Hi guys...I am considering buying a machine to milk this year because I am going to have a lot of does going at once. I have a slew of questions so if you can answer any of them...much appreciated
-are inflations ever interchangeable between does? I have 1 full La Mancha, 1 mini mancha, and 9 or 10 Nigerians. Wondering if I could get a 2 goat unit and do one big and one little, then 2 littles at a time afterwards?
-when I watch videos of people machine milking it looks like they are leaving a lot in the bag? I have heard some people finish by hand, and if this is the case, is there a way to add that milk to the batch, or do you throw it away, or what? Seems like some is being wasted
-does this enable you to have more freedom to get someone else to milk for you every once in awhile (say...so go out to dinner with hubby during milking season?) I know it requires some skill. But less than 100% hand milking?
-when I hand milk I put it straight into an ice bath. Can you submerge the big tank of the machine in an ice bath while you machine milk as well? I don't want to lose flavor by not chilling immediately.
-what machine do you like and why?
Thanks!
Replies
I see the comments about not cleaning the udders and the first few squirts of milk. I think that is why milk tastes bad and why some people want to pasturize. I worked part time for a certified raw milk dairy in southern Oregon when we first came here years back. I was very surprised to see the way it was done. I had goats then and took good care to get clean milk. At the dairy all these cows came into a circular milking area - they were hosed off and while they were dripping wet the milkers were clamped on. Since the cows had just walked thru a few feet of mud and muck the water dripping off them was pretty foul Fortunately I didn't work in that area - probably would have got fired for remarks. They injected meds into them while being milking and I suppose they were in the milker the next day. No one would have known if they had mastitis until they were really sick. They were never touched by hand. Maybe all our dairies are like that -do not know.
I mentioned in my reply about my Babson milker - the conversion kit from Hamby Dairy. They have inflations for the mini goats and for the larger goats. I could put two on my converted Babson. I could switch sets if I was doing both sized goats. I think I would milk the big one by hand - the little ones by machine. I find it next to impossible to do the little girls. Those little teats. Since I milk into a half gallon jar I just strain pretty quickly into quarts and put it into the fridge. I have a converted trailer for a milk room so the fridge is right there. Probably would buy a small fridge for the milk if I had to use another area of the barn and didn't have my trailer.
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LOL! Now I know why I filtered twice last year, once outside and again inside. I mentioned that I had a jar when I milked and used a cup to milk in and poured it in the jar with the filter on it at the milkstand and then filtered it again inside. Someone asked why I filtered it twice. Now I can say to get any potential hair out of it to make it taste better. <g> Don't know if it made a difference or not but the milk has always been super . . . except the week I fed lilac branches. (This year, I am using a milker mostly so only filter once inside, so far, since the milk goes directly into the jar.)
It will vary from doe to doe. Some milk out well with a machine, and some don't. I might get 3-4 squirts from some does after I remove the inflations, but I have a couple of does that will only give about half of their milk with the machine. Goats that don't milk well by machine get culled by commercial dairies because they don't have time to be doing hand milking. If you don't get out "all" of the milk, you will wind up with a declining milk supply and/or mastitis.
Beverley Sieminski said:
We converted a Babson surge milker that I found on Ebay and are very happy with it. I needed something because of arthritic fingers. We got a milk conversion kit from Hamby Dairy for 115.00 -I got the Babson for 65.00 on Ebay. 45.00 +_20.00 shipping.
The pulsator rebuild kit was 18.90 -new gasket for the lid -3.95. My husband did a bypass on the machine and I milk my Nigerians into a half gallon canning jar. I don't hand strip them after - because directions I found on several machine milking instr. didn't recommend it -right or wrong???? I see a reply here that they hand milk after so I am going to try that and see the difference. I could milk two at a time with this set up but do only one. The expensive part was the vacuum pump which we bought from Perry's milker. They also sell the whole units already refurbished. I can use a quart jar also -making it easy to weight each milker's output.
My husband said the pump is really a good one. My little does like their machine better than me doing it by hand.
I filter into quart jars - refrigerate right away and have had no off flavor. I have a web site and am going to put pictures of this machine on it in the next few days. Windingrvrfarm.com
It is very easy to clean as I remove the conversion kit only - and wash and disinfect it. Takes only a few minutes.
That video makes me so sad. I think of goats as being loved and very much appreciated for their milk. Sadly, the first impression from this video was reminding me of chicken/turkey farms. When I heard "goat milk," I think of calling the doe(s) in for milking, having her grain waiting for her, closing the stanchion, giving her a pet, then milking. After milking, release the stanchion and then give a good back scratch. Every goat deserves that love; these look like they have a number and not even a name. Regarding the udders and initial squirts, I am hoping they did that before they came into sight. :-(
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
I can totally understand why there is such a problem with mastitis in commercial herds after watching a bunch of these videos.
You don't do anything to sterilize inflations between goats, but there is a good argument to be made for using a teat dip before and after milking when you use a machine. You do the pre-milking dip to protect the future does from this doe's germs, and you do the post dip to protect this doe from the germs of past goats. I have a couple of goats who at their peak will have such fast flow that the inflation fills up with milk, so the orifice is swimming in milk that is now mixed with the germs of all the past goats.
Back to the previous thing a minute- here is a video of a big commercial farm who appears to be both cleaning prior and dipping after milking. Although he did use the same wipe on 3 different cows :) But this is progress :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmtDydK_K9g
You're right Deborah, no way to do anything in that mob of goats trying to get on the carousel. I don't see much of an opportunity for them to be noticing a doe with a problem like mastitis either. I don't remember where I heard it but I have definitely heard that there is a lot of sterile poop in factory farmed milk.
It sounds like there is not as much left in the bag as I thought, and I am super glad to hear that the bucket can go in the dishwasher. That was something I was really wondering.
Do you have to sterilize inflations in between goats? Or is it enough to just clean the udders and teats like I normally do?
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