So you’ve bought some goats with the dreams of filling your refrigerator with fresh, raw white-gold, but you have no idea where to start? You’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to learn how to milk a goat.
The first thing you will need is a goat milking stand. While you can milk a goat without a stand, it isn’t really ideal unless you plan on fighting your kicking goat the whole time and ending up with a major back ache (trust me when I say, this is NOT fun!).
While you can purchase stands readily available from different places, I personally built my stand. You can find most building plans with a quick google search.
Along with the milking stand, you need some sort of feed trough to attach to the front. You can build a wooden box to attach, or purchase a plastic one and screw it into the milking stand.
The steps of getting the goat on the stand are actually pretty easy. First I make sure that their trough is full of feed. I started my girls on the purina goat feed with the green label. They loved it! It is a sweet textured feed. You can also find feeds specifically for dairy goats at most feed stores.
I cannot stress this enough when getting your goat on the stand for the first few times….MAKE SURE THE HEAD GATE IS OPEN! Trust me when I say that a grumpy goat is not a fun goat to milk. Ensuring that the head gate is open is a great way to avoid GGS (grumpy goat syndrome).
After your goat is up on the stand, eating her little heart away and her head closed in the gate comes the fun part…MILKING!
The first thing that I do is hobble my goat. A traditional hobble is a short piece of strap with a buckle and velcro which allows you to connect the goats back legs together. I personally just use some small diameter rope with a slip knot on one end and anchored to an eye-bolt on the other.
For the actual milking process I use a few different items. The major ones are teat wipes, a milking bucket, and a teat dip. You can find more about the equipment needed by reading our blog post about milking equipment found here.
Before milking, I always wipe off any dirt or lose hair with a teat wipe. I use the milk check teat wipes that you can find here. Baby wipes also work well in a pinch.
After you have made sure that both teats and the udder are cleaned, you can start the milking process. The first thing that I always make sure to do is “strip the teat”. This makes sure that there is no blood, dirt, abnormalities, or old milk in the teat canal. Typically 3-4 squirts from each teat will do the trick. Some people have a designated “teat strip cup” for this, but I personally just strip my goats into a feed bowl, inspect it, and if it’s good, set it down for the barn cats. You can also strip the teats into the used teat wipe before throwing it away.
After you have stripped both teats, let the milking begin! Put your stainless milking bucket under the udder and softly grab the teat. When I first started milking, I started with one hand. Because Nigerian Dwarfs have relatively smaller teats when they first freshen, I would grab the teat with the thumb and center section of my index finger. Starting where the teat and udder meet, squeeze, and gently pull down.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it from the beginning. Milking is a skill that is to be learned, and not known off the bat.
Repeat milking on both sides of the udder from both teats. Once you have milked your goat, or goats, out completely, It’s time to “dip” the teats.
When I started out, I used a mixture of 50/50 apple cider vinegar and clean water. Now, my favorite “dip” is the Fight Bac spray. You can find it here. Just hold the can about ½” below the teat and spray upward, covering the teat orifice.
Once milking is done, take your milk to the house IMMEDIATELY!
The sooner that the milk is strained and cooled, the better it will taste.
My simple straining method consists of a stainless canning funnel and a plastic coffee filter. Just set the filter inside of the canning funnel that is on top of a clean mason jar. Pour your milk into the filter, and as it drains the filter will catch any hair that may have fallen in the bucket while milking.
Get this milk into the refrigerator as soon as possible. I cannot stress this enough! Make sure to date the lid with a dry erase marker. Make sure to store your milk in glass! Not metal, and not plastic. Glass is best.
Once all milk is strained, labeled and cooled; start the cleanup process. I personally wash any glass, stainless, or coffee filter in the dishwasher or a sink of hot soapy water and rinse. Allow everything to dry completely, or towel dry before storing.
Congratulations! You have successfully milked your first goat! Check out our From-Scratch Cooking section for goat milk recipes.