Daisy on the milking stand.
Woke this morning with nothing but the thoughts of sweet goats milk on my mind. My stand was ready and I had my easy goat milker in hand. On to the barn. Once there I feed the girls and persuaded Daisy to follow me into the little barn and onto the stand with a little feed. She happily followed right along and jumped up on the stand like an old pro. I closed the head gate, all was well. This is going to be a great day for me were my thoughts. I added a little more feed to the feeder so she would have plenty to keep her busy while I easily filled my jar with milk. I washed the utter and teats (hehe!!) and gave a good rub to help let down the milk. My easy goat milker that I am sure will work doesn't want to work for me. I try several times but just can't get enough suction. I had another sprayer with me just in case. Spinner said that the one I had may not work quite so well so I found another. Still, not success. OK then, I'll give it a try by hand again, she seems pretty happy on the stand anyway. No dice. The first squirt was fair but then the teats, both of them) went limp. There was just nothing there. So, I have a few questions for my goat milking readers.
1. The kids are still nursing, are they beating me to the milk??
2. Should I wait until the kids are weaned to start taking milk for myself??
3. Am I just too stupid to learn this new skill??
4. Should I just keep trying the same thing that I'm doing now??
Any answers to any of these questions would be much appreciated. I am determined to learn this skill and, like so may I have read about, starting to feel beaten. Any help for this po' ol' farm boy??
I had to have a way to lock the head gate. I have seen many online that used a chain at the top or a rope or bungee cord to keep the gate closed so the doe doesn't pull her head back thru. I decided that a block placed on each side would work fine too. This also keeps the gate from moving from side to side. Just drop them in place and the gate is locked. Take them out to release the gate and the doe. Again, scrap 2x2's.
Feeder in place and the head gate in the locked position.
Loaded up and ready to go to the barn for the girls inspection. Once there our pygmy doe, Emily, jumped right up on it giving it the thumbs up. As fate would have it I forgot to take a picture while in the barn. Tomorrow I post a picture. (Hopefully in use.)
