Dairy Goat Production

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Whether deciding sales, goals, management, breeding, or monitoring health, collecting data helps keep dairy goat production up in your herd.

Collecting data is an objective way to make tough sales decisions, set herd goals, analyze management techniques, monitor health, decide breeding pairs, and more. While emotions typically factor into many decisions, numbers on quantifiable traits offer additional perspective. Additional data points means more thorough records for the goat keeper and potential buyers — it offers a whole new way to “see” goats.

Arguably, the most common data breeders keep — whether a national show quality herd, commercial dairy, or a homestead with a few does — are milk production numbers. Measurements in either volume or weight are helpful, but weight is the preferred method, as it’s the most accurate when measuring dairy goat production. After milking your doe, weigh the milk then subtract the weight of the container. Simple kitchen scales or hanging scales are affordable and easy to use.

Now, you need some parameters. Write down not only the weight of the milk but also the circumstances. What freshening is the doe? How many kids is she nursing, or how many kids did she birth? How many days has she been in milk? How long was the udder fill — 8 hours or 12? How many times a day is the doe being milked? Take the opportunity to snap a photo, too!

Data points are useless if
they aren’t properly labeled
and easily referenced.

Keeping barn notes like this will show how a doe’s production changes throughout her lactation and lifetime. The lactation curve is a doe’s milk production from freshening to drying off. Taking weights periodically throughout this period gives you an idea of a doe’s specific curve. When does her lactation peak? Is production steady throughout the whole lactation, or does it taper off quickly after a few months? This sort of information about dairy goat production is useful for both breeders and potential buyers.

How do your does measure up?

Since milk production is both a genetic and a management process, changes in diet might account for a noticeable decrease or increase in production, which is easier to “see” if you have a set of numbers before and after the diet change. For example, offering higher quality hay such as alfalfa might drastically increase production in some does. Some does might produce better on different grain formulations. No doe can perform her best if her diet isn’t up to par. Don’t forget to make diet changes slowly to avoid ruminal upset!

Want to take it a step further? If you have a herd of various-sized animals, how can you compare Doe A, which is averaging 6 pounds, while Doe B milks 8 pounds daily? A bit of math will make it easier to compare more accurately. Suppose Doe A weighs 100 pounds while Doe B weighs 140 pounds. Determine what percentage of her body weight each doe is producing by dividing the amount of milk in pounds by her weight in pounds and multiplying by 100 — this will give you a percent.

In this scenario, Doe A is slightly more efficient than Doe B, since she produces a higher percentage of her body weight in milk. While this is a simplified way to look at dairy goat production input versus output, it can be a new, interesting way to see the milk string.

Determining specific components in milk requires sending a sample to a laboratory for testing. Several registries offer milk testing programs where weights are tracked and recorded, samples are analyzed, usually monthly, and animals have the chance to earn dairy goat production awards. Each has its own rules to adhere to — if you’re a registry member, ask them about their milk testing program. Note that some labs will analyze samples even you’re not participating in an official DHI milk testing program, so your goats don’t necessarily have to be registered or a recognized dairy breed to get those data!

The butterfat and protein percentages in milk affect taste and cheese yield. In dairies or creameries, that will directly affect profit. If your doe shows a fat and protein inversion (the protein percentage is higher than the butterfat percentage when the opposite is ideal), this can point to some dietary issues; it would be quite difficult to correctly guess an inversion was occurring without seeing those percentages from a tested milk sample.

In addition to determining butterfat and protein levels, samples can be analyzed for somatic cell count — a possible indication of mastitis — and MUN.

MUN, or milk urea nitrogen, gives producers an idea about the dietary protein status in their does by evaluating protein, coinciding with fat and protein inversions. However, MUN is more widely studied in dairy cattle than dairy goats. Overall, these numbers give you a complete snapshot of your doe’s milk quality and health.

Kid Growth

Scales aren’t just useful for weighing milk (or properly dosing medications); there are plenty more data points to be gathered in terms of weight. Young kids are easily weighed on bathroom scales or by hanging scales. Older kids and adults are best weighed on either a livestock or small animal scale, but if that isn’t possible, a cloth tape and weight formula will get close.

Here’s an explanation of the method: Kids offer many opportunities for data collection. From birth weights and any weights after, you can calculate the average daily gain.

First, you subtract the birth weight from the current weight, then divide by the number of days old. Tip: Online date calculators are very handy for this! Some common markers are 30, 60, and 90 days old and weaning. While this might be standard practice in the meat goat industry, it’s also useful for those with dual-purpose goats, those wanting quick-growing dairy animals, or perhaps those trying different management practices such as lambar feeding (bucket with multiple nipples) versus feeding individual bottles. Many factors affect average daily gain in kids, including feeding method, parasite burden, breed, genetics, and litter size, so it is helpful to jot down notes unless all parameters are more or less equal.

Kid weight can indicate a doe’s production quality or quantity without milking. How many pounds of kids did the doe raise to weaning, or how many pounds of kids did she raise in comparison to her own body weight? Again, many outside circumstances affect those numbers, but they’re interesting numbers nonetheless when it comes to dairy goat production.

Parasite Management

Whole herd numbers are important, too, especially concerning parasite management. Keeping track of deworming and then tallying those numbers each year illustrates the management system’s effectiveness in a broad sense. How many treatments did the herd average per animal? That can be tricky if you move a lot of animals, but just an average throughout most of the year is still beneficial. For example, there were 25 animals on the property for most of the year, and 37 dewormer treatments were administered throughout the year, which would be about 1.5 treatments per animal.

After determining the average in your herd, outliers can tell you more. Were some animals not dewormed at all? Then, perhaps those animals are genetically resistant or resilient to parasites. Was one doe dewormed twice as often as herd mates? She might be a good candidate for culling.

Narrowing the focus, eggs-per gram counts via a fecal float and McMaster slide (the best way to quantify eggs on the slide into eggs-per-gram of feces) can tell you how high of a parasite burden you are dealing with in an individual animal. By running enough samples, you can gather a herd average, determine when animals need to be treated, and possibly determine which animals are susceptible, genetically resistant, or resilient, as mentioned earlier.

Did you know numbers can help you confirm if a deworming treatment was successful or calculate the efficacy of your dewormers? First, get an eggs-per-gram (EPG) count, then deworm the animal. In 10 to 14 days, get a second EPG count. To determine the fecal egg count reduction percentage, subtract the first EPG count by the second, divide that number by the first EPG count, and multiply by 100.

Great! According to the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control, a treatment is generally considered effective with a reduction of 95% or higher. There’s much more to be learned about anthelmintics and parasite data, so be sure to check out all those resources at www.WormX.info.

No matter how many data points are gathered regarding dairy goat production, it’s useless if it isn’t properly labeled and easily referenced. Be sure to write down specifics like animal identification and dates and keep the records as organized as possible.

“Dewormed goats” or “6.3 pounds” scribbled on the back of a crumpled receipt isn’t helpful. “Dewormed Annabelle with 1.3cc Ivermectin on Feb 1st” and “Black buck kid out of Annabelle X Tigger born Jan. 15th — 6.3 pounds birthweight” is much more useful. Use a spreadsheet, notebook, planner, chalkboard, or an app; use whatever it takes to make your record-keeping functional and accessible.

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KENDRA RUDD SHATSWELL and her husband live and farm in the beautiful Arkansas Ozarks, where she raises Kinders and Miniature LaManchas. She is a member of the KGBA and MDGA and enjoys writing about farm life and goats on Facebook and at www.HeftyGoatHollerFarm.com.

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Originally published in the 2024 Fall issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.