Dairy Goat Milk Transporting

One of my favorite things in life are goats. We have meat and dairy goats on the farm. I am interested in all, however, dairy is my passion.

I love visiting the local cow dairies. I love dairy cows. I am a city girl, gone country 8 years ago. You should hear the comments that emit from my mouth. I do not look at houses or cars. I comment about pick up trucks, tractors, barns, and more importantly, udders. I constantly look at animals, udders, backs. Did I ever think I would know the difference between the profile of a dairy cow or a beef cow? LOL! I do. Look at the hips, it shows. If I were rich, and could afford the large dairy barns, huge amounts of pasture, and if I could pay the helping hands, I would run both a cow and goat dairy!

As I looked at the calendar this morning I realized that my dairy hiatis is about to end. Cammille will freshen once again sometime around 1/19/09. The rest of the girls follow shortly behind. Until then, I am working out of the freezers. Yes, that is freezer with an "s," plural, and I could easily say plural(s), if there were such a word!

I have a commercial freezer in my soap shop, filled to the brim with milk. My kitchen side by side freezer is filled with milk. I have an upright freezer in my laundry room, filled with milk. My side by side in the barn is filled with milk. My friend's freezer, 15 minutes way, is filled with milk. Gulp! I think I have milk. Milk...good for the soul.

Normally, no matter when I put the boer buck in with the girls, they decide to start kidding out sometime between 1/29-2/2. And, normally, there are several things occuring around that date. Last year it was a blizzard. I have plenty of blizzard kid pics (in the house) from that week last year. The year before, it was a siberian express, meaning, the temps were below zero each morning and kids were hitting the ground in numbers. I had 20 kids in the house for 3 weeks! More on that someday. It was a hilarious, exhausting, fiasco!

This pic has a story behind it. One of the freezers is not frost free. I still had girls in milk when we bought the commercial freezer for the soap shop. So, my husband came up with a milk transport plan. Our green machine came out, lined with a twin size fitted sheet, and the milk was transported out and away from the old freezer. It saved on the backs, and it brought on some fun, a LOT of laughter! My husband and I do some goofy stuff, and laugh at the same antics for many-many years. Anyhow, we proceded to fill the commercial freezer with the transported milk and was able to defrost the old freezer. Thank you to the green machine!

Why so much milk in the freezers? A newborn goat kid takes a lot of bottles, and even when I resort to milk replacer, I mix it with goat milk. If a kid takes 2 bottles a day, multiply that by 3 months, and multiply that by 20-something kids! I bottle feed all dairy kids. A freezer empties very quickly.

So far this year, no boer kids have been born in abnormal temps, nor any adverse weather, in fact, no boer kids yet at all. Someone asked me a few days ago, "Are they pregnant?" Yeah, they are! The first possible due date was 12/9, but guess what? They know it is not yet 1/29, or 2/2...it is on the way...they are holding out. Of course, they are goats!

Take care...have a great Saturday!