# Milking for the first time!



## myfainters (Oct 30, 2009)

Well I'm headed outside to milk Rosey for MY first time ever! Oh and hers too! This should be interesting! LMBO Hoping she doesn't faint into the milk bucket! ROTFL. :ROFL: 

Wish me LUCK!!!!! ray:


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## StaceyRosado (Oct 5, 2007)

Oh sounds like it could be a rodeo milking experience!


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

Have fun!


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## sblueram6 (Nov 19, 2009)

how did it go ?


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## myfainters (Oct 30, 2009)

Well folks... i'm thinking i'm just not the mikling kind! :ROFL: :slapfloor: :ROFL: :slapfloor: 
Rosey was sooooooo good though I was very suprised. She is a first freshener and has never been on the stand except to get her hooves trimmed or get a bath. Put her up there, she stood perfectly still while occassionally looking back at me like hey mom...everything all right back there?? :laugh: I on the other hand have NO idea how to milk. :doh: I got some milk...fed it to the dog and gave up. It had been 10 minutes and I figured she was being so good I shouldn't ruin it. Any tips on the best technique for milking? :shrug:


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

:ROFL: Aww...that's ok...it was a good try. :laugh: 

As for tips...i'm personally not a big milker, but I think it really just takes practice practice practice...are there any breeders around you that might be willing to spend some time and help you out...learning techniques and any tips or tricks. :shrug: Maybe even someone with dairy goats at a fair near you could help? I know last year at our local fair their was a 4H girl showing people how to milk and giving demonstrations and answering questions. It was very cool. :thumb:


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

I've been doing it now since March... and I still dont feel very good at it! .... Practice, practice practice....


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

Encircle the top of the teat with your thumb and forefinger, like you are clamping off a water balloon, squeeze the the teat against your palm with the rest of your fingers, bump up while releasing your "clamp" to allow the teat to fill again, do this repeatedly til the udder is empty....and it sounds like Rosie is the perfect girl to learn with.


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## peggy (Aug 11, 2010)

How lucky for you to have a FF that stands good for you....... That is usually the mail problem... getting the doe used to being milked. But we all seem to find our own technique but basically you just squeeze the teat with your thumb and first finger blocking the milk in the teat and follow through with the rest of your fingers squeezing, like one after the other until the milk is out of the teat. No Pulling........just repeat that same process until the milk is all out of the udder, then run two fingers down the teat to strip it. Hope that makes sense.... I LOVE milking goats. Don't give up too early, you may decide that you love it.

Looks like liz and I posted at the same time..... but yeah, what liz said too.


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## Frosty1 (Jul 12, 2011)

Wow! You're lucky to have such a good FF! Looks like Peggy and Liz said pretty much all already, but I just wanted to say that my main problem when I started was that I was scared I was squeezing too hard and so I wouldn't hold hard enough with my thumb and first finger and all the milk would go back up. lol This is the webpage I read when I started milking. http://www.fiascofarm.com/goats/how_to_milk_a_goat.htm Hope this helps!


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## sblueram6 (Nov 19, 2009)

keep milking never give up .


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## RMADairyGoats (Jun 20, 2011)

Glad she was a good girl! That always ROCKS!!! :hi5:


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## PznIvyFarm (Jul 25, 2010)

sblueram6 said:


> keep milking never give up .


Agree.

After a year, i feel competent. I would say it took about a month before i was comfortable with it. My FF was pretty good too, and since she lost her baby i think she considered me her baby. (and she was my best milker too) My other girls were experienced kidders, but had never been milked before. They learned, I learned, patience and persistence are the key things.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Lucky you to have such a nice girl to learn with! Liz has the best explanation. A fair is a good spot to see it actually done if you don't have any local breeders that milk.


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## Subgoat Girls (May 8, 2011)

I milked some for the first time yesterday too. The new buckling we had was only nursing one side and Lily's other side was kind of hard. I was lucky though. My sister-in-law grew up on a dairy farm so she showed me what to do. It still took a while for me to get the hang of it though. Keep practicing.


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