We are bringing home our first goats in about 5 weeks, 2 kids and a doe that just kidded so she'll be in milk (the wait is KILLING me!!) I obviously want to have everything ready when they get here and the kids we are ready for but I need a little help with the doe. This week we are building the milking stand, I know I'll need a milk pail, but what else? Is a strip cup worth it or can I use a small cup I have around the house? What do you use to clean the udders? I know there are special udder cleaners but is that just good marketing? in other words, can I just use something I've already got here? What about a conditioner for her udders, is there something special I should use for that and is that a daily treatment or just as needed? Am I leaving anything out?
Thanks everyone, I'm looking forward to your help and all the knowledge I'm going to gain from you :)
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As for all these people milking into a jar ... your aim is much better than mine! And you have very patient goats. (Milking with one hand is half as fast as milking with two hands.) A real milk bucket does not cost that much and makes life a lot easier, especially after you are milking more than a few goats.
Thanks ladies! Rachel, I love the idea of straining the milk in a coffee filter. I like to find multiple uses for household items so that my cupboards don't start overflowing ;)
Deborah, the doe will be 8 weeks postpartum when we bring her home - she gave birth 3 weeks ago. And, I'm in the process of reading your book right now - can't put it down!
I cut flour sack towels into smaller pieces, and make a soapy water solution to put them in before I go out to milk. I put water with an ice pack into the bottom of my milking cooler, and milk into a small glass jar. My aim isn't so great, so I just hold the jar with one hand, and milk with the other. I pour it off, and let it cool in the water/ice bath in another jar while I milk other does. I use a new square of flour sack towel for each udder when I wipe, and don't return the dirty towels to the soapy water until I'm all done, and packing up to go in the house. Then I strain the milk using a single size metal coffee filter in the house.
I no longer sell does in milk to people with no experience milking unless they take one of the kids. I got tired of newbies buying does in milk and then having the supply go down because they were not able to empty the udder. If there is a kid nursing, the kid will empty the udder after each milking, so you won't have that problem. However, if these people are selling a doe five weeks after kidding, it does not sound like they dam raise. At least I HOPE they are not selling a doe five weeks after kidding if she is raising kids.
Thanks Rachel. What do you spray the udders with? Do you also use udder wash or do you use something different?
To cool my milk, I just bring a cooler down with me to stick the jars in. And I have also used a spray bottle for my udder wash. Spray, wipe, milk, and spray teats again was my method.
great, that helps a lot! Thank you so much!
Okay so I've only been milking since last summer and I'm not an expert but I learned a ton before I started, mostly from this site. For udder wash I use Dr Bronner's liquid castile soap because it's very mild. I just make a bowl of warm water with a squirt of it in there (not strong) and a washcloth and wash her with that. I've never needed any kind of udder conditioner-- her teats always stayed soft and never got dry or chapped. I just have a little shallow cup I take out there to squirt the first few squirts into to look at and check for lumps, don't need anything special. I never did a teat dip but some people do. The pail should be seamless as seams can breed nasties. I find milking into a mason jar easier than a pail but that way you can only do one teat at a time. Some people need to cool the milk rapidly especially if they have multiple goats to milk but I'm always finished quickly enough not to worry about it and bring it straight in, strain it with cheesecloth into a clean jar and put it in the fridge. That's it!
By the way you can type keywords into the bar on the top right (for instance "udder wash") and the search engine will find threads about that subject. I have found almost everything I needed to know by looking up what other conversations have said about things I need to know.