Good morning and happy new year to you! One of the things I am working on for 2014 is a series called Fresh Milk 101.
There is now a tab across the top labeled Fresh Milk 101 where you can go to check out all of our posts about milking animals, milk handling, and the best part of all, cooking with fresh milk from your own animals! I will be adding to this frequently, so be sure to check back or sign up for Beulah’s Moooooosletter so that you don’t miss a thing!
Our first stop on this journey to delicious fresh milk is a tour of our milk room!
Milk Room Tour
We have a very odd milk room. The former owners of our house were very into musical theatre, so they built a practice room in the barn complete with a stage, curtains and a mirrored wall. Today that has become my milk room. Yes, it has some odd features, but we make it work.
Here is a video that might be helpful. (Please disregard the unflattering sweater.)
For those who aren’t into videos, I’ll walk you through it.
First we come to the goat milking stand. Goats stand on the platform and put their head through the keyhole opening to eat. I hang their bucket on the other side and generally they stand nicely while I milk them. Generally.
I also have my cabinet of supplies and medicines and on the floor is a very helpful device called a (affiliate link) Kow Kant Kick.
Next we have Beulah’s Cow Corner. I have a short lead rope that I clip to her halter and then to a clip on the wall. She munches from her bucket while I pull up a wee chair and milk.
Finally, I’ll show you the stage. I know you are dying to know what a barn stage looks like! Yes, those are shiny silver curtains. All barns have those, right? We have found that keeping the feed bins on the stage actually works really well, because the goats and the cow all know how to flip the lids off the bucket if you turn your back on them. Keeping them out of reach is a big help in that respect.
Since this series will be ongoing for a while (but not everyday!) would you be kind enough to leave me a comment with any milking related questions you may have? Is there something milk-related you would like to see a recipe or a video for? Just let me know and I will get it added to my list! I want this to be a resource for people on their journey to milking, and I need YOUR input to make that happen!
***This post contains affiliate links. A small percentage of the purchase price of items bought here will go toward keeping this farm and this blog up and running, so thanks!***
Happily shared on Wildcrafting Wednesday and Mountain Woman Rendezvous!
Beulah says You are giving your chilled goat warm water with molasses. That is good but adding some vinegar that still has the mother in it makes it even better. The acetic acid bacteria helps break down the food and the lactic acid is converted into butter fat. We used that formula with or herd of dairy goats in the 1950’s and set butter fat production records.
I hope you have a break in the weather so she can get out in the sun for vitamin D that helps too.
Thank you for the tip! I have some Bragg’s ACV in the pantry, I’ll be sure to add some this morning! Luckily, our weather has greatly improved, and she does seem to want to be out in the sun a good bit! I really hope she rally’s through this. She is our oldest goat, but we aren’t sure exactly how old she is. :-/
I love seeing other people’s milk barns and yours is quite stylish with those curtains, I must say. And, I like the sweater. 🙂
LOL! Not everyone has shiny silver curtains in their barns, that’s for sure!
I love touring milk rooms. How funny that yours has a stage. 🙂 I’d like to invite you to share this at our HomeAcre Hop on Thursdays.
Kathi at Oak Hill Homestead
Thank you! I would love to link up tomorrow!
Great Site! I have a dexter cow, Fiona, whom I milked all fall by calf sharing and thoroughly enjoyed it. The milk was second to none, even though she kept most of the BF for baby. The winter has turned me off milking up here in Canada. What do you do to keep you cow’s udder from being uncomfortably cold when washing, etc in the winter or is your milking room heated????
tx
Jenn
Awwww, Fiona the Dexter! I love it! As for the milk room, it’s not “heated” but I do have a small space heater in there to take the chill off. Honestly, it only goes below freezing every once in awhile, and even when I touch her with what I consider icy cold hands, Beulah doesn’t act like she notices. Quite a bit different than Canada, I suppose! When we did get an arctic blast (it got to 7 degrees F) a few weeks ago, we actually left Beulah and baby Bellatrix together at night and then didn’t milk for those few days. My “how to milk” video will go up on the blog soon, and you can see how we wash her udder there. It’s actually already on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYeDTvvWKC0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUdIodSf78dpgE_WaoApmRWQ
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ll come back!
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My grandmother’s house in MA had a milk room attached to it. The house was built in the 1860s. My family had dairy cows (and other animals) in the past. I remember that milk room always being cool, even in the summertime. As an adult, I realize a milk room would be pretty handy for lots of things, including storing grains, potatoes, etc., but I have never seen a milk room other than my grandmother’s. Have you ever seen any other milk rooms, especially ones that were built to be milk storage rooms?
Wow, I’ve never heard of a room like that attached to the house, but I bet it was great for the original owners! Every homestead milk room I have seen is completely different! I haven’t seen any milk storage rooms myself, I bet you can get good info from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund though. They have a big manual on raw milk production!
I have a very stubborn nigerian dwarf (Lydia). She is normally quite lovely, buts he squats after about 30 seconds of milking. This my first year milking her (she came from another small farm). Any suggestions on how to deal with a squatting goat??
My squatter eventually got over it when she was more comfortable on the stand. Until then, I milked her into a pot that was wide, but not very tall, so I could still reach, but it was uncomfortable! I hope this helps!
Thank you! Yes, milking went much smoother this morning with a wide shallow pot. She’s determined to win this battle and so am I 🙂 I am envious of your milk room and will definitely be making some adjustments to mine based on your set up. Thanks for the great resource.
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