What are all the thing I would need to have a milking goat?

Question

I am planning on getting two lamancha goats but I'm not sure all what things i would need.

Answer 1

this link is primarly about sheep but basically similar for goats

http://www.gomestic.com/Pets/Unusual-Pet...

only thing is goats need better fences (some will climb)

Answer 2

I have about 100 goats.  To have milking goats for you family, you need a lot of things.

Well fenced pasture

Shelter for the goats

Water trough

Hay rack

Salt/mineral blocks

Hay for the goats

Some people feed grain, but I do not.

Milking stantion...optional, but highly recomended.

Seamless, stainless steel milking buckets (manditory)

Strip cup & filters (optional for me)

Collars for the does

Lead rope (optional, but recomended)

Glass jars to store you milk in, after properly cooling it

Udder wash

Do you plan to make cheese, or butter?  You will need even more things.

I sugest you order the Hoegger Goat Supply catalog.  Here's a link:

http://hoeggergoatsupply.com/xcart/home....

Hoeggers is great for finding your dairy goat supplies.  LaManchas are a terrific choice of goats, by the way!  Very sweet natured, and high butter fat content in their milk (that means easier cheese and butter making).

Don't go overboard ordering supplies.  Do concider making your milking stantion, and hay racks yourself.  I highly reccomend hay racks that are built as keyhole feeders.  It keeps the goats from wasting so much of their hay.

Order only the most basic supplies you have to (they are expensive enough) and go from there.  

Seamless, stainless steel buckets are NOT an optional...they are a MUST.  Plastic is filled with pours and will trap bacteria, eventually causing your family to become ill.  Seamless, stainless steel is the ONLY proper thing to milk into.  The buckets are expensive.

To properly cool your milk, bring it in, pour into glass jars (filter if you need to) and set the glass jars in the sink.  Have frozen bottles of water (like plastic soda bottles) and stick them all around the milk jar, then put cold water into the sink.

The proper handling of milk, means to cool it as rapidly as possible.  Just sticking your jar of fresh milk into the fridge will NOT cool it rapidly enough.

Be sure you put your plastic bottles of water back in the freezer.  Remember you will be doing it all over again, 12 hours later.

To have milk from does, you have to get them pregnant and that means kids.  You need to resign yourself right from the start that some of those kids are going to be boys.  There simply are not enough pet homes for all those boy goats, no matter how cute, and how charming.  Make peace with the idea that those boy kids are going to go to be eaten right from the start.  Then you can allow yourself to be pleasantly suprised if any of them do manage to get pet homes.

All of the "milk" from the first 24 hours of a does lactation needs to go to the kids.  It's filled with colostrum that the kids desperately need to have a healthy start in life.

If you have questions, feel free to email me.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years