milking the goats

When we got to about 25 goats needing to be milked, with switch from hand milking to automated milking. Milking is a huge part of the day on a dairy farm and it takes about 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, for two people, to get it down. We usually start at 6 am, take the goats to the barn down below, search for the ones that don’t get grains and separate then from the others, give grain to half and start milking them, then do the other half. We have to hand milk the goats that gave birth within 10 days (because of the colostrum in the milk, we cannot use it) and feed it to the kids. It takes quiet some time to hand milk and by the end my hands are pretty tired. The funny thing is that I am so much better milking with my left hand, go figure why. The procedure for milking using the machine is pretty easy. First, you squirt some milk from both teats for each goat in a cup with a strainer to make sure everything looks okay (no chunks, blood, etc.). Then you dip each teats in an iodine solution for  30 seconds, dry with a clean paper towel and either hand milk or hook up the machine to the teats. When we are done milking the goats (we do 8 at a time), we massage their udder with essential oil (they really enjoy it), dip their teats in another iodine solution (without drying this time) and send them free. Then cleaning up duties start: in  the milking parlor, in the milk room, scooping out poop in the barn, feeding the older kids. It takes about 3 hours. Twice a day. Seven days a week. For over 300 days a year. And it is only the milking part. It does not include birthing, taking care of the animals, cheese-making or selling of the produce. Honestly, i can’t really see myself doing it. But at the same time i love being around the goats and i know better to not say “i will never do that” so i will keep my mouth shout for now…