Anyone raise dairy goats?

[CHICKENHEAD]

I am looking at getting a couple of nubians, but only 1 to keep to milk. Does anyone have experience in milking goats? I have read where it needs to be done twice daily. I dont have time to do it twice daily, but only in the evening. Is this acceptable, or do I HAVE to do it twice daily. Also, if you get 2 gallons of milk a day from a nubian, is there any pygmy goats out there that is good milk goats that dont produce that much milk?

[bee_pipes]

I'm looking into the same thing. Nubians seem to be the easiest to find for my purposes. There are Nigerian Dwarfs and African Pygmies. The first can be milked, but the teats are small. The second is raised for meat.

There are two crosses that are of interest - Kinder and Mini-Nubian. The first is a cross between Nubian and African Pygmy. The second is a cross between a Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian. Both are supposed to provide good quality milk, the Kinder being the better for meat. These are supposed to be better milkers than the ND or AP. I haven't had a lot of luck finding either of these breeds in my area, but Nubians are readily available.

I was looking at smaller, more easily managed animals, but the Nubian seems like the easiest way to go. There's just me and my wife, so one goat would provide more than enough milk. Since they are herd animals, you'd want more than one. I'm a-thinkin' two does, alternated in freshening would keep us in milk all year round. For goat specific questions, check out:
http://thegoatspot.net/phpbb/index.php
I got a lot of help there. Keep us posted on what you do - somebody else out there might have the same questions.

Regards,
Pat

[Northern_bushrat]

I read on the forum on www.frontierfreedom.com that some peole there just milked their goats once a day, and it worked for them. But I think they left the kids with the mother for longer than ususal, so they drank up "the slack", I guess.

[bookwormom]

I milk my Saanens in the morning. the kids are kept penned up over night, I milk what we need in the morning, then turn them all out and leave the kids with their mom's throug the day. works for me.

[MimiKrause]

I keep Nigerian Dwarfs--I wanted a small, friendly-natured goat I could "learn" on for lack of a better term. *I was hesitant about cows, because I am fairly petite and it's hard for me to manage an enormous animal alone. *Nigies, though with smaller teats, are quite easy to milk in my experience, give a good amount of very high butterfat milk and are as docile as a pet dog. *They do breed like rabbits--one of my does in the past would alternate birthing a single and later in the year triplets, quads and one year--QUINTS that all lived! *Hardy little critters, but I've cut way back, as much as I enjoyed them--I didn't have time to milk that many goats and couldn't justify so many "pets", no matter how helpful they were cleaning up some scrub in the woods hehind my house. *To milk only once per day, I use the same method as bookwormom--let new babies have all that rich milk they want for 2-3 days, then pen them up in the evenings, milk mama early in the morning and turn the babies out so they can get at her (they will be MORE than ready at that point!) *Good luck--I've heard good things about the Lamancha/Nigie crosses and nubian/Nigie crosses as well.

[CHICKENHEAD]

Well I still havnt got any goats yet. I am trying to get a hold of some used cattle panels until I get my 20 acres fenced in. I am looking towards the nigerians though.