Milking Goats Using The Henry Milker

   I've been milking our goats now for about six weeks, and the whole time I've been using the Henry Milker. After a week of milking with the milker, I made some changes to it. I first made a box for the quart jars and the pressure gun to sit in, and made a special notch on the box and the milking stand so that it can be easily lifted off and put back on. I also added on longer tubes, giving me plenty of slack to get to the goat's udder.

   I wake up every morning at 7, and fill up a pail of cold water. I then get out of the freezer two old sour cream containers that I filled with water the night before and add them to the pail. I also grab a half gallon mason jar and head out to the barn. I start by assembling the Henry Milker, putting on the lids and then hooking up the tubes. I try to remember to turn the valves to close and pump the pressure to make sure it holds the vacuum. I then go get one of the goats. They know which one is first, which is Montana. She runs into the barn, and then runs up to the milk stand but doesn't jump on. She'll then do a lap around the barn and then wait for me to lift her on. I use a seat for them to jump on and then jump onto the milk stand but she doesn't like using it. I need to make a lower seat so she'll jump on. Once she's on, she digs into her grain which gives me time to milk. I start by hand milking four or five squirts into a separate cup to get the old milk out and check for mastitis. After that I take a warm cloth and wipe her udder clean, I also massage the udder with the cloth to get the milk to flow. I then make sure the pressure is a little bit less than 10 on the dial of the pressure gun and then attach one of the cups to the first tit. I slowly turn the valve to allow the vacuum to hold the cup onto the udder and start the flow of milk. I then attach the other cup and do the same thing. I hold one of the cups between my index finger and middle finger and the other one between my ring finger and pinky finger. Even though the vacuum makes them stay on, if the goat starts to move too much she can kick one of them off. As the milk flows, I make sure to keep the pressure between 5 and 10. As the milk flow starts to slow down, I use my thumb to push against the udder trying to squeeze out any milk left behind. If the goat is still nursing kids I don't worry too much about leaving a little milk behind, but if there is no kids then I milk out the last five squirts or so by hand into one of the cups. Once done, I put the cups back on the box and then lift the box out of the way. The whole milking process takes less than five minutes and I usually have to wait for the goat to finish up her grain. Before I let the goat down, I spray her with some udder spray to help stop mastitis from happening . I let Montana down and put her in the run and then grab Sally.

She runs right in and then jumps on the milk stand. She's a good little goat. I do the same process with her making sure to get out all the milk. Once I'm done with Sally I pour the milk into the mason jar and put the jar into the ice water to rapidly bring the temperature down. I rinse out the cups and tubes with warm water and do the same to the lids and jars. I also spray everything with mixture of water and bleach and then rinse again. I can usually do all this while Sally finishes up her grain. I let her down and put her with the rest of the goats. I then grab Montana's kids, which spend the night in their own stall in the barn, and give them to her to take care of during the day.

   



   The whole process takes about twenty minutes for start to finish. Between the two goats, which are both first freshners,  we get about half a gallon of milk a day only milking once a day. Everyone in the family loves the milk and the Henry Milker makes milking a whole lot easier.

Montana five weeks fresh