milking machine

[bookwormom]

has anybody tried the little hand operated miking machine that was written up in Country side magazine? Udderly ezey or something of that name. I tried it on our mamma goat and it did not work. I think she is just ornery as neighbors just ordered it and it works fine, but not on my mamma goat. I am worn out when I am done miking her, she has such little teats and is so hard to milk. Milking my other goat is a breeze and a pleasure.

[BOONIES_BUNCH]

No, I haven't tried it..looks nice, but a little too expensive for us. I was wondering if you could use a breast(human) pump ???Has anyone ever tried that? They only cost about 40.00 for a decent one.. ???

[MadTripper]

I can't tell you about using human breast pumps on your goat however I can tell you that the cheap ones don't hold up very well. We had a Medela for our first child and that worked great however they are fairly expensive. It was about 10 years old when we received it from my sister and continued to work through the 1st year. We loaned it to a friend of my Wife and never got it back or only got parts of it back or something. Anyway, we purchased an Evenflo for our second and it worked for a few months, I guess we made it through the breast feeding period. When our third arrived, the Evenflo wouldn't work. I tried cleaning it and actually pulled it apart to try and give it more power but to no avail. So, I picked up another Evenflo and it worked good for about 3 months, then bam, it started losing vacuum pressure.

Sorry for the long story but I'd hate to see you purchase one and expect it to work for years when I only envision it working for a year at most. Have you thought about building something with a shop vac? I could envision a canister setup that would contain your milk and could be cleaned and sanitized easily. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to build and probably work for years. Maybe the noise would be uncomfortable for the animal, or you.

I tossed this together so you could get the jist. I would have a valve open to atmosphere on the vac side which would enable you to adjust the pressure and also keep the vac motor from burning up prematurely.


http://www.madtripper.com/images/goat_milker.JPG

[bookwormom]

while having to wait at TSC I looked at a goat magazine and someone had written an article how they made a milking machine themselves. It sounded very simple and it was cheap to make, 15 bucks I think for everything.

[Ponyman]

Has anybody seen a milking machine lately that could be used in a single cow environment? They used to have them but everybody changed over once the modern pipeline methods were installed. Kind of the hybrid between parlor milking and pipeline milking. Just wondering if I need to start working out those forearms and get a stool and a bucket or not!

Ponyman

[AlchemyAcres]

Bucket milkers are still made, but new ones are extremely pricey. There's a kazillion old ones floatin' around....a DeLaval style bucket milker would be a much better choice than a Surge belly milker that requires a surcingle IMHO.
The vacuum pump and all the stuff that goes with it is the main concern...a portable will be the most versatile, but they're also very expensive purchased new....but it's not too difficult to find used ones......

If you're still planning on going the Dexter route, it won't take you long to milk by hand, given a little practice.. a milker is not going to save you any time milking just one cow....will actually take you longer...clean-up and all...


~Martin :)