidded? How old is she? How many kids did she have? How much is she producing? Are you milking twice a day, or what is your milking routine? How much feed is she getting? How long has she been fresh? At what point after freshening did you start to milk her? If she dam-raised the kids, what was the routine? 

These are all factors that could effect her milk production. Providing answers will help us figure out what's going on with her.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Alfalfa hay. Browse.


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## grannieb (Dec 1, 2008)

Thanks so much for your help! I've thought about taking her for walks so she can get more "browse", but there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. I haven't tried the alfalfa hay yet.

She is a Nubian/Alpine cross, born in January of 2004, weighs about 100 pounds. We purchased her last year. I think it was her third kidding in February 2008. She freshened again in January of this year. We left the kids on her during the day, then separated them at night so that we could milk the next morning. We weaned them at 12 weeks old and began milking twice a day. 

We weigh her milk in ounces, but just rounding it off, she gave us per milking:
March: 1 1/2 pounds to 2 1/4 pounds
April: 1 1/2 pounds to 2 1/4 pounds
May: 1 3/4 pounds to 2 1/4 pounds
June (1st two weeks): 1 1/2 pounds to 2 pounds

As you can see, she's never been a real big producer, but since the middle of June it has consistently been going down and we don't need that! My first thought was that she needed worming. We gave her 2 ml Ivermectin injectable (orally) on July 12.

We had been giving her about a pound of feed with each milking, but have increased that to 2 1/2 pounds. She has access to fresh hay all day as well as mineral and baking soda, and of course, fresh water.

Any ideas/suggestions?


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## hoofinitnorth (Oct 18, 2006)

Brewer's Yeast is supposed to be a good source of selenium but the stuff we buy here doesn't have a guaranteed analysis. We still give Bo-Se but they don't get much of the BY anyway.


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

If she freshened in Jan what was she giving you in Feb, did you milk her then? It is possible she is just not a good milker. What is the protein amount in her feed. I like to give around 17-20 % figuring milk is mostly protein. If she is not getting that in hay then she needs to up the protien somewhere or she can not produce more milk. It may be to late for this year but next year you could work at it. 
Milk her twice a day or three times a day every day from day one even if she only gives you a few squirts. 
Start with 1lbs of 17% dairy ration 2x a day and increase it slowly until she is not giving any extra milk. her milk should increase as her feed is increased when the increase stops that is where she will stay.
Be sure to milk her out completely every time you leave a few ozs of milk in her udder her brain takes that to mean she does not need to make that much milk and so next time she makes a little less and so on. Keep trying to get more milk out even when you think she is empty that will signal her to make a little bit more and so on.
Make sure she has plenty of water as milk is mostly water.


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## grannieb (Dec 1, 2008)

Thank you both for those suggestions. But let me ask a dumb question. What is "Bo-Se? I guess it's something and selenium? The feed we've been giving her is 16%. Can you tell me what brand to buy that will contain a higher protein? I haven't seen anything better in our area. My husband purchased a container of brewer's yeast yesterday. It's analysis is 35% protein, so that sounds like it might help. But it had been opened and something black around the edge of the top. Ugh! So anyway, we're going to take that back and exchange it. I'll milk her an extra time today and give her some more feed to see if that will help.

It is just great to have someone to go to for advise. Thank you again!

Darlene


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

For those breeds, at 100 pounds, she is either really thin or really short. If she's really thin, she won't produce well. It sounds like she needs more good food. I am not familiar with coastal bermuda hay, but all the dairy people I know feed primarily alfalfa, with grass hay kind of as a supplement. Alfalfa will provide both the protein and the calcium your girl needs to do well. I did once try feeding excellent, fine, leafy, second-cut orchard grass hay and a good concentrate ration. Production dropped dramatically. Once I added alfalfa, it was back where it should have been.

The concentrate ration you're giving her is 16 percent protein. Do you know what the protein content of the hay is? If it's normal grass hay, it could be down around 10 percent. Poor quality grass hay drops quite a bit lower. For a hundred-pound lactating doe, she's probably eating around five pounds of feed a day, or should be. So 80 percent of her feed is grass, at 10 percent digestible protein. That puts the total ration at about 11.2 percent protein. Cruddy alfalfa hay is around 13 percent, but good alfalfa hay can run into the low 20s. And again, alfalfa will always be a good source of calcium. If 80 percent of her ration were decent alfalfa hay, at around 16 to 18 percent, she'd have a lot more raw material to work with to make you the milk you want. Her total ration should be running around 16 percent protein overall.


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## DQ (Aug 4, 2006)

I agree that for her breed she is small and didn't even produce much at first. this could be a feed thing or simply a genetic thing or a nutrient absorption problem possibly from early damage to her intestines from cocci (her size makes me wonder). in my experience as soon as breeding season comes around production gets a little more variable too and when they don't make much to begin that variablity can really hit hard for family milk. in moderation the wheat germ won't hurt but I would still go for alfalfa. the calcium in alfalfa is reported to be much better absorbed then the calcium in a dairy ration and the alfalfa is usually higher in protein than grass hays. I prefer alfalfa pellets because they seem to be able to eat alot more of it than the hay and I also can't afford to buy hay for them to stomp into the ground and pick out the extra yummy parts. when I switched to alalfa hay production went down so I went back. but I also don't have really good quality alfalfa hay available to me so that could have been part of the problem.


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