Milking problems!

I am having problems with 2 different does. I could do different post but I will try to put them together.

1st - my milking doe, that has been milking for 5 months is now going nuts when I try to milk her. She still lets her kid eat but when I get her up on the stand, she pushes her food off, kicks, and then finally justs sits down. I am wondering if it is time for me to dry her up?

2nd - my first freshener is not letting me milk her either. I have been getting her on the stand and gently trying just to get her used to me being "there" but she is not liking it. She kicks like crazy and hops all over the stand.

I am getting like the other lady that posted, very discouraged!!! We are not selling any of our kids and my milkers are being to difficult to milk. Any advice would be great! I love the milk and just started cheese and yogurt but now am wondering if it is all worth it.

***Just an added thing. Last week took my buck to vet and he had urinary infection (don't know the correct name) but she informed me no grain for bucks, and only grain for milkers or pregnant does, does everyone agree with this?

Comments

Margie McCoy at River Dance Farm September 29, 2011 at 1:01pm

I found that sometimes my girls have good goat days and some having interesting goat days. Some days they milk just fine and then others is not so fun. When mine act up with the sit down and all that I ended up taking a horse cinch and straping it to the ceiling and down around the gut to hold them up. This has even worked for a first time milker. The hold the leg thing never works for me but the cinch does. The hobbling thing really seems to set them off and the better the milking experience the better it is for all. I do use the ez milker for my ladies as I have messed up wrists and it only takes about 15 minutes to get it done. I do one side at a time and they really like being milked with that better than hand milking. I do give a couple of raisons to them when we are done. Usually I start with a handfull of hay then I graduate to corn tortilla's chips which they love and by that time we are done. The cinch has made a world of difference if they are having a bad goat day.
Adrienne July 1, 2011 at 6:40pm

I had trouble with my two the first time as well. And one had been milked before, but over a little more time they got the hang of things. I found it best to milk with one hand and hold a foot with the other. I tried a hobble, but it only works if you get it on there good and tight, and even then some times it still falls off. I don't know if it is because their legs are so skinny or what... so holding 1 leg tended to calm them and if they tried any funny business they were usually too unbalanced to do any damage and I could at least keep the foot from going into the bucket. I read someone elses post that they rewarded their goat with a little marshmellow for getting on the stand, one after udder washing and several after a successful milking. I was never able to find something like that that my goats could not resist. Something else that might be helpful is a vacuum milker like the Henry, maggiedans, or udderly EZ milkers. You will still have to strip the teats and what not, but the goat will not be able to do much once the thing is attached... also you will only be able to milk one side at a time with these, but for someone like me that works out fine since I can only milk with one hand anyway. In the winter my bucks get 1 cup of the grain mix every 3 days, or on a night when it's going to freeze. I know it isnt very cold here compared to some places... but I feel sorry for them even still. The majority of the mix is alfalfa, so I don't worry about the amount of grain too much, but I would not give it to them every day. Some one called me and said their buck had urinary stones a few months ago, and he said he had been feeding his two goats "a gallon" of grain a day...that he just let them eat it whenever they wanted... well I found out later from someone else that the buck had died...the man was too embarrassed to tell me what had happened because I told him not to feed that much and he did anyway... I suspect he didnt even take the poor baby to the vet either. I was really mad at him. I hope he never calls me again.
Marin Waddell June 16, 2011 at 4:00pm

Hi Amber,

You might want to repost this in discussion rather than as a blog post. More people read the discussions so you'll get more answers. As for advice from me, I don't have any about the difficult milkers. I have a few, but I've decided to leave their kids on them and fight the stomping fight once our milking equipment is up and running.

The vet is correct, no grain for males, only kids (up to the age of 6 months is generally what is recommended, even for males), milkers & at the very end of a doe's pregnancy. I have given my buck some grain in the middle of winter (I live on the Canadian prairies so winters can get very cold) when he was extremely skinny, but I had to balance out his energy needs with the risk of urinary calculi.