I think I have saanen/pigmy crosses. Could I milk?

I have two 4-6 year old nannies. The guy I bought them from said he thinks they are saanen and pigmy. Does that seem correct by the pictures bellow? We have had them for a little over 3 months and I have been thinking about milking them. I don't want to buy a buck, so I was thinking about renting one. Since I am not compelty sure what breed they even are and if they are good milkers is this a lot of work for not much benefit? And if it would be worth it does anyone have suggestions on what breed of buck I should be looking for in order to breed some better milkers from these mommas?

We have a small flock of mixed hair sheep and are wanting to expand it OR sell our current sheep and buy icelandics (they are typically larger than the hair breeds. And their fleeces go for more that the other woolies, so I figured shearing wouldn't be as bad with them). If we do we may do some milking and cheese making for farmers market. Their milk production isn't amazing, but could be a nice side income in the spring after lambing. I was thinking that I could try my hand at milking the goats and see if its something I'm interested in before we made decisions on what to do with our flock.

thanks guys!

Hard to say for sure but their faces look a lot like Saanen goats, they have the right ear shape.

For breeding future milk givers I'd go with Saanen, Toggenburg, Oberhasli or Nubian for the sire.

Redhawk

Saanen cross pygmy looks about right to me.  They are scouring a bit - have they had quite a change in diet coming to you?  If you want to milk them, you will probably want to devise some sort of milking stand with a sunken bucket holder and get them used to standing nicely on it well before they kid, as pygmies can be quite feisty and are obviously rather low to the ground!

Hester Winterbourne wrote:Saanen cross pygmy looks about right to me.  They are scouring a bit - have they had quite a change in diet coming to you?  If you want to milk them, you will probably want to devise some sort of milking stand with a sunken bucket holder and get them used to standing nicely on it well before they kid, as pygmies can be quite feisty and are obviously rather low to the ground!

They had a parasite issue. That pictures a little old. They are nice and plump now! Thanks so much for the advice!

Think I've read that blue eyes are usually associated with pygmies.  Ears look right for one of the Swiss types.

Personally I'm fond of Lamanchas for their attitudes, production, and parasite resistance.  They make a nice cross with pygmies, but you'll get weird ears

--Dawna