Monday, October 14, 2013

A goat milk run down

Full size milkers:
  1. Cleo - Alpine - Currently in milk
  2. Ruby - Oberhasli (has McFly with her)
  3. GiGi - Alpine (has Elmer with her)
  4. Birdie - Saanen (has Ophelia with her)
  5. Eve - future milker - Nubian
  6. Hope - future milker - daughter of Ruby - Saanen-Oberhasli cross

Our other goats are:
  1. Elmer - future breeder - Alpine
  2. Harley - pet - permanently boarded with us - micro-pygmy wether
  3. Farrah - micro-pygmy - first year in milk - 1 cup - permanently boarded with us
Goats for sale:
  1. Collin - current breeder - father of McFly, Ophelia - pygmy - FOR SALE
  2. Liam - uncertain future either dinner, breeder, or sale - Alpine - FOR SALE
  3. Ophelia - future milker - Daughter of Birdie & Collin - pygmy-fullsize cross - FOR SALE
  4. Emily - pygmy - 1 1/4 cup - FOR SALE
  5. Meat McFly - future dinner - Son of Ruby & Collin - pygmy-fullsize cross wether

No longer on our property.

  1. Amber-Rae - pygmy-fullsize cross - first year in milk - 1 1/4 cup
  2. Suzi - not ours, just boarding for breeding purposes - pygmy - 1 1/2 cup
  3. Connie - Nigerian Dwarf - 2 cups
  4. PePe - Just boarding until weaned - unknown parentage - wether


We milk twice per day. We start by getting each goat on a leash, and lining them up on the 5 fence posts near the house kept for that purpose. Then each goat is brought into our "milking parlor" also known as my kitchen. They hop onto the milking stand, are given a bowl of grain, and are milked by hand. We are planning on someday having a real milking parlor and a milking machine.