ratfarm:The difference between the udder development of a first freshener and seasoned milker. Cream
ratfarm:The difference between the udder development of a first freshener and seasoned milker. Cream (left) is just over a year old having had her first birth and Tiphara is seven with many. Milk production increases with each freshening (kidding, i.e. birth) until about age four, then decreases slowly.Cream’s teats are so small I can’t get my fists around them, so I milk her with two fingers and a thumb. Tipharah is a handful and a lot more comfortable. She also has a stronger stream and empties out faster.You can just barely make out a mark on the bag above Cream’s right teat, the last little bit of scab… The kid she was fostering (sold this spring) from Sparkle’s injury ended up being a gruesome biter! After dealing with Sparkle’s blowout I was horrified to come out to the barn one day and discover my previously unscathed goat had been bit almost all the way through to the duct! We pulled all the kids and bottle-fed them, only milking her from the other side, and she healed very quickly with no issues. The kid in mention was so viscious with the bottle he’d rip it out of my hands and fling it across the stall. He was also very inefficient at draining it which seemed to make him more frantic, I had to steady the nipple in his mouth with his head locked against my body and squirt it to get him to eat enough. Needless to say, it was easy to see how he hurt both does and definitely something I’ll watch for with future kids. I never saw a word about biting in any of the goat info I’ve absorbed, so it doesn’t seem to be a common issue, at least.June 8, 2017. -- source link
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