Like Everything Else - Goat's Milk Is Seasonal - An Important Read For All Goat Milk Lovers

Hey all you lovers of goat's milk - I thought I'd let you know - that like everything else - it is seasonal.

Every August (or around there) our Nubian goats (Crow's Dairy too) start their "seasonal"...dating. The boys (bucks) start the dating thing going. When daylight hours decrease - their hormones increase.

The south wind blows and the girls get a nice whiff of the boys cologne. This ignites the girls hormones. . . meaning - they start their every 21 days or so cycle.

Miss Storm and Miss Plum - photo compliments of Gretchen Goldstein

The girls can get pretty weird. They act weird toward each other - they get confused as to which milk stand is theirs at milking time - they swoon and lolly gag and flag their tales while walking back and forth the boys pen - driving the boys absolutely crazy. They can even act buckish toward each other.

Now before all this swooning and south wind blowing stuff happens, most dairy goat herdsmen have already charted - which girl gets a date with which boy. Genetics, body, production etc are important.

Then breeding happens. 150 days later - babies arrive.

Miss Storm in labor 2 years ago. This is when she delivered her daughter Miss Plum. 

But this is the important stuff for all you lovers of goat's milk. 
Gestation is 150 days. That means 5 months. At the 3rd month of a mama goat's pregnancy - a good dairy goat herder will DRY the girl up. This means STOP MILKING. This means YOU GET NO MILK. She gets a break. Those last two months of her pregnancy are so critical and we want her body to have a rest and give all she can to those developing sweet little babies.

Now, of course, there is the planning on staggering the dating/breeding/drying up and kidding thing. But in reality - MILK PRODUCTION DECLINES....until about 1 month AFTER the doe has her babies.

Why do I tell you this? 
a. to educate you a bit about farm life on a dairy goat farm
b. to let you know that THE RAW MILK you LOVE from Crow's dairy will become less and less.
c. let you know that good, raw goat's milk IS a seasonal thing
d. cause you to think that you should buy two of your own good dairy goats