Goat Milk

Maybe I should ask, “Got Milk?”  I do.  I’m getting a lot of milk for a family of one, and I know exactly where my milk comes from.  Right now I’m milking four girls.  First, my retired goat Millie, is miraculously still giving me about a pint-and-a-half of milk each day.  She’d do better if I could convince her that she should go out to pasture with everyone instead of standing around waiting to be milked.  If  I go out to pasture to make sure everyone is where they belong, she assumes I really came to get her.  She has to bring everyone back with her.

They way everyone is following, you’d think she was the herd queen instead of her sister, Minnie.  Once again, she’s standing by the stanchion I use for training.  It’s just a gentle reminder that she wants fed needs to be milked.

“I’m waiting.”

Another goat I’m milking more for getting her a little extra feed purposes is Sallie.  She was starting to get a little thin raising her kid, so once I sold the baby, she got to be spoiled a little.  Since she’s almost all Boer, she’s not really a great production milker.

“Can I have another turn?”

She’s super easy to work with, but her udder really is a mess.  Who on earth decided to keep a goat with this kind of udder?  Oh yea, that was me.  It is a pain for milking, but it doesn’t slow her kids down at all.

The other two goats I’m milking are actually pretty good producers.  Helen I milked all last summer.  She might have been the world’s most bratty goat last year, but she’s actually very good this year.  All that hard work and training paid off.

She’s easy peasy to milk now!  I’m so glad because even though she’s half Boer and half Saanen, she’s an excellent milker.

Coffee has shades of Helen’s brattiness from last year, but she’s a bit more mean about it.  Instead of just running to our destination, she would also try to step on my feet and push me with her horn~not hard, just enough to voice her disapproval.

Bribing to catch her wouldn’t work, so I was chasing her around the barnyard for five minutes.  Of course, as soon as I got her in the stanchion, she was perfectly fine.  Well, now she is.    I’m still not allowed to pet her or be nice to her when we’re done milking.

“Bet you can’t catch me!”

To cut down on the number of aerobic workouts while milking, I would milk Coffee last and then leave her shut in the Love Shack overnight.  I’d milk her first in the morning, and then let her out.  Now, she stands in line and waits to come in like the other three, which is quite a relief!

I bought a little freezer that I plan on filling completely with goat milk.  I much prefer to have any bottle kids raised on milk rather than milk replacer.

They are doing such a good job of filling it up that I’ve started making yogurt, drinking it, canning it, and freezing it for soap.  Yep, I’ve got milk, and I’m thrilled to have it!

Linking to Farm Photo Friday, Friday’s Photo, Farm Fresh Friday, and Camera Critters.