| Milking a Dairy Goat Goats need to be milked twice a day. We milk ours at 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. To hand milk a goat you need a bucket, warm water, a milk stanchion and lots of patience. We milked our first goats by hand. The first thing you have to do is teach the goat how to get up on the milk stanchion. This can be done by putting some grain in a bowl. The head of the goat goes through a keyhole and then a rope is fastened so they can't get their head out and jump off the stanchion while milking. After getting the goat up on the stanchion, you need to wash the udder with warm soapy water. We use an udder wash with iodine and aloe vera. To express the milk you have to squeeze the udder hard with your fingers. Most people are afraid of hurting the goat so don't squeeze hard enough. The first few squirts of milk should be discarded as this is where the most bacteria is in the milk. Then you can begin squirting the milk into a bucket. When you master a rhythmic pattern with your hands the milk flows nicely. After milking the milk must be strained and cooled immediately so the bacteria in the milk doesn't have a chance to multiply. Sometimes a goat will kick while being milked. If this happens you need to use a goat hobble to restrain her from kicking. This doesn't hurt the goat and only needs to be used a few times. In March 08 we invested in a portable milking machine. We decided to do so because it was taking too much time to hand milk six goats. Also the Alpine goats were harder to milk as their udders are very small and tight. Heidi kicked a lot and there was a lot of hair and dirt getting in the milk. I found a portable milking machine on the internet for a little over $700. We are very happy with it. Our hands don't get as tired, the milk is cleaner and the goats seem happier. To use the portable milking machine we plug it in, turn the switch on the vacuum pump, open the valves and attach the milker to the udders. The pump is very similiar to a vacuum cleaner. Within a few seconds milk is flowing through the plastic tubing. After a few minutes the milk flow will become slower and when it's almost stopped we close the valves, remove the milker from the udder by inserting a finger between the vacuum end and the goat's udder to break the suction. At first the goats were skiddish of the noise the pump made, but after a few days they got used to it. People think that if a goat has a big udder she gives alot of milk, but that's not true. Our Alpines, Heidi and Clara have the smallest udders but give the most milk. After we are done milking Cliff takes the milk down to the basement, empties the milk bucket into gallon containers and refridgerates it immediatley. He then cleans out the hoses by running an organic cleaner through them. At night he sanitizes the hoses and pump by running a small amount of bleach water through them. He then hang the hoses from a rafter in the basement to dry. www.portablemilkers.com |
