Quirks & Milkstand Manners..

[LoneStrChic23]

How are your girls on the stand? Any odd quirks? Once I noticed my girls had very different manners on the stand I started wondering about the quirks some of y'all deal with.....

After breaking my finger and giving me a twice daily rodeo in the begining, Tootsie, my FF mini alpine has turned into a total doll on the stand.....She rarely moves to the far side of the stand anymore, moves her hind legs out of my way for easy milking and is usually on the stand waiting for me come milking time. No fits or tantrums anymore...

She rarely fidgets, unless there is a reason.....like tonight when the biting flies came out, she got fidgety (understandable)...

The other reason she'll get fidgety is if she needs a bathroom break.....so far, Tootsie will not potty on the stand....if she gets really fidgety, I can let her off, she'll hop down, go pee and hop right back on the stand! Past few days I'll get the others out of the milking area and as soon as I lock the gate, she'll go pee in the corner, then trot to the stand....Have become used to this behavior since about the 2nd or 3rd week of milking..

She also will not get off the stand after milking unless I give her her peanuts....If I'm in a rush and forget, she will stand there staring at me.... if it takes me too long to catch on, she'll huff....lol I'm getting better and rarely forget her peanuts anymore

Sabrina on the other hand was so easy, right from the start, no rodeo at all. In fact the first several times I milked her it was on the ground, untied until I completed my stand.

BUT Sabrina isn't as well mannered as Tootsie.....without fail every time I put her on the stand, she'll poop as soon as I wash her udder off! And currently she's pooping big berry clumps instead of single berries that fall through the stand floor, so it sits there and smells. Not to mention she even pees on the stand!

She is so easy to milk though, very calm and eagerly hops on the stand.....just wish her manners were a bit more like Tootsie's...

Have decided that even though she is a love bug....Sabrina is just crude! She loves to snuggle up close, stretch her neck, look you right in the face and burp up a fresh cud!! *gag* Nastiest smelling stuff ever, but without fail she'll do this to anyone she can.... I think she thinks it's funny, because once she's blown that noxious gas in your face, she prances away from you looking quite smug....

Sabrina's other quirk is she likes her scratch down after milking.....use both hands, one on each side of her neck and scratch from behind her ears all the way to her hips....if I forget this crucial, after milking step, I can barely get through the gates due to her being under foot & leaning on me....Such a brat

I know my goats are rotten lil' boogers, but surely mine aren't the only ones with odd quirks......

[CaliannG]

Mardis Gras wants her full body scratch and lovin's and told that she is a good girl.

Neither one of my girls will poop or pee on the milkstand. I have had ONE Nubian who would.

Mardi will just stand there and munch, look, munch, look, munch, look...and she expects her treat to be IN the feed bin when she gets on the stand. Otherwise, she will turn around and WAIT for you to put her treat in the feed bin before she will stand still to milk. Once she has her treat in there, she stands rock solid unless she wants to stretch a leg or two...and then she does so slowly to let me know she is going to be moving some.

Brie, on the other hand is no nonsense. She is up on the stand and immediately has her nose buried in the feed. Treat, or no treat. She will also squat just a bit for me to milk, or raise a leg a bit, while she greedily stuffs her face as fast as she can. Her main concern is food and as long as there is food in front of her, she doesn't care what you are doing.

Mardi Gras lets down for me instantly, and it is like a pipe broke and the milk is rushing out. Brie takes a little while to let down fully. Once she does, though, she has huge orifices, so it is like Niagra falls.

Brie takes exactly 1 minute and 38 seconds longer for me to milk than Mardi Gras, and consistently gives 4 ounces less than Mardi. However, while Brie doesn't have the capacity that Mardi does, her attachments are much better. Mardi has longer teats which are a bit easier to milk, but Brie's teats are more structurally sound.

~grinz~ They are both great does....and I am so glad they don't poop or pee on the milk stand.

I hope my standard alpines end up as well mannered.

[LoneStrChic23]

LOL! I knew mine weren't the only ones.....

Sabrina instantly drops milk and she's also like Niagra Falls....Tootsie takes a lil longer to let down, but not by much.

I soooooo wish Sabrina wouldn't potty on the stand! And I love that if Tootsie really needs to go, she'll fidget, then go do her business in the corner and come right back on the stand to finish.....Almost makes me wonder if she could be potty trained! lol

Wish I knew how to get Sabrina to follow Tootsie's lead.....so far that's my only complaint with her.....she's so super easy to milk, stands perfectly still and only kicked the bucket once....and that was after the shaving/dressing her in a sweater ordeal, so I think that was pure pay-back

She's 4 weeks fresh, nursing 1 kid 24/7 & is giving me at least 7lbs per day (today was a hair over 8), add to that her total cooperation on the stand...be it milking or hoof trimming, and I guess I have no right to complain about some of her crude habbits

[RedSonja]

I'm just learning Madeleine's personality as she's only been here a week but she's turning into a character. She will stand still for milking and squat a bit to get out of my way, and she has such nice teats and orifices that I can milk her out in less than five minutes. However... she does NOT like udder massage to get more milk to let down. No sirree Bob. That turns her into the amazing tap dancing goat, every time. I'm okay with that, as every time I've done it in spite of the the Irish jig, I've not gotten any more milk out of her anyway, so we are skipping the massage with her.

She also thinks she can decide when milking time is over, by dancing away. That one she doesn't get away with though, and I'm glad one of my milking stands has a side wall else she would be off the side and hang herself. I'm doing pump and dump with her these last few days since she got Cydectin on Sunday morning so I'm fine with milking out on the ground to strip her out. So the timing on that is good, I can work with her til she realizes I say when we're done and not worry about wasting drinkable milk.

Other than that she's a total love bug. She will come up to me and rub all over me and wrap her neck around me expecting scritchies. She loves to have her neck and shoulders massaged.

My other two does that were in milk when I got them are pretty good on the stand, one likes to stamp her feet if she thinks it's going on too long but otherwise, they're great. Never had a goat poop or pee on the stand, that would be highly annoying.

-Sonja

[CarolT]

Let"s see, Rosie's into S&M, _have_ to tie her back legs and this is my second year milking her. Most days she behaves well after that. Her teats are almost too long, hard to work it all with a smooth motion. This last week I've had her poop on the stand twice, which is a new one! First time caught me by surprise, second time I saw the tail rising and snatched my jar away and hardly missed a beat. I wonder if it's not because she doesn't think about going before we get to the stand because her kids are calling? Tonight I'm going to try to encourage her to go first... We'll see

[Manchamom]

My first freshener is doing really well on manners. Jumps right up and stands reasonably well for me.
She loves loves loves her massage with a little cocoa butter to strip out and holds her leg out sideways so I can reach better.

[Oat Bucket Farm]

Both my girls do great on the stand.

Tally hops up and gets down to the business of letting down milk and eating. She has never peed or poo'd on the stand. When she goes up in production she gets a little antsy at the last and I set the bucket on the floor and put the lid on it and milk into a small SS bowl and pour it into the bucket if it gets full. But all in all she is a great goat to milk.

Hershey gets on the stand and pretty much stands like her feet have been glued to the stand. She lets her milk down with no problem and has never pottied on the stand either.

[Cheribelle]

My Allison (saanen) and I are learning together. No pottying on the stand so far, she gets really jittery when her feed pan is running low, so I refill it. The main thing with her is NO DOGS ALLOWED IN THE BARN. She actually growls at them. It takes a bit of massage to get her to let down, and I have to start with my Udderly EZ milker because her teats are small. After she gets going I can finish by hand.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Make sure your goats have time for potty business between your arrival in the goat pen for milking and putting them on the stand. After they have been lying around, they MUST have time to pee and poo. I call to my goats as I arrive in the goat yard, and I feed the cats and horses first. This gives the milkers time to get up and take care of business!

As for quirks.... I have a LARGE Saanen/LaMancha cross who does NOT climb or jump or take more than one foot off the ground at the same time. Her mother is this way, too. There was NO way she was going to get UP on a milk stand. So, I built a milk stand with no legs. She loves it! It's *her* milkstand.

Also, *everybody* gets a peanut butter cracker after milking. They won't go out the door without one.

[Blue Run Farm]

My Snickers is really easy to milk, or will be once she freshens. But she was really good last time. Stood stock still and was even patient if she ran out of food. Good thing, because it was my first year milking. I love my Snickers! We really bonded, I took her from a bad situation and got her healthy and she seems to know it. When I took her to the buck this year, the buck owner commented on how bonded she is to me. We tried to give them a little privacy and she ran over to the gate and stood there until I came back, like she was afraid I was going to leave her.

Sweetie, my goat with the udder issues, is a first-time milker. She is learning and doing really well. Was really dancey at first and stuck her foot in the bucket a few times. I got a pair of hobbles and that kept her feet down, though she still hopped around. But with patience and lots of praise, plus one or two "ah-ah"s, she is getting better. Sometimes I can milk her without the hobbles, but usually she needs them. Once they are on, she is standing stock still until she runs low on food. Then she demands a refill, lol. When I got her she had never even been on a lead, so she is learning that too. She is a good girl and seems to want to please, so I am hopeful that we can get her through her udder problems and she comes back CAE negative. My 7 year old son named her Sweetie because she is so sweet. And he is tough, if a goat is not nice to him, he will not go near that goat. So, for him to name her that is pretty special to me.