Bella on the stanchion with a full udder
At least with our set up. See the way our stanchion is set up you sit behind the goat straddling the bench and milk them from between their rear legs. This works well with their small teats because it allows you to just use two fingers to milk. Using your whole hand is much too big and you end up getting milk all over the place.
Unfortunately it does not work well when one of the girls is in heat. Actually it’s downright awful. Even if I was milking from the side it would be bad, but milking from behind makes it that much worse.
See, when heat comes the girls get, well, goopy. Really goopy. So after I wipe their udders I try to de-goop them as much as possible. It gets in their hair, poo gets in it, it’s sticky and stringy. And I have to try and avoid getting it on my arms. Did I mention it’s awful?
The absolutely worst part is the tail flagging. When they are in heat they love to wag their tail. Doesn’t sound so bad, but remember the goop? Yeah, it’s in their tail and they are wagging it at chin level as I have to lean in and milk them.
So there I am, dodging her wet, slimy, wagging tail and trying to not get more goop all over my arms. But wait, that’s not all! She’s kicking and stomping just to add some more fun to our milking experience. I can’t tell you how many times they’ve knocked a full pail of milk over. If the kids were still here I probably wouldn’t bother milking them at all while they were in heat and just forgo milk for a few days. It’s not like they give me that much milk when in heat anyways (production drops by up to 50%).
Yes, it’s that bad.
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Not to ask a really slow on the uptake question, but are there any plans to get Bella knocked up? I ask because it might be just as well to let her dry out until she’s preggers again. Especially if milking her is this much of a cleanliness issue.
Yeah, we’re going to breed her, but not until April, which is also when we plan to dry her off because then we’ll be getting milk from Sedona. They are our only source of milk so I’d prefer to not have to go several months without it.
When you put it like that, I can totally see. I couldn’t go without milk in my coffee, at all. How long does Bella spend in the goopy zone?
Some goats are just, well, goopier than others. Nali, for instance, is quite clean during heat while Snow becomes a downright mess. My answer for Snow? A birthing cut. Yuppers. A nice clean clipping around the entire area tends to lessen the muck exponentially. Just be sure to leave a little tuft at the end of the tail for swatting flies.
Now, getting Bella and Daisy to stand still for a good clipping? Um… yeah… No