Milking Supplies?

Does that hand vacuum pump have any pulsation or is it constant vacuum. Isn't constant vacuum bad for their teats?

__________________
Insatiably Curious

We have a similar milker - the maggiedans. http://www.maggidans.com/milker.htm
It does the job, it's just simple stuff you can get from the hardware store...
if we needed another, I'd make it myself
Hubby has trouble with small teats so if he "needs" to milk for some reason
we have it available.
We did notice that it left pressure marks and even made some of our does
bleed from the very top of the cup, it needs some padding around the plastic
edges I think and perhaps they were dry also (it was in winter)...
but we don't use it often enough to give a FULL review - it's just too much work.
I much prefer to milk by hand when it's just a few goats in milk.

Suzy, how do you dilute the chlorhexadine? Is that what you use to wash before milking?

I just use diluted blue dawn to wash before - it works
Just a few drops in the spray bottle and water... spray on, towel
off (or I used to bring a bucket and a wash cloth w/ water and
a few drops of blue dawn- that works well when it's muddy out
and they may be dirtier than usual).
Paper towel off, fold to a clean side or the paper towel and I squirt
my first few on there so I can see it and make sure all looks well, then
I toss it or wash it if it's a rag

I think Alice wrote up top that she uses the chlorexadine diluted in a spray
bottle.

There are directions on the bottle, but I fill a spray bottle with water and put a schlurp of Chlorhexadine in it.

A schlurp is part of the official measurement system of Capridonia. A schlurp is less than a glug.

__________________
Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

I just use a shlurp of Clorox in the wash bucket with a touch of dish soap. Its has to be name brand bleach, the other stuff really bothers me.

I bought a pack of those white rags from Costco. Some I cut in half and those are my wash rags. The whole rags I use for drying the bag.

it has a constant vacume that you control ,with the parts being clear you can see the milk start flowing and can keep it at that pressure i'm thinking that if you were to try to hurry up the milking and add more vacuum it may do daage.it has worked well for me so far . there are no sharp edges to scratch or cut the teat (?) .with the small amounts of parts clean up is simple .

What if you are milking to feed bums? Do you still so the whole process of filtering and cleaning udder etc? I'm guessing so but never thought much about it I guess. I'm new to goat milking. We had a dairy farm when I was a kid but that was milk for human consumption so a little diff. This will be strictly for critters. No one in my house will drink it

cleaning the udder is as much for the benefit of the goat or cow as for the drinker of the milk . as will keepevery thing else clean filtering out any dirt of stray hair that gets in the bucket sure can't hurt the bummers and will make cleaning your bottles easyer you can also watch for lumps in the milk at this step as a warning sign of mastititice .

Thanks. That's what I thought. Since the kids will be left with her, do I dip her teats with the iodine stuff (we did with our cows but they were dairy cows and the calves weren't on them)

we never did when we used a nurse cow the iodine may do more harm than good when feeding awe natural . mother nature seems to do a good job on her own :-)

Thank you. I truly appreciate that you use the technical terms so I can be as accurate as possible in my measurements.

I use a schlurp of ACV in a gallon of water.
I also milk into mason jars, then up to the house, strain into another mason jar through good quality cheesecloth (I make a small well in the cheesecloth and use the jar lid or rubber band to hold it on the jar), changing cheesecloth squares with every jar filtered.
Then it's into the freezer for 90 minutes then into the coldest part of the fridge.

__________________
" It's better to ride even if you get thrown, than to wind up just wishin' ya had."

Chris Ledoux

When I am just milking for kids or other animals, I still wash udders, but I don't bother with filtering or chillling quickly or anything. I just keep a 5 gallon bucket handy and pour into that and then put in fridge in my barn. I do teat dip regardless of whether kids are on or not, as I don't know if the kids are going to nurse right away and I have also had does that I would let the kids out (after locking up at night and letting out during the day), and she would get annoyed by their pestering and lay down...wouldn't want an open orifice laying down like that in the dirt before getting nursed. Teat dipping just takes a second, so I figure it's worth it just in case.

__________________
Nancy Boling
Frosted Mini Goats
Alpine and Nigerian Dwarf goats
2 Jersey heifers
1 guard llama
And whatever else shows up...
http://www.swfarm.net/

I use an 8qt stainless steel stock pot. Never saw the need for an expensive bucket. I think I paid like 6.00 at the dollar store for it. I zip tied some split rings onto the handles and use a double ended dog leash thing (I think it's called a coupler) for a handle, and I remove it after use. We had the coupler laying around, you could make one out of rope and spring snaps. I have a 12 qt and another 8 qt that I use as a double broiler for pasteurizing.

For heat treating colostrum I use a multi-cooker I bought for 20.00 from Wal-Mart years ago... I long ago figured out where the dial needs to be for 130*, and marked it. Now I just set it up when a doe is in labor and can immediately heat treat colostrum and it's set to the right temperature and will hold it for as long as it's plugged in. Works great for me. I put the colostrum in pint jars and submerge them in water in the multi cooker and put a thermometer right inside of one to measure the temp.

I use plastic little 1 gal buckets for udder wash that are cheap at Menards ( I use water, a bit of dawn dish soap, and a splash of bleach - I think udder wash pre milking and post dipping are some of the simplest steps for udder health and milk quality). We post dip with that or chlorhexidine spray that is cheap do dilute out and keep in a spray bottle. To pre-wash, I dampen a paper towel and wipe down the teats and base of udder pre-milking, brush the belly with a hand to remove any clinging straw, and milk.

I do have the mini filter and filter pads. I strain into a gallon size glass jar we have, and then into the pasteurizer stock pot; you can strain right into the jars if you're doing raw.

PRACTICE with your does before they freshen. See the training to the milkstand thread.

__________________


Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.