Milk Cow or Goat - PEP BB animal.sand.milking

Hello PEP-folks,

Usually this is one of the kids' jobs, but he was sick yesterday, so I milked and took time to document for the badge. We have two La Manchas in milk, Rosa & Lila, and they are good solid milkers. We do once a day milking, which works for us, though we could get more (and feed more) with 2x a day, but we're pretty satisfied with the current output.

All told it takes about 20min to do both girls, when not photographing stuff. I'm a big fan of the Lehmans milk strainer, we use it with the metal screen at milking, then wash it and put in the paper filter for straining. The milk is always sweet, and drinks very nicely, as well as being great for yogurt (separate post on that in a bit). We're pretty careful with teat cleaning, use a very mild Oasis bio-pac + vinegar + water solution for wiping at first, then dipping when done. Our girls have always had healthy udders, thankfully.

And the cats get the strippings (first squirts, to clean the tract). They are promptly at the stanchion at milking time.

Yield varies between 3-4qts for both girls together. Last night we got 3qts+headspace in the jars and a little cupful for the toddler, so pretty typical. The girls are both bred with the buck right now, so output is declining a bit as it tends to in pregnancy, ending in dry-off for a month or so before kidding. I think that whole process can also be documented somewhere, once I put the photos together.

Happy homesteading!
Mark

6 PM milking of 5 goats. We do have a milking machine, but tonight I hand milked all five for the task of it all ☺️ We get between a gallon and a half and two gallons of goat milk, twice a day after feeding 5 kids.

This was amazing fun! And it's not even 8am! My friend let me milk her goat, Chocolate. I got out a quart, then my friend finished milking and got another cup! I've got quite a lot of technique improvements I could make, lol! I'm so amazed at the amount one little goat can make.

Here's a splendid old cow I hand milk. She just calved a couple weeks ago. She has been known to be stubborn in letting her milk down when her calf is around, but I tried a procedure as Adam Klaus does - massaging the udder, cleaning and softly brushing her leg and udder, bumping up on her like her calf does, humming to her ( okay some of that might be just me) and alas she has started to release her milk even before her calf comes in. Even so I'm sure to leave some for him, then he stays with her until evening. Until he's ready to be weaned, he needs the milk to grow big and strong to breed many ladies.