Milking

First attempts at milking

With two of the nannies still in milk on arrival it seemed like an opportunity too good to pass up. It took a few hours to recycle some staging we pulled out of a garden centre waste pile several years ago into a milking stand and training could begin.

As Ice had a single kid by this point we began with her and she quickly got used to the routine of jumping up on the stand for some breakfast. It took us a bit longer to get the hang of squeezing in the right way! Throughout summer we had a good pint a day whilst still leaving plenty for the not-quite weaned kid.

Despite all that you read about goat milk, it didn't taste goaty at all - more like a very creamy version of cows' milk. Delicious while it lasted!

Milking 2.0

The following spring, with Ice having a stillborn kid, we faced a choice: let her dry up, but risk mastitis, or start milking her. We opted for the latter, but this year we decided to invest in a small, portable milking machine.

This has been amazingly useful. Not only does Ice far prefer the machine to being hand-milked, it means we can focus on making sure she has plenty of goat mix to nibble on and, when she runs out of that, we give her fresh cuttings from the hedgerow or verges to wolf down. All of this is without having to compete with the other goats for her share!

Within days she had remembered the routine and quickly jumped up on the milking stand each morning and evening. Production has been great too, sustaining four pints a day once she got into full flow.

We have already made some cheeses and weaned the bottle-fed kids back over to goat's milk to make use of the supplies.