Where do you milk?

[pookshollow]

Someone mentioned on another thread that they milk in the laundry room. Where do you milk your goats? In the barn, in another building, in the house?

<thinking of a long cold winter ahead and that maybe the milkstand could go in the back room? >

[pookshollow]

Aww, c'mon now - inquiring minds want to know!

[homebirtha]

For now, outside next to the goat pasture. We have a pop-up tent thing to cover it.

[Ark]

I milk in a small dirt floor shed attached to the back of our store room.

Dont think I would want the tracked in dirt, etc in my house - LOL

Rachel

[Goat Freak]

I milked our mutt goat Clara right out in the pasture, before hse dried up. Of course all the milk went to the dogs anyway.

[mpillow]

When the girls were in the chicken shed (before we got chickens) I milked them in empty woodshed stall....

Now I milk in the upstairs of the goat barn where the hay is stored....the goats go up a 6 foot ramp to get "upstairs".

[okgoatgal2]

in the barn, not the goat barn, though. it's currently being used as storage. so, it'll be chilly in the winter, but, hey, that's just part of it.

[pookshollow]

I built a small room inside our "barn" - a 12'x24" metal pole barn, but I haven't finished the walls all the way up, it's basically just a space to keep feed, a baker's rack for shelving and the milkstand. Winters get awfully cold up here, so I am considering moving the milkstand into the back room. It's basically a mudroom, unheated, where we keep the toolchests, freezer, boots and extra feed, with a concrete floor, so it's not like I'd be bringing her into the kitchen!

Anyway, just a thought, wondered if anyone else did it.

[Joann]

We use to milk on our enclosed front porch but , then a few years ago when we started raising everyone by bottle we built a milk room attached to the barn. Theres about 40 at least that get milked every year more sometimes so it's used solely as a milk room complete with the machine. When I use to use the enclosed front porch it was so funny the girls would try to get into everything because I really didn't have a place to milk them. I have milked them in the birthing stalls alot to for there colostrum I don't like to stress them out by making them go on the stand right after they've just kidded.

[debitaber]

I milk in the little garage attached to the kitchen . but used to milk, on the deck, year around and that was cold. now I milk in the garage. and I have a portable pen, that we set up in there. now, this year, I have 8 due at once, going to be fun for sure. and I will have to be in the little grage, but it handy, just oen th kitchen door, and step into the garage.

[SherrieC]

We milk in our Milk Room. It's separate from the barn by a short hallway with a door on each end. There's a door with window to the out side also, and a big window in the front of the room. We don't have much dirt tracked into the milk room. After we are done milking its easy to hose off the milk stands and walls/floors, because they are cement with a drain in the floor.

[pookshollow]

Oh, to have a a barn big enough! When I built my milking parlour (about 6'x8'), I put patio stones down on the dirt floor, so I can sweep it - I don't know if I'd want to put too much water on it though. I still have to finish the walls and maybe put a ceiling up, to keep in the heat, keep out the flies, and maybe storage for hay and straw.

We don't have a garage (or a basement for that matter).

[suzyhomemaker09]

I milk on my back porch...the girls come up the steps and hop right up on their stand ready to be milked. They have a small holding pen where I give them alfalfa pellets while they wait their turns to be milked.

[Alma]

Yes its hard without the perfect barn and milking parlor so for just the one goat I wasmilking her outside very near where the goats are in the holding area. When the weather was good enough that was fine, but when the blackflies came out, of course, I went indoors to milk very quickly. A friend told me about her milking in the back porch and the goats are so clean it was no problem. When I was very sick after surgery my husband brought the goat to me in the mud room and it was great so I didn't have far to go. Luckily we have built a small 8x8' feed room /milking room over the summer so now we have a seperate place. But in a pinch the house is fine, its getting them back out was the problem (they like being close to the family) Take care. Alma

[pookshollow]

I hear ya! I'm sure, given the chance, our little Nubian doeling would come in the house and live with us. The Alpine would come in and take over - she'd be on the table, in the sink, on the counters . . . I already have a cat like that!! Neither of them can understand why I go in the milking parlour and shut the door on them! If they're not in their pens, the little Alpine hurls herself at the door, and the Nubian wails every time I open my mouth to talk to the girl on the stand. LOL

[debitaber]

on our homestead, we have a 4 stall garage, but where I milk, in the little garage, it is attached to the kitchen, and it is hany, so we set our milking parlor up in that, but with in the next year or so, we have to build a milking parlor, because we are going to sell milk, so we have to build one, and get a holding tank and all of that. but it will cost a lot of money, for sure.

[Charleen]

When I read the title of this post, I had to answer, "I milk my goats between their rear legs."

We started out in our old barn, with 4 stalls, quickly outgrew when it came to space for feed bins, milkstand, etc. So, in 2003 we built a 24x36 building. Currently, it has 5 stalls plus space for all the extra things that come with goats; our old kitchen cabinets, peg board on the wall, 2 milk stands, feed barrels, milk machine, small fridge, AI tank, etc.

Already, we wish we had built larger, or a separate room for all the equipment.

My husband made both our milk stands using old cow stancions for head locks. Couldn't do it without him!!

[moosemaniac]

I have a small milk room in the barn, but in summer when it's nice out, I've been known to take the girls out on the grass.

Ruth

[JAM]

We are lucky enough to have a big old barn with a milk room attached. My husband buit a milk stand for the goats. Talk about lucky, we even have a furnace, hot and cold running water, two refrigaratos and plenty of cabinets, plus a desk and long counter. I am spoiled.

[pookshollow]

You most certainly are!! I'm really jealous now - it was cold in my barn this morning.