Hands down, who makes the best milking machine on the market; for the money of course? I am in the market to buy the best I can find since my wife pointed has out that if I get sick there's is no one to milk our cows, and I am prone to get sick these last few years since my illness forced retirement. Any opinions? (And of course, home built would be great if I could find a plan.) Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
The only thing faster or more dependable than a big ole fat calf, is two of them when it comes to doing the milking.
This is true Uncle Will, but I was thinking to keep the milk for the table and not as veal. Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
If you milk out what you need and let the calf have the rest, your wife could just let the calf have it all. How long are you unable to milk when you are sick, or is there any way of knowing. Keeping some milk frozen would give you a supply while you were unable to milk.
Okay, I see where your going. I don't have any calves just now, but you theory is valid and proven. Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
Haggis, It might be easier to teach someone to hand milk as your replacement. When I first got my cow I never hand milked before and the first few weeks had a really bad time as I guess most first time milkers do. So I went and bought a brand new machine(figured I didn't have time to research used) by the time it got here and tried to figure out what was up with it(no experience with them either) I could milk her out safely and the machine is still in the box.. In a month or so (hopefully) my 3rd cow will freshen, maybe my hands will give out and the machine will be useful.. LOL. Tom
Tom McLaughlin Just now I only have two Jerseys in milk, but soon I hope to have my several of my Milking Devons in milk and milking as well. We don't need so much milk but our kids use 3 to 5 gallons a day between them, and we use a gallon. The rest I want to feed to my chickens and future pigs. Feed is spendy, milk just takes time to collect from the cow. As I was told as a child, "It all depends on what you have most: time or money." In this case a milking machine would cost in the short run but could save money in the long run; especially if I can't milk for a while and someone keeps my girls from getting sick or going dry. Milking 1 cow is fun, 2 are tiring, more than 2 and I would have trouble finding a gullible child or friend to stand in; but then, this you already know. Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor
. Milking 1 cow is fun, 2 are tiring, more than 2 and I would have trouble finding a gullible child or friend to stand in; but then, this you already know. Haggis @ Wolf Cairn Moor[/QUOTE] If it helps the new a milker I purchased was from E-ZEE Milking Equipment 3910 Newport Rd. Gordonville, Pa. 1-800-729-4118. They will send you information and price list. They do handle used milkers. . Tom
Ok, I just can't help myself........... Farmer goes into the implement dealer and tells the dealer that he needs a milking machine. The dealer tells him that he is out of his mind, he only has one cow, and the expense would be more than the cow was worth, and that the money would be better spent on a new tractor. Farmer tells the dealer that he doesn't care, and he wants a milking machine. The dealer says, listen, you would need to install airlines, electyical, milk lines, a bulk tank and cooler, filters, and a cleaning system, and it would cost a ton, and you would get much more value out of a new tractor. Farmer tells him that he don't care, he wants a milking machine. Now the dealer, being a member of the comunity and an extremely ethical person, tells the farmer that he would not feel right profiting from such a transaction, and will in fact not sell the farmer a milking machine, unless the farmer can provide a good reason why he really needs a milking machine. The farmer says..." Well, I was milkin' the old girl this morning, and she kicked the bucket over. Thinks I, I'll fix the old bag, and I ties her hind leg back to a post. I sits down, and comences to milk agin, and (darned if I know how) she manages to kick the bucket over with her other foot. Thinks I, I'll fix her good, and I tie her other leg back. I sits down, and starts to milk, and danged if the old wench starts swinging her crap encrusted tail in my face. I gets aholt of the tail and tie a twine string around it, set a bucket upside down, stood on it and ties her tail up to a floor joist above her. After all this activity, nature called, and standing behind the cow on the bucket as I was, I just whipped it out, and started to do my business. About that time, my wife walked into the barn.................IF YOU CAN CONVINCE HER I WAS MILKING THAT COW I'LL BUY YOUR DAMNED TRACTOR!"
So far I have looked at those offered by the Parts Dept., E-Zee Milking Equipment, and MD Perry out of Louisiana. The Part Dept. offers a great complete milking machine and pays the shipping for a single cow machine for $1344. E-Zee Milking Equipment offers a great complete milking machine at $1215. They sent me a catalog post haste. MD Perry of Louisiana sent me an email and a photo of the E-Zee Milking Equipment milker and asked $1225 for it. All of these milkers are single cow milkers with #65 buckets. So far these are all that I've heard of and all that I can find. These prices are not absurd and I'll most likely buy one from E-Zee Milking Equipment, but I wish that I could find a schematic for building a pump so that I could fully understand how they work. The fellow that sold me my 2 Jerseys built his own from used parts then bought a new claw and some cups for well under $500; he was milking 9 cows at the time and had several surge buckets operating off the same pump. He said he built his own pump for $200. He doesn't use it now as he started hand milking his cows after he went non-electric on his farm; and no his is not for sale. A fellow never knows on a farm when they might mash a finger and not be able to milk for a while. I see some good buckets on Ebay and all they would need are some new cups and maybe a claw to be good to go. A lot of Cadillac version milk buckets are going for $150. I suppose that some would need a new claw (about $100) and some new cups and maybe hoses; these are fairly inexpensive. Most likly the easiest way to go is buy the E-Zee Milking Equipment milker. The second "best" and a bit cheaper would be; buy the E-Zee Milking Equipment pump and a milk bucket off Ebay to refurbish. Maybe, just find someone looking to sell a good used and complete machine. Lastly, try to find a schematic for building my own pump, and then do the Ebay bit for the milk bucket. I am still looking and thinking. Right now I am only milking 1 cow (I dried off the other as we were getting too much milk and she was due for a rest anyway.) so it is a good time to be looking and preparing fo the day when I may be milking 6 or 7 cows. I really appreciate you folks giving me some leads. If I bump into some more information I'll post it.
I've just discovered that a used medical pump can be used to run a surge milker. These pumps may be bought for $30 to $50 and operate at 0-30# of pressure (or inches of mercury for those of you who do the physics thing); surge milkers and cows prefer about #12 to #15 so a medical pump is well within the range needed. Of course I haven't tried it but what an idea. Buy a used surge milker in good condition off Ebay for well under $100 and a used medical pump for half that. Later, after the pieces arrive, a tank can be made of PVC. It would kind of put one in mind of those used in Romania and Croatia; cheap to make and light to move around.
Farm Show magazine had an article a couple months ago about a guy who built his own system. He used a regular claw and, I think, a bucket, but for vacuum, he put a port on his car's vacuum line. It was pretty ingenious. He offered to build a similar system for anyone interested, for around $500. I'll see if I can still find the issue ... it's probably around here somewhere!
I put a setup in my barn to milk one cow. I used the vacuum port from the brake booster on my truck for the vacuum source and pipedinto the parlo0r with 1/2" PVC tubing - added a vacuum gauge and an isolation valve to control it. It works like a charm even though all the local never heard of it & think I'm nuts (maybe their right). All the old tractors used to have vacuum ports on the manifold as when farmers started using electric milkers the electricity wasn't reliable so their tractors were their back-up vacuum source. Add an old surge milker with some new inflations and you are in business. John
Pretty cool using a vehicle to run a milk bucket. You wouldn't want to email me some photos of your system would you? Or Maybe someone would mail me a copy of the article in Farm Show magazine if they can find it? I wonder if a person could use an old motor and pump from a refridgerator or air conditioner? If I can get to the bottom of this whole deal you can bet I'll post a "how-to" so that anyone who can tinker can have their own milking machine; if they want one.
We bought ours used. We got an old Delaval vacuum pump from a retired farmer and bought the Surge bucket with all it's parts on Ebay. We paid $50 for the vacuum pump and $69 for the milk bucket. You can find them cheaper on Ebay but we wanted one with all new rubber ready to go since we haven't used one yet. Works great, now we just have to convince our cow to like it. Patt
Haggis, I would happily take a picture of my system for you if practical but all it would show is 1/2" PVC tubing going from the barn doorway into the stanchion area with a tee with a gauge on it and valve going to the end of the line. I put slip on pipe caps to keep the dirt out when not in use. The rest of it is a piece of nylabraid reinforced poly tubine going from the truck to the PVC on one end and another piece of the same tubing going from the other end to the milk bucket. I got the PVC from the plumbing supplier and the tubing from ACE Hardware store. I got the surge mild bucket with pulsator attached from an old farmer(had not been used in years) and new inflations from the dairy supply store. John
