Milking Agnes, the Goat

Agnes is our La Mancha goat.  She gave birth to Cupcake about six months ago.  We haven't weaned Cupcake yet, but that day is coming soon.  Last week we took blood samples from Agnes and sent them off.  We wanted to test for all the common diseases and things that could pass through the milk and get us sick.  We got the test back and Agnes got a clean bill of health.

We wanted to do a "test" milking in order to see what type of a milker she is.  Will she be calm?  Will she kick?  Goats have only 2 teats whereas cows have 4.  Pound for pound goats are very productive.  Their milk is naturally homogenized.  Unlike cows, where the cream rises to the top, goat milk and cream is combined and doesn't separate like cows.  Here is a look at Agnes' bag.  She has a nice bag full of milk.  We put her up on the goat milking stanchion and hobble her back leg to the stanchion with a lead rope.

I built this stanchion from plans that I found in a magazine many years ago.  It has held up well over the years and is a very useful tool to have.  We put Agnes' head in the head gate and close it around her neck.  As a result, she is unable to pull her head out.  We also feed her some sweet feed in the trough to keep her otherwise occupied.

Tricia uses a quart jar with a muslin rag rubber banded around the opening.  It acts as a filter to keep out dust, hay, hair and other particles we don't want in the milk.

Milking a goat is quick work - if the animal is behaving.  Annie, our Nubian goat, did not behave.  She was not a good milker at all.  She would kick and thrash about.  She would sit down.  Just horrible.  I thought many times about putting her on the barbecue pit.  However, she delivers beautiful baby goats.

Fortunately, Agnes is a good milker.  No shenanigans like with Annie.

Tricia is a diligent milk maid.  She is determined and serious in her work.  In no time flat she was done.  This is a little bit of the milk from Agnes the La Mancha dairy goat.  It is a lot whiter in color than cows' milk.  We put it in the fridge to chill it.

When it was chilled, Tricia asked if I wanted a taste.  I've never been a fan of goat milk.  It is great in keifer or cheese, but as far as drinking it?  To me, it always had a sharp taste.  However, that was Annie's milk.  I tasted it.  Pretty good stuff!  La Mancha goat milk is much better, to me, than Nubian.  I could drink this plain just like cows' milk.  Once we wean, we plan on getting all the milk and we'll make keifer and goat cheese.

Treating the Feet

We've had a lot of rain this year.  So much so that we have become accustomed to mud even more so than we normally are.  Just a big mess!  The past couple of weeks it really dried out.  It was timely as it allowed us to drive right up to the bard to load the hay into the loft.  Wet or dry, you can count on one thing with animals -foot rot.  The poor goats struggle with it mightily.  We watch them gingerly walk around on sore feet.  You can smell the stench of infected feet when you get near them.  Yuck!

Tricia tries to keep the goats' hooves trimmed.  She diligently works at it, pouring Hoof and Heel over the affected area.  It will work for a few days and then we'll see Annie and Buckwheat limping around.  You just can't help but feel sorry for them.  They are miserable.  So we decided this weekend to give them a good treatment.  

We mixed 1 teaspoon of copper sulfate per cup of water into a bucket.  We put Annie up into the milking stanchion and tied her front legs and back legs together.  Then we lifted her feet up and put them in the bucket of copper sulfate solution and tied the bucket to the front of the stanchion.  We made sure the solution was high enough in the bucket to cover all the areas of her feet. We used our phones' stop watch to time the treatment for 15 minutes.  Then we repeated for the back feet.  

It was hot and uncomfortable.  Annie kicked.  I'm guessing the copper sulfate was going to work on the infected areas.  Sweat ran down our backs as we fought to keep her feet in the bucket.  It was a LONG 15 minutes.  

After much kicking and fighting and only minimal spillage of the copper sulfate, we were done.  All four feet treated.  By the next day, she was walking much better.  I think she might have even tried to tell us "thank you," but I cannot speak the goat language to interpret.

In Oberlin, Louisiana, where our family farm is, there is a road that my buddy lives on called Dipping Vat Road.  I'm told that it was named that because back many years ago, there was a cement (I think) trough-like structure that they would run livestock through to treat them.  It might have been flies, it might have been foot rot, but whatever the malady, the animals were run through for treatment.

I wish we could fabricate something like that at Our Maker's Acres for our animals.  We've read some about having them walk through tubs of lime.  Trouble is, with cows, goats, and chickens moving in and out, it would be very hard/expensive to do. We will keep researching to see if we can formulate an idea that would work a little better than tying up feet and shoving them in a bucket!  (But if it works, it's hard to knock it, right?)  We're always looking for an easier way.