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<\/a><\/p>\nAnd milking.<\/p>\n
Mostly milking.<\/p>\n
Usually I only have 2 does in milk at a time.\u00a0 Milk from 1 large doe (a Nubian or a Toggenburg) and 1 Nigerian dwarf can easily meet all the dairy needs of our family of 6.\u00a0 Plus provide extra milk for any spring bottle babies and the pigs and the garden.\u00a0 But last fall I bred all 4 of my does.\u00a0 Kind of because I thought it was a good idea.\u00a0 Kind of because I sold my only 2 does in milk and we had to go 4 months without any fresh goat milk so we were jonesing for it.\u00a0 Kind of because I retired a couple goats last year and my goat barn felt like it needed to have a million goat kids to feel full again.\u00a0 Kind of because when I went outside and found a doe with her head stuck in the fence of the buck pen it was easier (and quieter) to just let a buck out to service her than to lock her up with separate feed and water in the back pen for a few days until her heat passed.\u00a0 Kind of because I assumed at least 1 or 2 of the does wouldn’t actually get pregnant but would pretend to be pregnant by not having a second heat and get really fat and lazy and only 155 days after “being bred” would I realize she wasn’t actually pregnant and I’d have to breed her in the spring for a fall kidding.\u00a0 At least 1 goat does that to me every year.\u00a0 But not this year.<\/p>\n
This year every doe kind of decided to kid and once the babies were on the ground and the placentas were cleaned up, we had the most lovely dairy goat honeymoon season.\u00a0 In case you’re not familiar with the honeymoon stage of dairy goats it involves the period of time when the doe is producing plenty of milk but still has nursing kids by her side.\u00a0 This allows you to make daily choices about your milk delivery system.\u00a0 You can:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Separate the kids at night, milk the does in the morning, and then release the kids back to them during the day.\u00a0 The kids will nurse all day, relieving the need to milk in the evening or bottle feed the kids.\u00a0 This provides enough milk for our family and milk for the goat kids.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0 Realize there’s no time to milk in the morning and still get to the kids’ school for Wax Museum Day.\u00a0 Also, recognize there’s no time to milk in between picking up kids from sports practice, making dinner, and getting to work in the evening.\u00a0 So just leave the goat kids with the does all day and night and let the does onto the milkstand once, at some random afternoon time, and get whatever milk is available.\u00a0 This is usually at least 2 quarts of milk, which is plenty of milk for the day.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0 Decide it is too cold to sit on the freezing milk stool (AKA upside down 5 gallon bucket) or deprive the babies of their mother’s body heat and warm milk and leave the goats and kids together all day and night, throw down some grain and fresh water, and hurry back to the heat of the woodstove inside the house.\u00a0 Drink yesterday’s milk.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0 Separate the kids at night with the intention of milking in the morning, wake up to temperatures below freezing, quickly run out and release the kids from the kidding barn so they can alleviate the discomfort of their mothers’ overflowing udders, return to the warmth of the down comforter in bed, and hope that afternoon temperatures are more conducive to milking.\u00a0 If they aren’t, remind The Other Half that it is his turn to milk.<\/p>\n
Basically, the dairy goat honeymoon is a milk-whenever-it’s-warm-or-convenient-or-the-milk-supply-in-the-farm-fridge-is-dwindling situation.\u00a0 With the added benefit of lots of cute and cuddly goat kids to hold.\u00a0 It’s the season of\u00a0having your\u00a0milk and\u00a0drinking it, too.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0when owning dairy goats\u00a0is so easy and milk is so abundant and goat kids are so darling that you\u00a0believe anyone without dairy goats is an absolute moron.<\/p>\n
Too bad stability is the not the strongest\u00a0characteristic of farming.\u00a0 No, the farm is offended by constancy, bored with steadfastness, in love with fluctuation.\u00a0 So before long, those adorable goat kids\u00a0were fighting to sit on\u00a0my lap during milking.\u00a0 Or chewing\u00a0my hair when\u00a0I was\u00a0gathering eggs.\u00a0 Or trying to suck the drawstring out of the hood on\u00a0my barn coat when I was fixing the waterer.\u00a0 And the time spent not milking was spent postings\u00a0baby goats for sale on craigslist.<\/p>\n
Luckily, it was great year for goat sales.\u00a0 Everyone I know sold their goat kids quickly and easily.\u00a0 Our sales were helped along by two important factors.\u00a0 The first was an accidental scheduling of 2 prospective buyers\u00a0at the same time.\u00a0 At first the awkwardness was a bit uncomfortable.\u00a0 But then when the families started carrying their favorite goat kids around, refusing to put them down, and asking if they could pay a deposit immediately before “someone else” did, I recognized this method had it advantages.\u00a0 I sold 4 goat kids that afternoon.<\/p>\n
The second factor was the ridiculous friendliness of Carmen’s babies.\u00a0 Her twin doelings and solid white buckling\u00a0were like debutantes at their first ball.\u00a0 Every visitor was treated to acrobratic twirling and joyful frolicking, topped off with gentle\u00a0nose kisses and lap napping.\u00a0 Even when Carmen’s babies were already sold and deposits paid, visitors were so impressed with their “joie de vivre” they just couldn’t leave without a\u00a0baby goat of their own.<\/p>\n
“Ooooh,” people squealed excitedly as they picked through\u00a0the goat\u00a0kids\u00a0piling onto their laps, climbing onto their shoulders, or munching\u00a0on their clothing.\u00a0 “What are all their names?”<\/p>\n “We leave the names to the new owners,”\u00a0 I stated, spying my drawstring under the milkstand and snapping it up.\u00a0 I refrained from adding that they probably thought their names were variations of “Stop It”, “Get Down”, and “Knock It Off.”\u00a0 And we all breathed a sigh of relief when disbudding was over, first shots were given, and goat kids started heading for their new homes.\u00a0 Kid money was set aside for grain bills, rolls of hay, and, of course, new goats.<\/p>\n Welcome to Ally, our newest Nigerian dwarf doe.<\/p>\n She has good genes and a great udder with especially long teats that are hard to find in a Nigerian dwarf.\u00a0 Plus\u00a0it was\u00a0exciting to add a doe that immediately showed her own “joie de vivre” by headbutting the Great Pyrnenees and raising her ruff threateningly at the other does on her way to check out the feed trough.\u00a0 We love a girl with spirit around here.\u00a0 Being mild-mannered is for sheep, chickens, and super hero alter egos.<\/p>\n But as the money piled up and the number of goat kids declined, the milk production exploded exponentially.\u00a0 Vixen was the first to be left without any kids, meaning she now had to be milked twice a day.\u00a0 Every day.\u00a0 No exceptions.<\/p>\n Which was no big deal.\u00a0 She had the smallest udder of the herd and great orifices so that she milked out quickly.<\/p>\n Besides, after a 4 month break I was happy to be milking again on a regular basis.\u00a0 The mornings were warmer (most of the time), the barn was calmer, my drawstrings were safe, and it was a simple joy to watch the pail filling up and the fresh milk steaming like a morning mist.<\/p>\n Then Julia was down to only 1 kid and so was Vanilla. Which added quite a bit more time to the milking.<\/p>\n I stopped bothering with quart jars and started straining the milk right into the 1\/2 gallon containers.<\/p>\n By the time all 3 of\u00a0 Carmen’s kids were picked up by their new owners, I was beginning to get hand cramps before I was finished milking.\u00a0 Doing a 30 second finger flexion stretch became just as important as straining the milk when I came into the house.\u00a0 It made me scream<\/span> cry<\/span> uncomfortable but at least it gave me back the use of my hand in an open position again.<\/p>\n In addition, the annoying antics of goat kids on the milkstand paled next to the angry bellowing of the does with engorged udders whenever an early morning sound escaped from the house.\u00a0 It seemed as if the bawling began as soon as the coffee pot automatically clicked on in the mornings.<\/p>\n “I’m coming,” I mumbled as I staggered down the stairs.<\/p>\n On the mornings that I returned home from work, the entire herd emerged from the barn, hollering, as soon as the first inch of gravel crunched under my tires.<\/p>\n “I’m coming!” I griped as I hurriedly hauled in my bag and exchanged my work boots for mud boots.<\/p>\n Do you think we were allowed to sleep in on the weekends?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n By the time only 1 kid was left in the barn, the honeymoon was over.\u00a0 I had trouble summoning any of my reasoning behind breeding all of my does, instead of my usual plan of having only 2 does in milk at a time.\u00a0 Having 4 months off from milking during the winter clearly wasn’t worth the readjustment to milking 4 does twice a day.\u00a0 It was becoming pretty clear that I<\/strong><\/em> was the absolute moron.<\/p>\n I tried to pace myself each session.\u00a0 I alternated milking a Nigerian dwarf with a larger doe so that my hands could get a break.\u00a0 I always did my largest producer early on because if I had to deal with this udder when my hands were already cramped into claws….<\/p>\n ….I would just give up.<\/p>\n I tried this sage 1956 advice from Betty Crocker….<\/p>\n ….but I’m not really a 1956 kind of gal.<\/p>\n So I channeled Scarlett O’Hara….<\/p>\n "As God is my witness, I'll never have 4 goats in milk again!"<\/p><\/div>\n ….which made me feel a whole lot better.<\/p>\n Of course, the girls tried to help, too.<\/p>\n Vixen lifted her leg each day to give me easy access and ease the crick in my back.<\/p>\n Sometimes I just had to give Julia’s teats a few squeezes and she milked herself for a while.<\/p>\n Carmen stood steadfast for as long as I took and didn’t even need to have the headgate closed.<\/p>\n And there were some other benefits.\u00a0 With all the goats coming in to eat on the milkstand, I saved a lot of money on grain.\u00a0\u00a0 All my goats get a grain ration, but the ones not getting milked usually eat out of the main feed trough in the barn.\u00a0 I have a creeper feeder that keeps the pony out.\u00a0 But the sheep, AKA Grain Pigs, can fit under it and they make sure to gobble up more than their fair share of grain.\u00a0 “More than their fair share” means eating any at all, since they have free access hay and don’t need grain.\u00a0 Since I didn’t need to put grain in the main feed trough, I didn’t end up feeding expensive dairy ration to the sheep.\u00a0 Although Simon made a point of sitting with his face resting, forlornly, in the empty trough every day.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure if this was an act of protest or the vain hope that if he stood there long enough, the trough would fill itself.\u00a0 Hard to say.\u00a0 Sheep can be….um, slow sometimes<\/p>\n When Julia developed dry, chapped teats I figured that just added to all my woes.\u00a0 Especially because I initially had difficulty applying the Bova Cream.\u00a0 I would pump some cream onto my hands, rub it between my palms a bit to warm it, and then attempt to apply it to Julia’s teats.\u00a0 But before I put my hands on her, it was already gone.<\/p>\n I checked to see if it had dripped onto my pants.<\/p>\n No.<\/p>\n I checked to see if it dripped onto the milkstand.<\/p>\n No.<\/p>\n I looked at my hands again.\u00a0 Apparently, my farmer hands were not just weary and cramped.\u00a0 They were so dry and chapped that they instantly absorbed the Bova Cream before I could put it on Julia.<\/p>\n Huh.<\/p>\n So a little for me.\u00a0 A little for Julia.\u00a0 And in a week we both had soft and silky smooth skin.\u00a0 Don’t you feel pretty, Julia?\u00a0 Don’t you?<\/p>\n But best of all was all that milk.<\/p>\n We didn’t have any pigs to feed.\u00a0 We didn’t have any bottle babies to feed.\u00a0 I was going to experiment with different types of cheese, but all that milking didn’t leave a lot of time for deciphering the terms in the cheese book.\u00a0 Wha??<\/p>\n Good thing there was an entire chapter on using chevre.\u00a0 Which I already knew how to make.\u00a0 My family loved the Southwest flavored chevre.\u00a0 Excellent as chip dip or on tacos.<\/p>\n I almost didn’t get a picture of the chocolate peanut butter chevre pie before it was all eaten.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n