Wanted: Crash course in milking for a first timer

[daisychick]

My first doe just freshened and after the babies get the first 2 weeks of milk, I am going to start milking. I have searched and read a lot and have done my research, but I would love to hear what everyone's routine is or their favorite products for udder washing, udder balm, teat dip/sprays etc. I am trying to put my supplies together and there are too many choices when I try to place an order. I thought hearing from the "experts" or more experienced might help. Some basic questions I have are:

Do you use a strip cup or can you put the first couple squirts into a regular cup to look at it?
What exactly am I looking for in the strip cup?
What udder wash or washing routine do you do to get ready for milking, any favorite products?
Is udder balm supposed to be used before milking?
What kind of udder balm do you like best?
What kind of pail or bucket do you use?
After milking what do you use for teat dip or do you use a spray?

 

[SmallFarmGirl]

My answers are in bold!

Do you use a strip cup or can you put the first couple squirts into a regular cup to look at it?
I would put it in a cup and check it out. Your looking for clean white, slightly foamy, creamy milk. No blood, flakes, discoloration.
What exactly am I looking for in the strip cup?
As I said above.
What udder wash or washing routine do you do to get ready for milking, any favorite products?
I use a wet rag or washed wipe that is clean. I ALWAYS use a new one or wash it before the next milking.
Is udder balm supposed to be used before milking?
I don't use one, but I use: One of natures gifts, her own milk! I know it may sound silly, but I take a little bit and massage it on. It keeps in from being chapped and keeps it smooth.
What kind of udder balm do you like best?
I Don't use any. Milk is what I use.
What kind of pail or bucket do you use?
One from this site: http://www.caprinesupply.com/produc...ing-products/basic-milking-kit-1-2-goats.html
After milking what do you use for teat dip or do you use a spray?
I have a teat spray, but I don't use it. (My opinion)

What I would do:
Put her on the milk stand. Give her some feed,treats,etc.. Brush her (I do). Massage her udder with a warm damp rag, wipe (that's been washed).
Squirt first few squirts in strip cup (or check). Check milk. If o.k. keep milking. When finished remove bucket and massage udder with a little bit of milk on my hands.
(you could take that from the strip cup) Punch her udder. If more comes down,finish milking. Remove bucket and let goat down. TA-DA!

Now remember: the best tip is: KEEP CLEAN! Wash everything daily, keep area clean, etc!

Very important. After you've milked you can strain it and pasturize it if you want. (I don't) Then chill it for 2 hours and TA-DA! (again)

I used this site: (VERY helpful!) http://www.goldenbrookfarm.com/milking-tips.htm

Hope that helps!

 

[PattySh]

My supplies for handmilking
brush for goat
stainless steel bucket (mine is 6qt but you could get away with a 2 qt)
glass jars to hold milk (your preference, qt, 1/2 gal or gallon)
6 1/2" disposable disk milk filters (available at feed stores or mail order (Jeffers) (Shape disk conically and insert into canning funnel, secure to funnel with clothespin)
canning jar funnel
one wooden clothespin
Fightback teat spray
Unscented babywipes
sweet goat grain
milking stand with grain dish on front
Ice/Water
stick on little labels or post its to date milk jars/marker or pen


Nice to have the udder clipped, no bacteria laden hair in the milk bucket! Make sure you have short nails for milking, long nails will hurt her. Milk AFTER all chores are done so milk can be brought imediately inside to cool.

Place goat on the milking stand and hook the goat in the headlock. Brush the goat if needed. I give my goats a scoop of sweet feed.

Even tho I have water in the barn I find it easier and more sanitary to use unscented baby wipes for cleaning the udder (2 wipes I do it twice)then squirt a few squirtsof milk onto the baby wipe to eliminate bacteria in the milk. (Initially I squirted a stream into a glass measuring cup for evaluation but have never had mastitis or problems with the milk.) You are looking for clumps or discolored milk. Occasionally you might get a bit of pink milk or a blood clot etc when first freshened but not after 2 weeks of nursing. Such things are normal and resolve very quickly, just discard that milk. Having had the kids on her for two weeks she may very well fight your trying to milk her wanting to save it for the kids, have patience with her, I find it far easier if kids are lifted immediately.

I milk into the bucket and dump milk often into the glass jar with funnel on top positioned within reach. Milk is immediately filtered and you don't waste a whole bucket if she sticks her foot into it and flys can never fall into it etc.

When finished milking, Remove filter and place on additional jar if needed or discard in nearby trashcan and immediately cap jar when full or you are finished milking. Make sure goat is totally milked out, give her udder a little bump with your fist like a kid would a few times and her teats should "wrinkle" when she is fully milked out.

I have never had to use an udder balm on the goats.

Spray teat orifices with "Fightback" after milking and walk the goat back. When you are finished milking the goat(s) immediately bring the milk to the house and I put the milk jars in a sink of water and ice to chill for about 20 min or so. Then right in the fridge.I use stick on labels to date the jars.

Rinse bucket in cool water (hot adheres milk residue to bucket)then Wash milk bucket, funnel and clothespin with hot water and detergent asap and rinse well. Air dry upside down on clean towel (I put the canning filter under one edge of bucket for airflow) I use a liquid dairy detergent (Tractor supply or feed stores).

I also don't pasturize milk, like the raw benefits. When you get 2 qts Try my ice cream recipe under recipes! Way yummy. (you can cut the recipe in half if in a hurry lol.)

 

[daisychick]

Thanks SFG and PattySh! Great info so far. I love to hear what products others use and their routines. It helps a lot.

 

[sawfish99]

Here is what we do:

Do you use a strip cup or can you put the first couple squirts into a regular cup to look at it? What exactly am I looking for in the strip cup?

We use an old metal coffee cup for the strip cup. I am looking for anything that isn't "normal". After a few milkings you will understand normal. I haven't had anything noticed in the strip cup, but do like to clean the "plug" that develops near the end of the teat from milk that is in the end.

What udder wash or washing routine do you do to get ready for milking, any favorite products?
We use a chlorhexidine solution for udder wash and teat dip. We use 2 oz of chlorhexidine per 1 gal of water. I keep a roll of paper towels on the wall in the milking area and use a new paper towel dipped in chlorhexidine for each goat.

Is udder balm supposed to be used before milking?
What kind of udder balm do you like best?

Never used any udder balm.

What kind of pail or bucket do you use?
Basic stainless steel pail for milking into (holds 3 quarts). In between goats, we dump it into a larger, covered milking bucket. For our first freshener, we dump the milk more often to keep her from wasting milk if she steps in it. We also milk her last so if the pail gets contaminated, the rest of milk from her goes in the cat/dog/chicken bowl outside the shed.

After milking what do you use for teat dip or do you use a spray?
We use the same chlorhexidine solution in a 3oz bathroom cup for the teat dip EXCEPT on does that are nursing. For those, we just turn her out because the kids are going to immediately nurse.


Hobbles. They are very effective for teaching a goat to stand and stop kicking the bucket. The first freshener we are milking (by hand) has teats the size of my pinky finger, and she is a Lamancha. It take 10 minutes to milk about 2 quarts out, and then she is fed up and my hands hurt. I know she has more milk, but that is as much as either of us can tolerate. By comparison, I can milk that much out of older goats in under 3 minutes.

We do not filter the milk into storage containers in the milking shed. I take it back into the house for filtering and cooling. I also do not put it on ice - just straight into the back of the fridge. We started with the smaller size filter (like for canning) but it is so slow to allow the milk through, that we eventually bought a large filter. Buy a big one in the first place. I don't label the milk because it never lasts more than 2 days and we rotate the milk from back to front in the fridge every time we add more.

We hand wash the milking supplies and sanitize in a bleach solution in the sink (3 capfuls of bleach to a 3/4 full sink) and then air dry. If we didn't clean up before and have to use it immediately, we rinse the bleach solution off before milking/filter.

 

[mama24]

I don't bother with a strip cup. I only have 1 goat, and I figure if her milk is bad, I still have to milk her out, so it doesn't matter if it's in the bucket since I won't be milking another goat into the same bucket. I've never seen anything off, though I did dump her milk anyway when she had bloat and diarrhea just b/c she was covered in poo and I didn't give her a bath until the diarrhea had quit. I just milked her out onto the ground those 2 days. Poor thing. Sometimes I use a little bag balm, but I don't bother most of the time. I use it if she feels dry b/c I don't want her to get chapped. Her baby died last week b/c he also ate too much chicken feed and didn't recover from the bloat like she did. She seems to be more chapped and dirty since he isn't cleaning her off and keeping her teats moisturized with her own milk. I also use baby wipes to wipe down the udder. Not only that, but I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer and the last thing I do after getting the feed into feeders, goat locked in the milking stand, chickens kicked out of the way, is squirt some on my hands and then grab the milk bucket off of the gate where I hang it by the handle up away from curious goats and chickens. It's the alcohol based kind, so no worries about resistant bacteria, dioxins, etc. If she has any poo stuck to her udder from lying down, I will get a 2nd baby wipe and squirt some sanitizer on that and wipe her down again after the initial wipe down that got the poo off. I don't want to risk getting poo in the milk since my kids drink it raw. I figure whatever is there naturally without looking dirty is ok, but we don't need any big clumps! I don't sanitize her teats every time, though, b/c I don't want her to get dried out or irritated. I figure people have been drinking raw milk from unwashed animals since they were domesticated, it's probably good for our immune systems to keep doing it as is unless the animal is disgustingly dirty or something.

For pails, I have 1 medium sized stainless steel pail that I got from Jeffers livestock. It is the perfect size. I think it's a 6qt bucket. I never get more than 2.5 quarts from her at a time, but it's a good height that if she moves around she isn't kicking it over or anything into it. She's a good girl but she gets upset if my other doe's kid tries to nurse on her while she's on the stand (little stinker!) or if anyone tries to get into her feed while she's up there locked in. I need to get another 1 or 2 of those. I wash my milking supplies in the dishwasher with the sanitize option turned on. I don't use paper filters, instead I use steel mesh filters. I have 2 larger ones, 1 can with a stainless steel canning funnel and the other came with a set of mesh strainers. The smaller ones are actually meant for making loose leaf tea, but they are perfect for straining milk. They catch any hair and bits of whatever that get in there. I always somehow end up with some alfalfa chaff in the milk. The mesh strainers get most of that, but not all. I suppose the paper filters would get all of it, but since it's clearly bright green alfalfa chaff, it doesn't bother us to see a few bits floating once in a while. When that pail is dirty, I have a 1 gallon Tupperware drink pitcher with a snap on lid that I use. I alternate, but if they are both clean I go for the stainless steel first. Sometimes I use glass quart jars, but it's awkward for me to get through gates, etc, carrying more than one and she gives more than that each milking, plus then I have to milk 1 teat at a time b/c my other hand is holding the jar up to her.

 

[mama24]

I have started straining my milk through small squares of muslin instead of just using the tea strainers b/c I got tired of my kids complaining about the little green specks of alfalfa. I have a bunch of towels I bought at Sam's Club. I think they were called floursack towels? They are made of muslin and were handy to tear up into squares to use as milk strainers. They are also what I use when I make cheese. I rinse them out in the sink, then hang to dry on the edge of a hamper or laundry basket so they don't mildew before they get washed. I wash them with my white towels, etc, on the sanitize cycle of my front loader.

 

[daisychick]

I have heard good things about the muslin cloth, I really need to get me some. For now I am using the free round disk filters that came with my strainer. But when they run out I would like to try something that I can just clean, bleach and reuse.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Do you use a strip cup or can you put the first couple squirts into a regular cup to look at it?
i use a strip cup. general rule seems to be firt 3 squirts from each teat but i like to do a few more cause i have a bowl in the barn and give the strip milk to the cats.
What exactly am I looking for in the strip cup?
ya dont want pink milk or chunkies or anything off looking.