Lots of Milk!

[Henrietta23]

Just beautiful! Goat paradise!

 

[Rebbetzin]

Love the last pic with the sunset. How pretty. What are you planning on doing with the milk? I've got to make cheese tomorrow. DH has asked for stuffed shells.

Being my husband has said "NO GOATS!" (of course he said that about chickens at first too...) And last night as we were going to sleep, he said the oddest thing... "Wouldn't you rather have a cow?" Go figure!!

The goats belong to my friends, and I just give them a day off on Tuesdays from milking and feeding etc. In exchange for the milk, and I give them some eggs now and then.

I get about 3 gallons for the one day I milk. That is enough to last us a week. I may try to make some cheese when they go out of town for a few days the end of this month.

 

[Rebbetzin]

What beautiful animals! And so much nice milk- from just 2 of them? What are you going to do with the kids? (one of the major factors against us getting milking goats).

Actually there are three goats being milked at the moment. I didn't get any photos of Shortnin'. She is the best milker of them all. She gives easily a gallon a day. Her triplets were just weaned. We have to tape her up or the last of her kids will drain her dry.

Thankfully, they are not my goats, so I don't have to make any hard decisions on butchering the males. I know they try to sell the male kids. Last year they had their first experience in butchering.

I would have a hard time doing the killing. I know I could butcher an animal once it was dead. But.... it is a hard thing to kill an animal that has come to be your friend.

 

[Rebbetzin]

Beautiful goat pictures. Thank you so much for sharing. Is your milking shed the wood structure in the photo? With your climate where do your goats sleep? Just wondering.

gina

Yep, the milking shed is the wood structure. There is a covered "pen" of sorts behind the milking shed made from discarded pallets. It has been used mostly for isolating new moms and babies for a few days.

They seem to sleep out in the open mostly. There is a tall chainlink fence around the pen. No preditors have tried to get in there. We do have Coyotes, and Bobcats in the area. But, it is pretty populated with dogs and people, so rarely do we see any preditors.

 

[Kim_NC]

Oh that was so much fun! They're such a lovely herd. Congrats on your milk!