Small milking area - is this too small?
 

Hi Everyone - I haven't been able to visit HT much lately but when we came up with a goat question I knew you would be the people to ask! :)

My DH is building me a small milking shed/goat stall. It is 16' long by 8' wide. We initially intended this to have a 6x8 milking area with space for a grain bin (trash can or plastic tote) and a couple of bales of hay. Also, another 6x8 area for the two does and a 4x8 area for seperating the kids at night.

So to the question - is 6x8 too small for the milking area?

When we were trying to lay everything out it seemed awfully tight. My DH is thinking it may be too small but the only way to expand it would be to remove the extra 4x8 kid stall and make two 8x8 areas. Then I would not have an area to put the kids at night for morning milk. (I intend to only milk once a day.) What would you do with 16'x8'?

Thanks and Happy New Year!!
Angela

My milk house in Missouri is 8 x 8 with two milk stands and a walkway between. I keep a 10 gallon bucket (with lid) for the does' feed in the milk house, a trash can, the vacuum pump assembly, and several shelves for supplies.

The kitchen is the milk processing area.

Another building holds hay, alfalfa pellets, and all the other feed.

If you are only going to have one milk stand and just milk in there, 6 x 8 is fine.

Thank You Alice! I had thought about two milk stands but I don't think that will work in such a small space. I also have other areas I can store hay and feed in. I just would like to have enough area to store at least a week's worth of feed (if not two weeks) so that I can just refill on weekends. Time is short enough in the mornings without that.

Thanks again and Happy 2013!

My milking area is subdivided. The milking area itself is a dirt floor 4-6 (just large enough for two 55-gal barrels & a 15-gal barrel I keep all my grains in). The rest of this area is 6-8 with wooden floor. It is on this wooden floor (where the wood stops and the ground begins) that I milk the does as I built a 2 ft wall along side of where they will stand (for honory does or first milkers...as they cannot get away). It is also on this wooden floor that I have a half wall with a feeding bin on the other side so I can throw hay over into it without leaving the floor. (I can store 8 large bales of hay easily here.)

On the wall (along side the ground floor) I have 2 shelves where I keep all milking supplies (udder wash, paper towels, diverse meds). On this 4-6 ground area I can easily feed one goat (or trim hooves, etc.) while another goat is on the milking stand.

I also put a 2-part door on the ground side of this area that leads to the barn. The wooden floor area has its own door leading to the outside areas. All this has worked real well for us and quite convenient.

motdaugrnds - Thanks for the answer. It sounds like 6x8 isn't as small as it sounds. I am going to go ahead with the original plan so that I will have a place for kids at night.

Happy New Year!

Here are a few pictures of my 10 x 16. I hope to keep only 2 adult does (so far so good). As you can see from the stand, I do milk in this area also. The 2 stalls are approx 5 x 5. I do keep the feed in my garage.

SPIKE

I also found that a fan for summer and a small heater for winter was very nice and lights for dark days or if I had to milk in the dark gets dark awfully early in the winter

Spike - Wow - nice stalls! So with the two stalls do you keep the two does in one stall and kids in the other? Or does each doe get her own stall?

BARN ENVY! Both of my goat barns are repurposed chicken houses. :(

Kittyjo - I had not thought of a fan yet - great idea! There will not be electric plumbed to the shed but it is close enough to the house to run one electric cord for a fan or something.

I am thinking about having my husband put 3 of those translucent panels in the roof - like skylights - but I am concerned about it making it too hot in the summer. Does anyone else have these?

First let me add, YOU CAN NOT BUILD TOO BIG!! LOL

The 2 stalls are used as need be at any given time. Right now the 2 girls are sharing a stall. Mainly because I do not wish to use more bedding than is needed. LOL But also because it is better for them this time of year to share the warmth.

When kidding starts, They will need seperate stalls at least for a bit. My 2 does are breed a month apart. I dam raise kids and milk once a day ASAP. While the second kids are young, each group will need their seperate stall. When the kids can share a stall at night, then I will try that. If I need to then the 2 sets of kids can have the stalls at night and I will bed the does outside the stalls. When it is milking time, I can always tie one of the does until it is her time on the milk stand.

SPIKE

In this picture you can see my chicken house to the right (as you look at the picture) of the does' house. On the roof of the chicken house is a solar panel that provides minimum lighting when needed for the chicken's and goat's area. It is just a cheap solar panel from Harbor Freight, but it has served my needs. I have purchased a second panel, but have not installed it yet. This winter I did not worry about extending the period of light for the chickens. The light was more needed for early monning milking.

SPIKE

I have used a type of plastic on a portion of my barn to let the sunshine through during winter months. You can see it in the collage below. (I love it!) My barn, however, is a total of about 30 ft x 55 ft...just guessing; so if the sunshine in that area gets too warm, the goats can easily move around and avoid it. (I also have a window on the 2nd lvl for the same reason..heat during cold months.) As you can see, I also have the barn "vented" by wire around the rafters of the loft to let out any excessive heat the baled hay may produce. (I've not lost one bale of hay!)

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...arncollage.jpg

Typed a response and hit some mysterious key - POOF - all gone:duel:

Anywho - Spike - you are right that normally you can't build too big but in this case my DH decided on this size because he can load the shed on a trailer and move it to a new location if we have to. And the small size also limits how many dairy goats I can have. :hysterical: Probably self preservation there LOL.

I had thought about solar panels for lights, a radio , fan (thanks kittyjo) but just had not checked into the price for the panels and a battery yet. I will check that at Harbour Freight and Northern tool. - Thanks!

Motdaugrnds - yours is the picture I had seen before that gave me this idea! All that light makes your barn look so bright and cheery. With a barn that big and tall I am not sure how much it increases the temps but with mine being so small - even the ceiling height is only 6' at the back - I may just tell him to make it all the white solid panels.

Thank you for posting those again - I will show them to DH and see what he thinks.

I really like your barn! That is a building with real character!

SPIKE

Bay Mare, I would not make the entire top of those "white solid panels", if in fact those panels are the type sunshine will be coming thru. (It would be too warm too often.)

Spike, thanks for the appraisal. We still have people stopping their cars on the state road just to look at it. :) I actually designed it myself; so it certainly has the touch of a W-O-M-A-N! ROFL [It was created out of "damaged" wood (Yes even 6x6x10 were cheap because they were damaged in some way.) and wood other people in the area had thrown away. And many of the "huge" studs/posts holding it up were cedar tree trunks with the bark taken off that we had cut from our place...our first "Alpine" buck voluntarily pushed one of those 26' long tree trunks over 200 ft across the acreage to where we stood it in the 4' hole I had dug for it.]

Aww y'all are making me want goats again! Hopefully by next year... I am working too much right now.

My old milking parlor was a converted camper trailer, divided into 3 sections. My milking section was probably about 6x8, and I had another 6x8 stall in the back for kids. The section in between was storage for feed and equipment. It worked great. It depends how many goats you are milking, but I think that is enough room. I had 2 stanchions in the milking section of my trailer, but usually only used one at a time. I am a small person, but it was comfortable and didn't feel too cramped. My boyfriend is 6'2" and he had a little bit of a harder time when he milked :)

Oh not the ones that let light pass thru - these are a solid white plastic (?) material. We used them on a small project (now the new buck house) a few years ago. They have lasted thru a few hail storms and so we are going to use them again with this. I am just trying to decide if I want to use 3 clear panels with them for light.

I understand about not enough time. That is why I am still trying to work 2 milk stands into this small space. I think it would save me time in the mornings if both girls were on stands at the same time. And there will only be two milkers at any time. There are only two people so we can only use so much milk.

I will tell you that the 'standard' width for a milk stand is quite generous. If you haven't built yours yet, you can reduce the width. I have to put a bucket between the goat and the wall so she doesn't move out of arm's reach.

I'll measure this evening, but I think 18" wide would be ample.

Oh I had not thought about reducing the size of the stand - that is a good idea! I have had to chase a first time milker all over the place because she had too much "run" room anyway.

The stand I have now will probably become strictly a hoof trimming/treatment stand for the meat goats. It is a bit on the weathered side from living under the cedar trees for the past couple of years but it still has some life in it.

Oh yes, that is exactly why I built a 2 ft wall on the side of the floor where I milk. With the doe's head held at one end and that 2' wall, even the most reluctant doe cannot get away. :)

Milking area
 

Hi Bay Mare, I think your goats spaces look really nice. I am new to goat keepin myself so my spaces are forever evolving. Every time I see someone elses barns I go home and want to change or add something. My hubby is so tired of hearing the phrase" I've got an idea"..... LOL

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