Letdown

I was talking to one of my coworkers the other day about milking our goats and mentioned the word "letdown". He asked me what that meant. I explained that the goat has to let down her milk, and she can hold it back if she wants. He then asked if he was understanding me correctly that the goat has to willingly give her milk.

An uncooperative doe can be very difficult to milk. First, she will refuse to come to the milking stand. No amount of begging or cajoling or offers of delicious treats will make her come if she does not want to. If you are able to drag her to the stand, it will be difficult if not impossible to get her on the stand. If you have a strong helper and manage to drag her onto the stand, and lock her into the stanchion, and she is still not interested in being milked she will then proceed to other hijinks like using her back legs to kick at your hands on her udder, or sink her udder so low to the milking stand that she will smash your hands into the bucket. We have even had one doe that did a handstand. I have a friend who told me about one of her does that would jump off the milkstand, with it still attached around her neck and run around the yard.

If you get past all these issues, and the doe is scared or new to milking, or has new babies, she can hold back her milk. If she is very full, you will be able to get a portion, but if she does not relax you will not get much milk.

So the whole milking process should follow a similar daily routine to be sure the doe is relaxed and cooperative. It is common for does to prefer one person milking over another. Sometimes they get used to a man or woman milking, and then prefer that gender, making it difficult for a person of the opposite gender to milk. It is also customary to milk your herd queen first. If you insist on milking another doe in her place, you can facilitate the change of queen in your herd.

So, yes, milking does require that the doe cooperate and letdown her milk willingly.

Until next time.