Newsletter - May / June, 2008

Feature Article

Milking Your Goat

by Nate Praskey 

        Have you ever thought about milking your goats? Ever wondered what you need to get started? We talk to a lot of people who want to start milking their goats, but just aren’t sure how to get started.

        We or I should say Mollie wanted to get some goats when we moved out to the farm. I wasn’t so sure about having goats around though. Mollie had dairy goats in high school and assured me they wouldn’t be any trouble at all. Mollie started looking for goats and decided that we needed Nigerian dwarfs. We ended up with a small herd of Nigerians and a Great Pyrenees puppy to keep watch over them.

        I kept looking at those goats thinking “boy would one of them go good on the grill”. Mollie was afraid I was going to start eating her Nigerian dwarf goats, so she suggested we get some Boers. We ended up with a small heard of Boers as well. Now one of the Boers was a Nubian cross with a nice big udder on her. After she kidded with twins, she had a nice big udder with lots of milk. Mollie got to looking at Pumpkin’s big udder and decided she needed to get milked. So she milked Pumpkin one morning while I was at work. She handed me a glass of milk and said try this. I took one drink and was hooked on goat’s milk. Soon afterwards, we were searching for dairy goats for the farm.

        You don’t need a lot of equipment to start milking goats. We started with a milk stand that was built from scrap 2 x 4’s left over from a house that was being built. It is 52 inches long, 24 inches wide and 21 ½ inches high. We built a rectangle, 40 inches by 21 inches for the head gate. For the head gate, we took a 2 x 8 and made a half moon cut on both ends to accommodate the full size dairy goats and the Nigerians as well. I took a piece of thick rope and lined the half moon cutouts for goat comfort. I took a collar cut in half for the head restraint.  I used two eye bolts with wing nuts to attach the head stall to the stand. We have two sets of holes for the head stall, so we can adjust the height for the Nigerians. We opted for an open style head stall rather than a sliding one because it makes it easier to get a horned goat latched in. The only other thing we did was to attach a plastic feed dish below the half moon cutout so the goat can eat while being milked.                                   

        You don’t have to build a milk stand. You can use a trim stand, or just tie the goat if you want. The next thing that makes the job easier and cleaner is to clip your goats back end and udder area. This helps keep dirt and hair out of the milk that will give the milk a bad or “off” flavor. You will need a small bucket with some warm water to wash the udder. We add a drop of the original blue dawn dish detergent and a couple of drops of strong iodine to the water as well. Also have on hand a cup to strip milk into, and a container to put your fresh milk in as well.

        Start off by putting your goat on the stand with some food to keep them occupied and get them used to having your hands on their udder. Most goats will stomp or kick at first till they realize what is going on. Make sure the food dish stays full so the goats don’t start to get antsy on the stand. If you get a goat that kicks no matter what, you can tie one back leg right above the knee joint to the stand. They will usually learn not to kick after a couple of weeks of being milked. Make sure the goats don’t run out of food while being milked.

        We use a vacuum milk machine to milk with. They are fairly easy to build, but that will be another article. You can also buy a small hand vacuum milker as well. I am told they work good and are easy to use. If you are only milking one or two goats, hand milking doesn’t take that long and isn’t that hard to do. Hand milking is awkward at first, but with a little practice it becomes second nature. To milk, you want to grasp the top of the udder between the v of your thumb and index finger and squeeze. Then use your other fingers to squeeze the milk out.

        Here are the steps that we use to milk a goat.

1: We put the goat on the milk stand with food for her to eat.

2: We brush off any loose hair or dirt.

3: We wash the udder with warm water mix of dawn dish soap and strong iodine.

4: We “strip” or  hand-milk a couple squeezes from each udder into a strip cup. This gets rid of any bacteria in the udder.

5: Milk into a glass mason jar. Glass is easier to clean.

        We make up a solution of warm water with a drop of strong iodine and dip the udder when done. This helps keep any bad bacteria out of the udder.

        After you are done milking, you want to strain the milk. We use a canning funnel and one of the permanent gold plated coffee filters to filter the milk. We filter into half gallon mason jars available at Discount City in Jacksonville, then refrigerate. You want to get your milk filtered and cooled down as fast as possible to keep any bad flavors out of the milk.

        See that wasn’t so bad. Remember, you can milk your Boers!!!

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