Does anyone know if we wanted to take a break from milking this year if we could leave the lambs on and not milk? They wont lamb for another 3 months but we are looking at options since we may not be able to do it. Does anyone know if it would create complications for next year when we are ready?
Hi bnwhitaker, If they are anything like high producing dairy cows the lambs will have an excess of milk at the start, then as they grow and use up all the milk and suckle more frequently than you would normally milk the ewes, then those fat little suckers may drain the fat and body reserves of the ewes and you may have to possibly wean them earlier, like at 16 weeks. The other downside may be an increase in the incidence of mastitis in early lactation due to overextended udders with the lambs not able to drink enough milk to keep inflammation at bay and chewed teats. I can't see too many worries, you may have to milk out some swollen ewes after lambing for a week or so and prepare to have some really fat lambs at 16 weeks and earlier and be prepared to wean big lambs off if their mum's get too poor. I would probably leave an adlib calcium and magnesium supplement lick like a Fortamin block available as well to reduce the incidence of milk fever. It goes without saying that internal parasites need to be kept at a low population as well doesn't it? If you lamb in May and June and the lambs are weaned in September and early October it gives plenty of time for the ewes to fatten and build up body reserves for a late November and December joining. They then have another 150 or so days to replenish lost mineral reserves until next lambing. Did you milk them twice daily last season? You may be able to reduce to one milking a day instead of two for a break? Lease them out for a season to another local goat milker. You could get them to raise all your female replacements and they feed the ewes and keep the ewes milk for the season and all the male kids?