Does anyone have any tipps they can pass on about dairy goats? We bought what we thought would be a good dairy goat, but with some realy bad manners! She has a little doeling on her side which we like very much, so we were thinking of keeping her for a future dairy goat. If anyone has any info on how to start training her, we would be very apprecitive.
Dairy goat
Hey, Chance, glad you found us. Always nice to add a new member to our mix.
I don't know much about dairy goats, as we had to get rid of ours before they were bed. What kind of bad manners are you talking about?
Oh just nasty with her horns, and when we get her in the stanchon, she just freaks. Wanna get into the full homestead thing. The bees, big garden, canning, goats , chickens, ect...........
I've read all the goat feedings should be on the stanchion to get them accustomed to it, talking to them and petting. In your case, I've read sometimes it's helpful to put the kid by your side, so that Mama thinks she is feeding the baby. I posted a couple of links below for you. The second one is tons of info.
You are in AZ now, but you have a place in KY where you are going to put down roots? When will that be?
http://mountainvalleyfarms.blogspot.com/2011/01/training-goat-to-milk.html
http://www.ehow.com/goats/
We are taking care of my wifes mother down here in Tucson, she is on hospice, we thought it would be more comfortable to keep her here than move her out in the middle of the woods where hospitals and ambulances are so far away. But we plan on retiring up there, maybe snowbird it back and forth. Thank you for the info on dairying. I've read some on the subject but none has been rel helpfull.
Hey, I just read the pages you sent(links) and they realy were informative, thanks. I believe a friend of mine is from Caneyville, last name Baird, do you know any of them?
Glad you found them useful.
I'm seriously thinking of getting a few goats again and maybe a couple of calves and feeder pigs. Dependings on whether I can get the fencing put up myself. I just found that link with all the goat info today and it sure had a lot of good stuff on it.
We don't know too many people from Caneyville. My husband works out of town for months at a time and I usually go with him, so we've haven't been around much until the last couple of years.
Against my better judgement I got something that was'nt nubian. I wished I had, what I remember about them from when I was in school, they always seem'd happy to see us. Maybe I'll get one yet! Think I'll keep this one though, she seems to be a good mama, and real handy with the horns, keep the dogs and coyotes line'd out.
I had 2 Red Boers. I made a huge mistake of buying them a couple of months apart. They were both 3 months old at the time of purchase. When we brought the 2nd one home, the older one was really mean to her, kept butting her and wouldn't let her eat. The little one would come out from under the electric fence and hang out just outside the fence during the day, but at night they had to penned up seperately.
Let me know what works when you get mama "trained". We gave ours away just before it was time for the oldest one to be bred, so I know nothing about milking goats.
Well the wife has been handling her every time she feeds her, and she seems to be getting a little better. now I think its time to start doing it in the stanchion.
I read through a lot of those links today and it seems the key to training goats to do what you want them to do is just repetition.
I had read that the Boers were the best meat goat and my intention was to raise them to sell for meat. I don't know that I personally could bring myself to eat goat, but as a meat product, they are suppose to be pretty profitable.
I agree with the feeding. We always put a bucket of grain with tennis balls in it (so the girls don't eat the grain faster than we can milk). It' s the only grain that they get.
They sell goat hobbles that help sometimes.
http://fiascofarm.com/goats/hobble.htm
I have had all breeds of goat, and every breed has individuals that give you a run for your money. I wouldn't necessarily say a Nubian will make it easier-my best milkers were alpines, saanens and a Lamancha.
As for horns, we have had great success ''elasterating'' the does. The trick is to shave the base of the horn and put the elastic were the skin becomes horn preferably when they aren't carrying and during fly-less Season.
http://www.littlecudchewers.com/Dehorning%20Older%20Goats.htm
I had Boers at one time, 13 ofem'. I noticed that they wernt the best mothers though. What I 'd like to do here is, get good dairy does and breed them to a good boer buck, seems like they bring more at the sales. Or at least they did back then.
I'm going to check out those links tomorrow.
My goats are pygmies. I wanted pygmies for several reasons. There are only 2 of us so we don't need a lot of milk. They are small and easier for me to handle. Their milk is sweetest with the highest butterfat content so it is closest to cow's milk.
I have 2 does. I don't want a billy of my own because they stink and you have to keep them away from the does during lactation or the milk will tatse bad. I only need a billy a couple times a year and I know friends who have them I can borrow so it's silly to feed one all year. My does are in with a borrowed billy now. He has been here for 2 weeks and I may keep him another 2 weeks just to be on the safe side.
I traded off my oldest doe because she kept at one of the younger does and kept running her through the fence.
My youngest was a bottle baby so she is tame to the point of being a pest. The other 2 had not been handled. I tamed them a bit but still need to do a lot of work with the one. They responded well to almonds. Just love them and will come to me for them. Then I rub the sides of their faces. They like that. I don't have a stanchion yet but while they eat from the trough I rub all over them.
Please tell me more about the elasticizing. Can it be done on a full grown goat with no ill effects?
This is a pic of the 3 goats I had. I traded the agouti colored one in the front. Her name was Marble because her coat reminded me of a marble countertop. I still have the other 2, Mollie and Dusty.
the elastrater is just a pair of pliers that you slip a tiny rubber band on, and when you squeeze the handles together they open the band up. I dont think you can get the band around an older bucks testicles though. I have heard of people shaving the hair around the horn base and using them there though. The band has to be in contact with the skin where the horn starts. It's kinda hard on'em at that stage though.
We have used them to band small bull calves but I had no idea they could be used on horns.
Yep, that's how it's done. You make sure to shave off the hair at the base of the horn , then you apply the elastic right at the juction of skin/horn and you can put a duct tape to secur in place. It bugs them for a while but the goat kids don't particularly enjoy disbudding either and in my experience , goats with horns tend to use them on each other eventually. It probably wouldn't work on bucks past a few months though , as the base of their horns tend to be bigger.
My 2 does both have horns and the older one will use them on the younger one.
There is a bander for adult animals. The callicrate works on horns and testicles too.
http://www.nobull.net/bander/SBdehorning.htm
We found it too pricy (about 250.00) for a homestead, but if there are any large meat goat or cattle operations nearby it's worth asking to borrowing one.
That looks neat!
I did not know anything about dehorning goats when mine were little. These are the first goats I have ever had so I am still learning lots.
I keep going back and forth between getting dairy goats and meat goats. I've read a lot about using goat milk to feed bottle calves, but am not confident that I could milk a goat. That is until I found this.... http://www.dairygoatjournal.com/issues/85/85-4/Hughlene_Dunn.html
That is amazing! I was planning to buy a vaccum milker used for mares and it was going to cost $150. I have CTS and my hands are weak and cramp from the myotonia so milking by hand is out of the question for me. Thank you so much for posting this link. You have made my day!!!
I'm so glad you think it will work for you. I thought it was such a great idea for my friend Dave, too. He's 70 with severe arthritus (sp) in his hands and he was just talking the other night about trying to milk his goats.
That was a good idea, cant wait to make one and try it out.
Question: I have used a hand spray bottle with foliar feeds in the garden, and my hands get very tired from squeezing the handle. Why would this be any different?
Yes, using a spray bottle can make your hand tired. I can only guess that the difference is when milking, your hand and fingers are closed tighter around the teat than they would be wrapped around a spray bottle and trigger. I do know that a heavy-use spray bottle trigger is larger and less tiring on the hands.
Darius, I have another idea in my next post, that might work better. Need your anaylitical mind to figure out if it might work.
Edited to remove a word I couldn't spell and replace with simply words I could spell. LOL
This message was edited Feb 26, 2011 7:58 AM
Be glad to, Robin. I'm off to run some errands, be back later...
http://www.udderlyez.com/goat_milkers.php
I saw this and wondered if one of those pumps (about $3) used to fill kereosene heaters from a 5 gallon jug could be modified for milking. It has a straight tube and a flexible tube attached to a rubber bulb, that when squeezed creates a "syphon".
I don't have one in front of me to figure this out and see if the pieces fit, but my idea is to remove the long straight piece and replace it with 6" cut off of the flexible tube. To the end of this 6" piece of flexible tube insert a 6-8" piece cut off of the straight tube. My theory is that the short piece of straight tube would be slid onto the teat with the flexible piece of tube between it and the pump bulb making it possible to keep the bulb in a side position. The flexible tube on the other side of the bulb would be inserted in a jar or bottle. The tubes could be taken apart easily to clean with a bottle brush.
Sorry, couldn't help myself...my mind just automatically tries to make a cheaper alternative.
Msrobin, if you do a search for "henry miker" you'll find another alternative for a hand expresser.
Something to think about, the electric milk machines have two purposes. One obviously, is to pull milk, but the second is providing circulation to the teat itself.
From what I understand hand expressers, henry, EZmilker types are for gathering smaller amounts for short time spans. Like gathering colostrum for two or three days. I've heard of them being used on newly freshened goat until she settles down on the stanchion. Hormones make all milkers crazy for a few days ;0)
I know these types would never be considered for a long term milking option for a cow, but then cows have a lot more milk and would mean less circulation to the teats for a longer amount of time.
I know very little of a goat's udder anatomy, so this is not to discourage. But please consider asking a dairy goat expert it this should be considered as milking machine alternative before investing too much.
It would be interesting to know how much positive pressure is required to open the valve at the end of the teat. In hand milking, the fingers close off the top of the teat and the palm pressure forces the milk out.
I assume an external device incorporates a vacuum to basically do the same, but I doubt it's free-running in the manner a siphon works/
With the Henry milker, whether purchased or hand made, have a pressure gauge. I think it's recommended not to ever exceed 15psi. You should use just enough pressure to express milk.
There is a sphincter muscle at the base of the teat. The amount of pressure will actually depend on the individual goat. Like cows some are easier to milk then others. I have one that milks herself...not really, but her teat muscles are much looser and she will stream milk onto the ground when she lets down.
Here is a photo of a homemade henry milker. I pull this off the web last year when we were having trouble with one of the girls and thought we would need it, long story, but we didn't.
The photo is from a blog, I apologize, I can't find the original source. I remember the author said that she switch to a half pint bottle to get the desired psi.
That looks similar to what the dairy uses that I buy my goat milk from - rather like a pressure cooker with tubing and a syringe minus the needle. The one goat they were milking surely doesn't like her teats touched when she's not in the stanchion. I made the mistake of touching her on the next visit while showing her to my daughter. Got a nice side kick (that missed) :D
I still haven't decided if I want the Nigerian dwarf goats they have, or the Nubians. Both are beautiful, but the Nigerians are far smaller and since it is just me, both their smaller size and the lesser milk output would probably suit my needs better. The Nubian's have better personalities though.
Sunny, I investigated both those breeds in depth last year (including several farm visits), and the Dwarf Nigerians won out hands down, for many reasons from tractability to milk quality and quantity. If I'd had fencing and shelter, a doe and a companion wether would have come home in the back of the truck!
Cocoa_lulu, I know absolutely nothing about milking an dairy animal. Both of the links I posted above came straight out of the
The Dairy Goat Journal magazine that I found online. Neither went into detail about how a goat "works", but did say basically to be gentle while finding the right pressure amount. I appreciate you explaining things for me. :)
Another good idea I will have to check out, thanks.
Robin, when I come to visit, I want to make a day trip to a cheesemaker I know in Lexington. He makes several goat cheeses not seen much in this country and I'd like to learn to make them. Usually we only see fresh chevre/montrachet and feta. Who could resist a cheese named Humboldt Fog?
He doesn't raise goats but the goat dairy farm is almost next door and we could visit them, too.