Too big for nursing!!

So this is probably an odd question but is it neccesary to wean your kids? will they eventually do it on their own? I bought a mother and daughter combo (nigerian dwarf) with the intent of letting them go thru a normal baby eat/mama feed cycle and then I would breed the mama (Ava) this fall. The doeling (autumn) was born in July. So anyways long story short Ava is still allowing Autumn to nurse and Ava is going into her heat cycles regularly and I'd like to breed her but I dont know if that is too much for her or if she would dry up and force Autumn to stop? Its almost to the point of looking silly as Autumn is getting quite large!! I am new to breeding goats but really want to start having them be beneficial for my family

In our experience, it would be perfectly fine to have Ava bred... she should just force Autumn to wean on her own, once she knows she has been bred.

If she doesn't, you can tape Ava's teats with medical tape(an X over the ends is usually sufficient) to make Autumn want to stop attempting to nurse.
You could also, if you have a lockable stall, keep Ava & Autumn seperated for about 1-2 weeks. When that time is up, Ava shouldn't allow Autumn to nurse again.

If you breed Ava, she'll wean the baby off herself and it'll make it easy

Thats good to hear!!! Double bonus a weaning and some entertaining kids running around this spring!!! Or triple bonus if I figure out milking

Not all goats have the sense to wean their kids, unfortunately. It seems especially true in dairy goats, and even more so in ones that have in the past not raised their own kids. Since it's pretty standard in the dairy world to take kids away for bottle feeding, there has been no selection for mothering ability like you find in meat goats or cattle. So, we're reaching a point where many dairy-type goats are just terrible mothers.

At five months old, Autumn is old enough to wean. If Ava isn't showing any sign of weaning her, chances are, she's not going to. This is how I ended up with a two year old doe that still nursed her mother (until I sold the mother), the other does, and even herself when she came into milk. She would often be nursing while her kid was nursing--either from another doe or from the other side of her own udder! Breeding the doe won't necessarily make her wean her kid, or make her go dry. It's normal to milk goats well into a pregnancy, so they do not go dry because of being bred, or think "hey, I'm pregnant, I should get rid of this kid to make room for another". (some might, but it's not the norm) It's not a terribly unusual sight to see a mother of many livestock species nursing a yearling alongside a newborn, or even to see that yearling nursing from its mother while feeding its own baby! (again, because we've bred a lot of the mothering instinct out of them) I think you may end up having to force the weaning. I have not found that putting tape on the teats works. Most kids, especially big strong ones, can pull the tape off. Then you have to worry about them eating the tape.

I never thought a doe would let the kid just continue to nurse at that age! Learn something new every day The does that I have bred always dry up and wean their kids just by getting them rebred. Just blessed I guess!