[HappyHippy]

If you're going to put a new covering on the floor, why not run in a piece of timber under one side of it to raise it slightly (just 1-2 inches) and have it slope towards the ramp, cover it with rubber matting again (possibly even extending it up the walls slightly) and any liquid should all drain out and down the ramp 

[RUSTYME]

The timber will be untreated and new , it can be either spruce , larch , oak , beech or ash , i have all , logs just need ripping up on the saw bench
The floor would have sawdust and straw (wheat , barley , oat or rye ) .
I could either make a divider to section off an area for milking in the goat part or do it in the dairy part , there is a door between them .

[cans]

Hi Russ,
Where ever you milk you will need to have a non slippy floor, somewhere to secure them while you milk, space for you to milk comfortably, nothing worse than being skwished into a small space with an uncooperate milker!
Lots to think about. I am sure others will be along with more ideas for you.

[RUSTYME]

Cheers Cans , yes , although i have never had my own goats, i used to milk my mums herd , also milked many goats for newbie smallholders who didn't know which end to milk lol . I also milked a 120 Jersey cow herd for a few years and hand milked half a dozen cows and 3 or 4 goats , when i worked on an open farm years ago  . So the milking side of things should come back ok , fingers crossed .

[RUSTYME]

Or failing that Karen , i could just park the horsebox on a slope !!! lol  .

[Anke]

With the walls covered in aluminium condensation will be a major problem, especially if they spend a lot of time indoors in the autumn/winter....
 
I would think along the lines of a mesh-door, so you can keep lots of air movement and if the door end is turned out of the prevailing wind (and you have an outer door to shut up properly) you may be ok.
 
Lots of things to think about... and if they have a field shelter for during the day, and maybe in summer nights too, then you can air their "caravan" during the day properly?

[Lesley Silvester]

I had three goats living in an 8' x 6' shed perfectly happily although it was a bit cosy. I never shut the door so they have plenty of ventilation. As the floor was an ordinary wooden shed floor, I drilled one inch holes in it to allow drainage and then gave them straw. They like being able to come and go as they please.


Now I have two of them, they get through about a bale and a half of hay a week but have no access to pasture. I buy sacks of concentrates and one lasts about a month. Then they have Caprivite and sugar beet, which both last ages, and rockies which last even longer.


I think that as you have all the materials to make accommodation for them, the cost shouldn't be too much. I once had my adult maths class work out how much one goat cost per week to feed and how much she produced and was very pleasantly surprised.  At the moment, my milker is producing just over three pints a day and is going into her third winter since kidding, so I can make plenty of cheese and yoghurt as well as having lots of milk. She is pure Sanaan, btw.

[RUSTYME]

Yes , any that i get will have access to a penned area , and then the 6 acres basically .  The doors would be open all day .
I can remember making cheese and yogurt with the milk , both were nice , but although i know i made butter as well , i can't remember anything about it at all . Is it edible ?
I read in the book , 'The smallholder encyclopedia'  that Coulomier soft cheese is easier to make than hard cheese .
I don't remember making this though , sure i made a hard type ?? , but it was during the time that got wiped out of my head by the smash .
I go through 1/2lb of butter and cheese a week and 1lb pot of onken live yogurt , i could easily go through 3 or 4 times that amount of yogurt (if i didn't have to buy it) , so looks like i should get what i need .

[Anke]

To make butter reliably from goats cream, you would need a cream separator, as the cream doesn't separate as well as cows milk/cream. Separators can be non-electrical, and cost in the region of about 100 pounds (delivered from the Ukraine).
 
However you can make a very easy soft cheese (like the German Quark), nice on fresh bread with some home-made jam on (cheese completely unsalted etc) or just squash some garlic into it and very nice too. Hard cheese a bit more difficult, if you want to store it you would need some sort of cold room, I leave mine in the bottom part of the fridge for ripening.
 
Yoghurt is runnier than the shop-bought cows milk stuff.
 
We now have a kefir culture going, that's nice too.

[Lesley Silvester]

Anke, I thought the fridge would be too cold for ripening. I lost several blocks of cheese because I couldn't keep them cool enough. Maybe that is the answer, although I think the top of my fridge would be cooler as the freezer is underneath.

[Bumblebear]

I mature my cheddar (after waxing) in the drawer in the fridge.  But I have matured it in the pantry (which is dark and unheated but not cold).

[Anke]

Someone told me to get a "drinks chiller", they can be switched to higher than fridge temperatures, making them idea for cheese-ripening. My "pocket money" hasn't stretched that far yet, I find my Gouda and cheddar ripen very well in the bottom of the fridge (but they are waxed after a couple of days drying on the kitchen counter, and I have only started to make cheese again last week, so now cooler in my kitchen too).
 
We have found  that we can make really nice brie-type cheese, but unfortunately the whole batch ripens at once and then goes to VERY strong and runny within a day or so, so we struggle to eat it... need to work on that one this winter.

[Lesley Silvester]

I think I'm going to have another go at hard cheese. The kitchen is pretty cold in the winter so that would do the first couple of days.


Thank goodness I didn't get rid of my cheese press.