Before asking the question I should give everyone some background info.
A good friend of mine keeps her goat at my house to milk as she doesn't have the time with her job and kids. I am milking one of my goats too so milking two instead of one wasn't a big deal. The milk from the two goats is combined at the time of milking.
One doe is a Nubian Boer cross and the other is a purebred LaMancha. We did culture and sensitivity on both does before we starting using the milk and both came back clean. Did stool samples and both goats were negative for internal parasites. Both does are in good health. Milk tastes great although once in a great while I detect a very slight goaty after taste, which isn't unusual.
In the winter, when I dried off the does before kidding, the friend had to purchase milk from a local goat milk dairy. The dairy is well known and produces excellent quality milk. Before we stopped milking, her daughter was drinking the milk (raw) and sleeping through the night. When she switched to the other milk (also raw) the baby stopped sleeping through the night and continued doing that until our milk was available again. The baby is now once again sleeping peacefully through the night. Her mom did try an experiment to see if it was just a coincidence and used the commercial dairy milk a couple of nights. The baby once again started waking up and fretting during the night.
So, as far as we can see, it is the milk that is somehow allowing the baby to sleep through the night. My question is, has anyone else seen this and why is this happening?
During the course of the two lactations, the goats here have been on several different hay sources and I have changed their grain...so there is no consistency in feed, unless you could say that good quality is the consistency. My only thought is the butterfat content. Both does that I have come from breeds with higher butterfat. The dairy has a high number of Alpine and Saanan does which are known for quantity of milk with a slightly reduced butterfat content. It is highly likely that our milk is noticeably higher in butterfat than the dairy milk.
Does anyone have any ideas on why the baby sleeps all night long and doesn't wake up fretting on my milk but does on the commercial dairy milk? Any opinions would be appreciated.
Willow
A good friend of mine keeps her goat at my house to milk as she doesn't have the time with her job and kids. I am milking one of my goats too so milking two instead of one wasn't a big deal. The milk from the two goats is combined at the time of milking.
One doe is a Nubian Boer cross and the other is a purebred LaMancha. We did culture and sensitivity on both does before we starting using the milk and both came back clean. Did stool samples and both goats were negative for internal parasites. Both does are in good health. Milk tastes great although once in a great while I detect a very slight goaty after taste, which isn't unusual.
In the winter, when I dried off the does before kidding, the friend had to purchase milk from a local goat milk dairy. The dairy is well known and produces excellent quality milk. Before we stopped milking, her daughter was drinking the milk (raw) and sleeping through the night. When she switched to the other milk (also raw) the baby stopped sleeping through the night and continued doing that until our milk was available again. The baby is now once again sleeping peacefully through the night. Her mom did try an experiment to see if it was just a coincidence and used the commercial dairy milk a couple of nights. The baby once again started waking up and fretting during the night.
So, as far as we can see, it is the milk that is somehow allowing the baby to sleep through the night. My question is, has anyone else seen this and why is this happening?
During the course of the two lactations, the goats here have been on several different hay sources and I have changed their grain...so there is no consistency in feed, unless you could say that good quality is the consistency. My only thought is the butterfat content. Both does that I have come from breeds with higher butterfat. The dairy has a high number of Alpine and Saanan does which are known for quantity of milk with a slightly reduced butterfat content. It is highly likely that our milk is noticeably higher in butterfat than the dairy milk.
Does anyone have any ideas on why the baby sleeps all night long and doesn't wake up fretting on my milk but does on the commercial dairy milk? Any opinions would be appreciated.
Willow
