Children milking: goats or cows?

[rootsong]

What has been your experience with having your children handle the milking? Was it a goat or a cow and what was your child's age when you felt it was safe? Did you have a stanchion or hobbles or just a really, really mellow animal?

My husband and I are trying to make a decision regarding whether to continue with milk cows, or switch over to goats. It's such a crazily complex decision, so many pros and cons to each. But one particular issue is regarding our children milking. Right now myself and my nearly-17 yr old son, who is stronger and larger than me, are sharing the cow milking. We don't have a stanchion. Our cow occasionally kicks and is bratty enough that I would never consider letting our next child, who is 9, milk her anytime soon. My teen will likely be moving to live with his dad at some point and it isn't feasible for me to be the sole milker in the family. So, I do wonder if we switched to goats, would my younger children be able to help me in milking sooner than later? Or should we just invest in a great stanchion and hobbles for the cow instead of fencing for that goats? Oy, so much to consider!

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[cfuhrer]

I started milking at age 9.
I milked goats.

Considering the occasional kerfuffles the goat and I got into, I am glad I was not milking a cow.

I would worry that the cow would learn that the kids couldn't control her and she would then become unmilkable even by adults. (I'm not a cow psychologist, but I have seen horses pick up on "weakness" in such a way).

[FarmboyBill]

I started at around the age of 7/8 of mom getting the cream separator up to speed then fixing breakfast. After she got it there she had better NOT hear the bell ring on the handle. id do alright until she put the milk in. Then it was all hands on the handle as that milk going through it would really drag it down . I was so proud when I could barely get a bucket of milk up to the rim and pour it in. I so impressed mom that she let me do it all the time lol. I learned that when I was looseing speed, to shut the milk flow off, till I got it built up again. Later I learned to keep the separator going good, but to regulate the flow without shutting the milk altogether off.
Around the age 9 or less, Dad got an electric separator, and I started hauling milk buckets from the barn to the house. The buckets each weighed around 40lbs or more and id take 2. The barn sat a GOOD 100ft from the house. The milk parlor was on the far W side of the barn, and the separator was on the far east side of the house out on the porch. Then granddad decided he had had enough of milking, and then me and dad milked and my little bro would haul the milk. Finally it was us 3 milking and each carrying our own buckets.
Bro got kicked in the side of the head around this time as he was walking past a cow. Almost all of them had horns and we tied them up by placing a rope around the horns. Age 9 IN THOSE DAYS, some 60yrs ago nearly was a good age to start kids on milking cows. I don't think that age 9 thereabouts is a good age to start kids NOWADAYS, Those kids THEN, and the kids TODAY are a different breed of kid.
Parents are different too. Parents back in the 50s and before expected a certain thing for kids to be doing, and they didn't stand for a kid not doing it.
NOWADAYS, parents are supprised IF a kid does a certain thing. AND most parents are afraid to let them try.
ALSO, Kids today at that age and way before have there minds wrapped up on all the things in their world that they can easily find out about. We were isolated on our own farms with only visiting and the phone for news, until we got a TV in the mid late 50s.

[sammyd]

Ours took it upon himself to milk our goats when he was 8 or 9.
He has milked cows since he was 11 but in a parlor or tie stall barn.

[Vahomesteaders]

We just started milking goats this weekend. My son loves it. Though he is so learning. He is 12 and he and his sister who is 10 handle all of the feed and water duties of everything. So far the milking hadn't gone as planned as the lamancha hasn't been milked since her first year. She is 3 now. The nubian is a first time mom and kids 1.5 weeks old. So she is fighting it some.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Most goats can be milked by kids as young as 5 or 6. I did have one though that "produced" a bit over a gallon a day but that old girl gave nothing away! I had to milk her myself with the kids help to hold her.

[mmoetc]

Depends a lot on the animals and the kids. I helped milk my uncle's cows on occasion many moons ago. Most were docile and easy to handle. Some weren't. A 1200+ lb cow can do a lot more harm accidentally by stepping wrong or leaning on you than 150 lb goat.

[Ziptie]

Our 11year milks goats,but will not let her milk the cow. Cow wanted to get to the feed badly one day and acc broke my toe.

[anahatalotus]

I think it depends on the cow and the child. Our previous pet cow was not halter broken when we got her. After a few months she was a big baby doll and would stand patiently for whatever. At this point my daughter who was six would sit on my lap and help milk her (having four hands makes it go soo much faster). Sometimes I would let her milk by herself but I would always be there watching and close enough to block a kick if need be. With this cow and this kid I would probably let her start milking by herself when she was ten, but still be in the milking shed keeping an eye (hyopethetically if I still had Cecelia, dang I miss my pet cow). She was a delicate beast and accidentally stepped on my boots once and as soon as I grimaced and squeaked she lifted her hoof up and nuzzled me as if to say sorry. But yeah a
However with goats there is much less room for damage. My daughter milked a friends Alpine goat last year by herself a few times. Even a rowdy goat wont do much damage compared to a docile but clumbsey cow. Now she really wants me to get goats when we have land again. She is confident she can take care of them herself, however it depends on the goat as some can be as ornery as I am. My youngest child has also expressed wanting a goat to milk. I for one am really on the fence about whether I prefer goats or cows as they each have their advantages. Okay I could ramble on about this one too much....

[Rosepath]

I've had and milked both cows and goats, some gentle and some feisty. A cow who isn't reliably calm can make for bad experiences for sure - besides kicking, they can and will bulldoze over someone smaller if they want their grain or whatever NOW.
The risk isn't worth it to your child. On the other hand, if you build a stout stanchion (there are plans and pics on the "keeping a family cow" website) yours might settle down when she can't get away with much. But I'd still choose goats, and that's what I'm milking now - the cow is raising our freezer beef.

[marusempai]

My daughter started helping with the milking when she was eight. I was there to help but she "does her own goat" - I just come by at the end to make sure she milked all the way out (she doesn't always, her hands get tired). I would feel ok with her doing it herself (she's nine now) except that we have more goats than her hands have endurance for. A cow would make me nervous though. We do have milk stands with stancheons.

[farmerDale]

It depends on the kid and the critter. Growing up, we had the most docile, kindest, and gentlest jersey cows you could imagine, and we learned to milk them young, under 8 years old.

Yet I milked my neighbors two goats for him recently, and I would never let a child near them, they were stomping and shifting and kicking the pail and wiggling away.

If I knew the cow was like the cows we had, any child could milk them. If I knew the goat was going to be like my neighbors, um, no, I would not let a kid milk them.

Probably not typical experience, but you can't base it all on animal size alone. My dad would sit on one cow while he milked the other in each stall, as she laid there and chewed her cud. A kicked over pail was rare, and only if a horse fly had bit or such...

[geo in mi]

I grew up being with my mother and/or my father in the barn during milking time. I learned how to milk a cow by hand at an early age, and I usually milked perched on the edge of the stool, with my mother behind me. My other jobs were scooping the manure, putting feed in the manger, getting down hay bales, cleaning the calf stalls, and so forth. It always seemed natural to be around cows. About 12 or so, I would sometimes be asked to fill in at milking time--by then we had a Surge milker, making the job somewhat easier. We also had a stanchion barn, so, as one was milked, she was let out, making room for the next one in line.

I've had my share of squeezes, head butts, crushed toes, swishes of manure-filled tails, and stepped in buckets.....and spatters......or horseflies.

But I've never milked a goat. All goat milk should be dumped into the hog trough....I hate goats....

geo

[Tana Mc]

Depends entirely on the kid and the animals. My kids all started milking goats by the time they were about 5. Of course, I was in the room and milking my share, too.

I sold a really wonderful Guernsey milk cow to a friend. Della despised me and would not let me milk her at all. My friend had 4 kids under 12 yo and they all crouched under Della and milked her. Each kid had a quarter to do. Della would stand free and eat out of a pan until they were done....

[Fire-Man]

I started milking the cow alone at 7 going on 8(I had helped Mother for a couple years before that). Every weekday Morning(before school) I would get up at 5am, get the milk bucket and lantern and head out to the barn about 100yrds away--alone. I would milk the cow then when I got back to the house I had to strain the milk into jars and put in the fridge----my parents would be leaving about that time to go to work. I then got ready to go to school, I had to walk 8 tenths of a mile to the Bus Stop.

I did such a good job, my Dad decided to get some goats and I had to milk one and sometimes 2(not that often) of them before school. I continued milking a cow till my Dad got rid of all the animals when I was 15.

My Dad seen no danger in a 8 year old milking a 1000lb cow alone in the dark-----hey I had a Lantern!

[SeaGoat]

Personally I would not let my young kids milk a cow.

I know it can be done because it has been done.

There are too many hornless docile goats in the world to risk it

[FarmboyBill]

People 60+ yrs ago had their kids milking YOUNG cause they all had real farms with real chores to do. Dozens of hogs, or hundreds of chickens. They didn't have time to baby set their kids at whatever chores they were put to. They all thought they had to have milk cows to provide milk for the table and animals, as they DIDNT feel like buying milk in town, and would have been ashamed if they had been caught doing so, same as I was when I was thinking about buying eggs at WM. Couldn't do it.
I NEVER heard of a kid getting killed in a milking incident, although Im sure it happened, and my bro got kicked in the head. Didn't hurt him a bit afterwards.
Kids got killed by mean hogs
Kids got killed by mean horses, mules, bulls
Kids got killed by tractors, as did my older brother, and runaway horses.
Kids get killed. People get killed. It happens. no one wants it, but its the part of life that makes us into the men and women we become. I think that IF we have over protective parents, we WILL BE over protective parents. IF we have normally protective parents, we will be normally protective parents, AND IF our parents let us grow up more or less on our own, most of us make it just fine.
As said, my older bro got killed on a tractor. My younger bro got kicked in the head. Neighbor kid got caught in a stirrup. 2 outa 3 turned out to become old men.
You come onto a farm, that's about the best odds you can expect.
I never knew but one person to have goats, and dad made fun of him cause he had been a drunk all his life and had to drink goats milk.