{"id":1302,"date":"2011-05-19T03:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=1302"},"modified":"2011-05-19T03:00:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:00:11","slug":"qanda-lactation-in-goats-raising-turkeys-and-storing-seeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2011\/05\/19\/qanda-lactation-in-goats-raising-turkeys-and-storing-seeds\/","title":{"rendered":"QandA: Lactation in goats, Raising turkeys, and Storing seeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lactation in goats and raising turkeys<\/strong><\/p>\n

First question is about the lactation cycle in goats. I’ve heard so many people talking about their goats producing a gallon of milk a day and we are just not getting that. Let me first tell you the breed and circumstances so you can make a judgment. We actually have 3 milking age goats 1 Nubian and 2 Saanen. We missed breeding the Nubian this year (long story in itself) and the 2 Saanens are producing. We are locking the kids up at night now and milking once a day. 1 (Zena) was doing really good \u00bd gallon every milking but that quickly dropped to 4 to 5 cups a day. The second (Tara) is producing the same. So we are averaging about \u00bd gallon a day from 2 supposedly “Holstein of the goat world,” so we are at a loss as to what we are doing wrong. We feed grain twice a day (4 pounds total) and they do have access to good grazing most of the time (depending on weather). They really have a happy home really not sure why this is happening. I’ve been told that goats can hold off their milk for their kids. Is that true? At what age do mother goats wean their kids? <\/em><\/p>\n

Second question, Why don’t you do anything with turkeys?<\/em><\/p>\n

James Gilliland<\/em>
\nMansfield, Texas<\/em><\/p>\n

Goat moms are good mothers and don’t wean their kids until they are pretty big (usually until fall). But because we want to drink that milk, we need to wean them earlier. They can be weaned safely at 8 weeks of age, providing that they are strong, healthy, and eating grain and hay. They are usually doing that by 4 weeks. Yes, does can hold their milk. And yours probably are doing that. If this is your first trip through the goat milking experience, you’ll find that next year will be better. And when you wean the kids, you’ll find that in a few days (after the noise and baa-ing has settled down) you’ll be getting much more milk for the house. While most good dairy goats can produce a gallon a day, there are a lot of variables. A first freshener doesn’t usually give as much as a mature doe. And some dairy goats just don’t give a gallon a day; two or three quarts is their limit.<\/p>\n

We do have turkeys. I got fed up with the “artificial” breeds (broad breasted whites and bronzes) that can’t breed or raise their own babies. We now have heritage turkeys that can do that. We raised 9 babies last year and are hoping to increase that a lot this year. We like turkey meat and enjoy the turkeys. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Storing seeds<\/strong><\/p>\n

The local Kroger has seeds for half price this week. We have enough for this year, but I was thinking about purchasing some, putting them in a zip lock bag and placing them in the freezer. Would this keep the seeds viable for a year or two?<\/em><\/p>\n

Shirley Wikstrom<\/em>
\nStevenson, Washington<\/em><\/p>\n

Definitely! In fact, seeds kept in an airtight container will keep for years when just kept in a cool spot. Some seeds aren’t good keepers, however. I wouldn’t buy onion or parsnip seeds as these are usually only viable for a year or sometimes two. It’s always a good idea to have plenty of extra seeds! There have been times in our history when garden seeds, or at least many needed varieties, were not available for sale. I wouldn’t want to be caught in that situation. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lactation in goats and raising turkeys First question is about the lactation cycle in goats. I’ve heard so many people talking about their goats producing a gallon of milk a day and we are just not getting that. Let me first tell you the breed and circumstances so you can make a judgment. We actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,11,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}