Milking Marti

This is how we go about milking on our homestead. I milk at 8 am and 8 pm. It's important to keep to a consistant milk schedule, no matter what 12 hour time line one chooses. I get home from work at 7:30 in the morning 3 days a week, so 8 am is the earliest I can get out to the barn. However, I rather like milking later in the evening -- supper is over, dishes and the kitchen are cleaned up, and all I have to do is concentrate on milking -- the other chores have been done earlier. It's rather nice. : )

Now the disclaimer: How I do things may not be what you have discovered is best for you, or may be different from what you've read or heard is the "right" way to milk. I am a firm believer in "to each his own" when it comes to matters of the homestead. So, take my way of doing things with a grain of salt. By no means am I an expert. But -- it works for us and maybe you will see something within my video you can use on your own homestead.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Homesteading
• homestead
• hobby farm
• milking goats
• home dairy
• Alpine goats
• lasagna gardening
• home milk pasteruization

[marshwoodgirl123]

how do you prosses/clean the milk without alot of machines? could you boil it?

[Michigansnowpony]

@marshwoodgirl123 I have a video "Stovetop Pasteurization" which explains how to do this without anything fancy. Don't boil the milk -- you'll get a cooked / off flavor.

[Michigansnowpony]

@fakir0005 -- Yes, she's a pretty good little milkmaid. Unfortuantely, the goat prefers me and doesn't always stand nicely for her. They can be pretty opinionated about that. ; )

[fakir0005]

@fakir0005 You are a nice woman and have a nice goat. I know you take good care of your goat like you brush her. No body does that. Can your daughter milk the goat?

[Michigansnowpony]

@fakir0005 Can't say that I've run across any videos on milking procedures from Australia or New Zealand on youtube yet. However, the dipping teats is very common dairy practice here in the states too. Correct -- we do not sell any milk off farm, but only have our goats for our own consumption. Homesteader types have to sell "shares" of their goat(s) in order to legally sell the milk to the public in Michigan. You can't just sell milk off farm outright. Too much trouble.

[Michigansnowpony]

@fakir0005 -- My sister and her husband had a dairy farm in Wisconsin for many years with Holsteins. They retired from farming about 5 years ago. They milked right around 100 cows in a parlor system at their peak. They always cleaned the udders with a commercial teat dip before every milking to maintain their Grade A dairy status (they regularly got inspected). It is a VERY common practice both on commercial and homestead diary operations nowadays.

[fakir0005]

@Michigansnowpony One more thing. I've hand milked Michigan cows and machine milked Michigan cows at big farms. I never saw any body using dips or using soap. But that was a long time ago. But the things might have changed now.

[fakir0005]

@Michigansnowpony U probably watch lots of milking videos from down under. They do lots of crazy things down under. And they do it on commercial scale. All the dairy farmers dip the teats in dip they buy. They make videos thinking they do some unique things. You probably do not sell the milk and only your family drinks the milk. But down under people have to drink milk contaminated not with germs but chemicals. And trust me. Iodine on teats hurts. That's the only time the animals move the legs

[Michigansnowpony]

@fakir0005  I'm in Michigan, USA.

[fakir0005]

@Michigansnowpony Most name the video after the milker. U name it after the goat. Y u think u need soap to wash the teat before squeezing it. But u only use a damp cloth. Soap can't get in. But the danger of Iodine is very real. You are not only poisoning the milk you are being cruel to the goat by dipping her teats in the iodine. Just because they sell it does not mean you have to buy it. U must be in Australia or New Zealand.. Contd.