I have 2 nigerian dwarf goats. Like said in an earlier post, I give them a scoop of grain when milking on the stand, and a smaller leaf of alfafa hay 2x a day (I kept one of their babies who shares their grain and hay, I don't measure her intake she is just along for the ride and we don't mind, she is kind of like a dog and just follows all of us around and comes and goes as she pleases. Their milk is sweet and creamy! Almost too creamy for me. It's great on cereal and in our daily smoothies. My kids think the smoothies taste like ice cream smoothies. It's hard for me to drink straight because its soo creamy. I get around 1 quart combined at at each milking.
I also have a snubian (cross between a nubian and saanen, both of these breeds are full size dairy goats). She shares a pen with a yearling who is saanen. Our snubian eats a little less than twice as much grain as the nigerian's at the milking stand. I also give them 2 medium flakes a day. She doesn't always eat all her grain either, she scrapes her front hoof if she doesn't want her grain or if her bowl is empty. Someties I just put the real leafy part of the hay in the stand if she doesn't want the grain and that satisifies her to allow me to milk her out. I milk her last so whatever she doesn't eat in her bowl goes to the baby nigerian who is wandering anyways or to the chickens who help themselves when we are done. So nothing goes to waste. My snubian will eat anything we give her including banana peels, orange peels, onion pieces, just things that my nigerians wouldn't eat, she just eats it all. She gives me a full 2 quarts per milking which equals a gallon a day. Her milk is not as sweet and creamy as the nigerians. Its almost flavorless although still good (I could just be used to the Nigerian milk). I prefer to mix the 2 breeds of milk. It gives me a perfect sweetness and I don't mind drinking it from a cup but still a little too much on the creamy side for me.
Last but not least, I also have a full saanen who is nursing her two kids. I milk her out sometimes if her bag happens to look full when I'm milking the others.
I love milking my snubian, her teats are so much bigger and easier to handle than the nigerian. Put it this way the nigerians milk like this [pst pst pst pst] but the snubian milks like this [pssssssssssssst, pssssssssssssst, psssssssssssssst]. It takes me about the same amt of time to milk the nigerian as it does to milk the snubian only the snubian gives me twice as much milk with less effort. My nigerians definitely have a more impatient personality and baa at me until its their turn on the stand, they let me know when their done on the stand as well. On the other hand, the snubian is so quite and patient and is just a sweet heart.
I planted a pasture this year 35 ft. x 100 ft. I plan on the letting the goats graze on half the pasture after their morning milking then putting them back in their pen after their evening milking. Not sure how this will affect their milking/eating habits. We shall see. The hope is I can cut back on either the grain and/or alfalfa.
I almost bought a mini milking cow but the cost of feed, size of poop, heaviness of the hooves, and impact they would have on the sprinklers, eating the whole pasture plant and root and all swayed me to the dairy goat. And there's my 2 cents
. Very interesting posts by the way.
