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Teaching older local goats to be milked?

 
pollinator
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Location: Haiti
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I'm planning to get a couple of does from local selections. They're a mid-size, disease-resistant, meat variety. Haitians don't generally handle their animals very gently, so very few will allow themselves to be willingly touched. But I have tamed several goats to allow me to touch them and handle them pretty easily with the bribe of moringa leaves!

I'm debating if it's better to get adult females, either already pregnant, or ready to breed, or if I should plan on getting babies?

My experience with milking goats is limited, and second-hand, as I visited friend's dairy goats. I know these local goats aren't going to probably be heavy milkers (though moringa is supposed to boost milk production quite a bit), and later I hope to cross them with a Nubian or other milk/meat breed. But for now, I'd like to milk them for our own uses and learn to make cheese and whatnot.

Very interested in feedback. I'm confident of my abilities to tame them, but I don't want to stress them out either with the whole milking thing. Might be better to get them used to close handling from birth?
 
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I tame wild dairy goats by bringing buckets of treats and gradually standing closer and closer every day until I can pat them, hold their collars or horns, and lead them around while holding the bucket.

I'm not sure how this would go for meat breed goats, but for dairy goats it's been something I've been able to do over a month or two.

They are still not as tame as the hand-raised goats that I have, but they will get onto a milking stand and stand to be milked, and will come to me if I have treats.
 
Priscilla Stilwell
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Ok. I'm also curious how much milk they will give, but I think only time will tell. And it will depend on whether they are pastured or free range (the normal way to have goats here).
 
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