Life Slice How to hand milk a goat

How to milk a goat and dry her off at the milk season's end

Goat's Milk Production Variables

Freshening (coming into milk production) occurs at kidding. Milk production varies with the breed, age, quality, and diet of the doe; dairy goats generally produce between 660 to 1,800 L (1,500 and 4,000 lb) of milk per 305 day lactation. Doelings should be bred ideally by weight instead of age. Generally 80 pounds is the ideal weight, which is typically reached at about 7 to 8 months. The gestation period for a goat is 5 months, so your doe will be 12 to 13 months old the first time she kids. How much milk a doe produces will depend upon her breed and pedigree, but a well-balanced feeding program that is modified to meet the varying feed requirements thoughout the various starges of a doe's year and plenty of fresh water will also greatly contribute to the amount of milk she produces.

Lactation Curves

All mammals have lactation curves, and does are no different. Because of these variances and the fact that it costs as much to keep a top producing doe as a poor producer, it is important to keep records of the costs of keeping your goats and the amount of milk each doe produces. For the backyard goat herder this seem to be more trouble than it's worth, but you will eventually find yourself becoming unhappy with a less than optimal milk supply.

Does' milk supply rises rapidly after kidding, known as parturition, in response to the demands of their growing offspring. Peak milk production is typically reached about 2 months after kidding and gradually declines, but you will likely notice slow drops interspersed with more dramatic drops until you dry off the doe. You can typically milk for about 10 months out of the year, but many people decide at some point that the amount of milk produced is no longer worth the effort and cost.

Households with goat diaries with animals that exhibit long lactations can milk them for as long as possible without rebreeding. Production might be lower in the second year, but this would be offset by avoiding a 2-month layoff for the doe while she is in the later half of the gestation period. However, a 10 month lacation cycle is typical for most does.

How many years can you milk a doe?

As stated above, a doe should kid her fresh offspring at about 12-13 months of age. Typically, maximum production occurs when the doe is four or five years old, assuming she has been bred every year. Does do not go through menopause like humans, but age is a factor in milk production. However, because most older does are more likely to die giving birth than of old age, many goat herd owners like to retire their does at around 10 years of age. Using this assumptions, you will typically milk your doe for about 9 years.

Recommended set-up for milking goats

Life Slice is dedicated to simplifying your life and in the case of goat milking you could certainly go the minimalist route and care for your goats in the field, tied or in a stock. However, with just a little bit of set-up in the beginning, tasks and chores will be made much easier and cleaner.

1. A milking room with a window and impervious floor
It doesn't need to be fancy, but a simple shed to keep you out of the sun and rain while you are trimming hooves, milking goats, or doing other maintenance on your herd will quickly become a luxury you'll appreciate it.

It doesn't need to be large. The one at the left is a combination milk room and feed room that contains windows to minimize the use of electricity. The shed is built with a gap between the back wall and roof to maximize convection for summer milking comfort. The floor has been sealed with a special floor latex so it is impervious. Solar power is used in this shed ot power the lights; more about that can be here.

2. Milking Stand
Your milk stand will be handy not only for milking, but helps make work quick and easy when it comes time to trim hooves. The stands typically come in two different varieties -either folding, which will help save space, or bench style. Either is fine and these are also available for purchase. Making your own folding bench though is really that much more portable though unless it's one you purchase. If you make your own from lumber, it'll be too heave too easily and quickly move around.

Many people decide to build their own stand of lumber. As seen in the figure tot he right, the milk stand has 2 sections - a bench sitting to the right and the place for the doe to stand on the left. If you are left handed, you'll likely want to reverse this set-up.

The stand should be a minimum of 42" long by 15" wide. When building your own stand, note the direction of the lumber. This is important because it will prevent the goat from slipping should the stand become wet. The legs should be 15" high to allow easy mounting for the goat and comfortable seating for the milker.

The stanchion is used so that the goat will be kept into place when working with it. Sweet feed provides an attractive incentive for the goat to get itself up on the stanchion. The stanchion should be built so you can easily slip a small feeder pan in and out , allowing for easy clean-up. Two 4x4 boards can be used as the braces.

3. Supplies

Milk pail
Strip cup
Udder wash or antiseptic cleaning agent. As you will see on the milking video, the first step is to sanitize the udder. This can be done this with an udder wash, iodine and a paper towel, or the easiest, but not necessarily the least expensive, is by using alcohol-free antiseptic wipes. Remember, each goat gets its own materials to avoid milk contamination and skin irritations. Don't use a wipe on more than one different goat. If you use a wash, you'll want to dry the udder and your hands with a fresh paper towel each time. Be sure to sanitize your hands with each goat as well. You can also use disposable latex gloves.
When finished milking, use a teat dip, or more conveniently an antibacterial spray to help prevent Mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland, usually caused by an infection and can be spread from one animal to another.

4. Clip hairy goats if required
Goat milk has less bacteria than cow milk as it leaves the udder, but it is also more likely to put up coliform bacteria during the milking process. Because the excrement is dry, it easily turns to dust and the coliform bacteria is in the air, on flat surfaces and on the goat. Therefore, it is recommended to clip hair goats to minimize the disturbance of the animals' hair as well as to minimize the amount of hair that finds its way into the milk pail.

5. Milking the goat

Get the goat onto the milk stand. Putting feed into the feed pan beforehand typically helps to get them up more quickly.
Sit on the bench facing the rear of hte goat. Goats can be milked from either side, but they develop a definite preference over time for the side they prefer. You will have a preference based upon if you are left handed or right handed, but after a few milkings you will feel comfortable with either and merely sit on the side of the milk stand where the seat is located. Some people like to milk from the rear of the animal. You can try it, but for most, the side is much easier.
Wash the udder using an udder washing solution or alcohol-free baby wipes. Be sure to sanitize your hands between milking each goat as well. If you are using a wash, you will need to dry the udder off with a clean paper towel.
Draw the milk using your thumb and index finger, encircircling it near the base of the udder. Do not grasp the udder itself, which can cause tissue damage and the tissue can work its way into the teat with disastrous results, but be sure to grap high enough. Squeeze your thumb and forefinger together to trap the milk in the teat. The teat must be held firmly or when you squeeze the rest of the teat the milk will be forced back up into the udder. Then firmly using your second and then third fingers, bring pressure on the teat forcing the milk further down the teat and eventually out of the orifice. More details are available in the below video.
The first squirt from each teat should be directed into a strip cup as this squirt is high in bacteria that have collected in the teat orifice and should not go into your pail. By placing this first squirt in a strip cup, you will be able to see any abnormality in the milk, such as lumps, clots or sgininess. These are indicators of mastitis which requires immediate attention.
Proceed with putting the milk into your pail.
Keep milking until you can't get any more milk, then bump or massage the udder to allow additional milk to drop from the udder into the teat. The best way to learn the perfect methodology for doing this is to watch kids when they are sucking. This part is important because it is the last of the milk that is the highest in butterfat, but also if you don't get as much milk as possible out of the udder, the goat will stop producing as much as she is capable of.
The final step is stripping, or forcing out the last of the milk in the teat. You never get all the milk out of the udder. Using the tips of the thumb and forefinger,grasp the teat at the top and force the milk out by running your fingers down the length of the teat. Be gentle; avoid vigorous stripping.
Apply teat dip.

A simple shed with milking room and feed storage. A tin roof covers the building and porch to allow for rainwater collection. A shade cloth covered porch allows for sun protection while allowing for air flow.

Milkstand with seating to the right. The goat stands to the left. The impervous floor allows for easy clean-up.

Alpine doe eating sweet feed while her head is restrained in the stanchion

Supplies for every day milking use.

Clipping the does' belly, udder and legs

This video will walk you through the milking process.

How to to stop milking the doe for the season - Also known as "drying off"

The dyring off of a doe refers to how to stop milking her without causing complications. You'll want to do this because the doe will need to put the energy that would go towards milking towards the unborn kids and for her own health. Older does should still be milking when they are bred. The doe will naturally dry up over time and/or with the progression of her pregnancy. If the doe is pregnant, she should dried off 2 months before her kids are due. However, you'll likely want to stop milking before then, but It is up to much personal discretion as to when you determine the effort is worth the milk yield.

Simply quitting milking and cutting back on the sweet feed ration will result in the animal drying off quickly. As always, make sure you dip the teats in an antibacterial dip or spray them for he first few days you do not milk. Do not try to gradually ramp down the milking, this is harder on the goat than stopping altogether. In most cases, you'll have milked the doe for a long enough period of time that her udder will not substantially fill again and cause too much pressure. However, if this very rare instance should happen, simply milk out the doe and begin the process again.