[sporter]

hello all,

I have a small farm in shropshire and have given up the corporate life in london to move back to my home county of shropshire, I come froma a family of farmers but my family sold up when I was young. I have two children under 5years and my hub commutes to london every monday and comes back ona  friday. I have three rescue ponies, a veg and fruit garden, orchard, pond with two ducks, did have some chickens butthey were taken by the badger a few days ago, one pointer puppy and one cat. We also sub let our land to local farmer who has sheep, beef cattle and sows. Anyway, today my first two goats arrived, a dairy goat and its kid except it turns out that the woman we bought them off (from the british goat society) thought she had castrated the billy goat but saw it wasnt when we arrived to collect and gave us another kid instead which I am not sure was the best plan as we now have a few problems. Firstly, the mummy goat has a seriously full udder and I am new to milking - I have had a quick five minute lesson and remember my mum had goats but thats it! I was kinda counting on the kid taking some of the milk but of course we now have a different kid which means mum goat is not letting it feed and baby goat wants milk. I managed to milk about 600ml this afternoon before the kid started going ballistic in the next stable so we put them back in together, I was quite impressed with myself but then when I came back to check on them this evening I noticed the udder looked seriously full again and there was a tiny speck of blood on the one teat and that the kid was feeding from the other!! I am now panicking a bit as I adore goats but feel a bit clueless. Help please?

[Anke]

If the kid is managing to feed then you shoudl be ok to just ease her out a bit. How old is the kid, male or female? She will get used to having it in the next pen overnight, then you can milk some out of her in the morning and then let the kid take whatever s/he wants during the day. You could also strip her out in the evening when you take the kid back out. That way you will get more confident and when weaning comes you just continue to milk her out am and pm. If the kid only take sone side, then maybe easing her out during the day is advisable? I am fairly new to this myself, and doing this way with one of mine, but she has twins, so both sides are being emptied.

[sporter]

hiya, thanks for your reply!!

I believe it's 8 weeks old, it is a castrated boy.

I have been told to keep them both in for a few days to settle them down so they are in the horse shelter in the field with the ponies at the moment! I do have a sheep hurdle that I thought I could maybe try and seperate them but today when we put them apart the kid cleared the stable door to get back in which made me and my 4 year old jump out of our skin!!!!

Thanks for your advice I will try that tomorrow!

[ballingall]

Hi there,

Keep perserving with the milking, it will get easier. Try tying her up and letting the kid be in the same pen while you milk her if that helps. How long ago did the goat have her own kid? Some goats stand still better if you give them food while they are milked.

If it's only one little spot of blood, don't panic straight away, but do keep an eye on it. Make sure you filter the milk- through a kitchen seive if nothing else if you don't have filter papers yet. Look at the filter or seive afterwards to check for any clots in the blood.

I do wonder why the original owner didn't just ring the kid there and then, although I suppose that would depend on how old it was.

Good luck and let us know how it's going!


Beth

[plumseverywhere]

Hello Sporter

you and I are in a similar situation! I have 3 new(ish) goats and have been milking for only about 3 weeks now. Its got easier every day. The goat keepers here at TAS have been invaluable for advise and I've been watching youtube clips for visual tips.

I'm now able to milk with 2 hands and get about 3 pints in the morning in a few minutes which 2 weeks ago would  have been 20 minutes and one handed 

I did learn on day one that separating our mum and kid(s) was not going to be easy. we tried to milk mum on the other side of the fence to the kids and they cleared a 4 ft fence - hubby went mad and that was the first of our goat induced rows!!

have a read back through some of mine and Langdons recent posts perhaps? both of us are new to goats and enjoying quite a steep learning curve!!

[sporter]

Okay thanks so much!

I have read your posts and have just given them some digestives and bananas whilst I milked her again!! Got the two handed thing sorted but then the kid got on one side so I was left with the other which was a bit of a comedy moment!!!

No Blood but it does feel very hot, only milked 550ml this morning which I guess is not very much by reading everyone elses posts and yes that took me about 20 minutes!!! She is a lovely goat though and didn't kick or anything - just kept looking at me as if to say come on woman sort it out!!!

Anyway, when should I milk her again as I don't want her to get mastitis or anything nasty!

S

[Roxy]

I see the kid you have is 8 weeks, would that be approximately how long ago your nanny goat kidded?  Do you know what breed she is - even a description of the colour if you don't know, so one of us could give a rough estimate of how much milk she will give daily?  If the kid has started suckling milk, he will probably be taking a fair bit for himself.

If you wanted the goat for milk, and the goats own kid was not available, it may have been better to just take the nanny goat.  Although, if you have yet to get the hang of milking, then the kid drinking some milk too, is no bad thing!!

With the goat not knowing you, she is probably not letting her milk down for you, thats why you are not getting much.  Once she gets to know you, and gets into a routine, she will be fine.  Does her udder look big?  As i said, the kid may be taking the rest of the milk.  I know my two nanny kids of a similar age, can knock back a lot of milk off their mum!!

[sporter]

Hi there

Its a british saanen. White, green eyes! Very calm and likes a cuddle! Her udder looks large! Does it do them any harm if I keep going back and giving it a go throughout the day while the kids are at school / nursery as it is a bit more tricky to do when they are here!

Thanks!

Sxx

[Roxy]

She is one of the bigger dairy breeds, so should hopefully give plenty of milk.  Personally, I would start as you mean to go on, which would ideally be milking twice a day, morning and night, at roughly the same time (although obviously if you are a bit late or early, no matter!)

I would not go back and keep trying through the day, this will probably agitate the goat, who will think "oh no, its her again!"  Is it just you are finding it hard to get any milk, or is she moving about while you are trying to  milk.  If she will not stand while eating her food, let her eat her bucket feed, leave it a few minutes, and then, fingers crossed she will chew the cud, and let you milk.

How old is the goat?  Is this her first kidding?  First kidders are not ideal to milk at first.  Don't worry, you will get there in the end, and be able to milk her ok.  Is there a goat keeper nearby, or even maybe an older farmer, who can milk by hand, and has milked a cow (saying an older farmer as the young ones will only be trained to milking machines!!)  Just thinking they can milk the goat out for you, and show you exactly how to do it.

[langdon]

enjoying 

it is a steep learning curve but boy id be lost without the guys on ere
 

[sporter]

Hi

Thanks!! What a bloomin weekend! We have been keeping the goats in a stable until they settle in, we then set up an electric fenced paddock on the orchard for them and moved them up there on a lead rope (to my familys amusement as I led them across the garden!!). They lasted about five minutes in the paddock before the kid (named gruff by my 4 yr old) decided to leave and simply stepped through it. So an hour later we had added two more sttrips of fencing and re-wired the whole thing, put them back in and this time they lasted about 4 seconds before mum goat decided she was also fed up and barged through the fence - got a mighty shock and legged it into the distance! Now I don't know what to do as the other paddock has the horses in and our other fields have only just been turned from barley to grass seed. I ended up tethering mum goat but know this is not the best plan as I want her to have the freedom to run about but our fencing plans have been out-witted!!

Oh the joys!

S x

[jameslindsay]

Hello. My 12 goats share land with my 4 ponies and there are no issues.

[sporter]

maybe I could try that then...in fact I'll go and give it a go now and let you know how it goes......wish me luck!! !!!!

[plumseverywhere]

I feel your pain - we've spent nearly a month goat proofing our paddock! we thought we had it sussed when the 2 kids decided to pull down more fencing (the bit without the electric strips) and climb into our woods (which lead directinly into our garden!!)
good luck with the pony/goat sharing, sounds like a good plan 

[sporter]

Hurray, they spent all day yesterday OUT with the ponies and milked a litre!! Not sure how long they will stay there before they get through the fence though as they could easilly clear it if they wanted too but it's a start!!! Charlie the two year old welsh pony they are out with is only partly broken and recently guelded so I was a bit worried but he gives them the odd chase around the field - head down - ears back - before giving up as the kid (gruff) runs circles around him skipping and jumping in the air - quite funny to watch. They are next to the cows too who are all standing at the fence in long line watching the goats with sheer amazement! I'll take a picture - it's pure comedy!!!

Anyway, off to ascott smallholding in wales today to get proper milking equip like filters and wipes etc..onwards and upwards!