I think I may have mentioned this already- oh, just maybe once or twice ;)- but we got a goat about a week and a half ago to go live in our neighbor’s barn and be a buddy for their one remaining goat. (I know, I know, I need to update my “about” page now…)

We had talked about and researched goats for a while, but I think that there’s just really no way to be properly prepared until you have one. It’s kind of like adding another child to your family in that way. Now that Leslie is home with us, we’ve been navigating the goat learning curve.

Overall, goat care has been fairly straightforward so far, and largely relegated to morning and evening tasks: a bit of grain during milking, fresh hay in the stall, lots of green browse to choose from, and fresh water to drink. That’s not so hard. But milking is really where the rub comes in.

There’s LOTS of “how to milk a goat” videos and tutorials online. But nobody really goes over what it’s like when the goat doesn’t just jump up and hold still for you while you do the deed.

You see, in order to milk the goat, I have to get her to the milk stand. Some days she makes this really easy by sitting there waiting for us at milking time. Other days she prefers to go to the far end of her paddock and wait for us to come get her. And on her particularly moody days, she digs her hooves in and refuses to walk. Tim is generally better than I am at getting her where we need her to go, but she’s fickle- so you just never know how she’ll react to either one of us.

The first day she got “mule syndrome,” as I call it, I gave up after a while and went to get my husband to coax her into the stall. The next day, I tried playing mental games with her. Maybe if I walk behind her, she’ll think walking into the stall is her idea, not mine, and she’ll like that better. It kind of worked. Another morning, J walked behind her with a stick (don’t worry, he didn’t whack her), and directed her towards the stall. That was even more effective. I think I’ve got a young goatherd on my hands. (Which is ironic, because our last name means “goat herder!”)

Once we get her into the stall, we’ve got to get her on the milk stand.  When she would refuse to jump up, we’d have to do periodic “resets” by walking her around the stall once or twice before convincing her that it was now a new day and it was, in fact, okay to jump up on the milk stand now. And of course, there was some bribery with goat treats like carrots and bananas. She’s finally getting better at getting on herself, because she’s learned that she gets to eat her grain ration while being milked. (And who doesn’t want her grain ration?)

(I apologize for the bad cell phone pictures to follow… 😉 )

Then, there’s the milking part. This doe had kidded several times before, but had never really been kept on as a milk goat. When she was milked briefly, she was machine milked. Since we didn’t have a machine when we bought her, I learned how to hand milk.

We eventually got into the swing of it, but she still had little patience for my still-slow-milking pattern. She liked to demonstrate her lack of patience by sitting in the milk. Or stomping in it. Or kicking it over. Or kicking me or my husband. And complaining loudly.

Sigh. Our first several rounds of milk ended up on the floor of the stall instead of in our fridge.

We found some tricks that helped to calm her while milking. First, we try to create a quiet, soothing space so she feels at ease and lets down more easily. Secondly, her previous owner suggested “hugging” her middle while milking- and that did help to steady her a bit. When she resisted that, my hubby would gently but firmly hold her back legs while I milked. (I think I need one of them there hobble-thingers that Homestead Lady talks about in this post.)

(The real goat-milking hero in our household is my hubby. Tim is holding Leslie’s legs firmly while I attach the milker. And he’s wearing V. And he’s good looking, too.)(J helping out with brushing Les during milking- another calming technique we’ve learned.)

We ended up buying this battery powered goat milker (affiliate link) from Dansha Farms, because it’s what she’s used to being milked with. While I like hand milking better (the same way I prefer hand kneading to machine mixing for bread), it IS faster and more efficient. Plus, we figure this will make it easier for our potential goat sitters to do the milking while we’re away.

Our last learning curve has been scheduling milking time. Generally, about 6:30 a.m. & p.m. have been working well for us for milking. But with both of us involved in music and teaching activities in the evening, we’ve had to fudge it a few nights. A late milking makes for a full, unhappy goat- and as a mom who’s nursed both of her (human) kids, I can definitely relate to her sentiments. We’re trying to find the best consistent time for all of us.

So the goat learning curve has been steep- but not impossible. We’ve still got a lot to learn! I’m trying to talk to other goat owners and read goat articles. I joined a “goat health and care” Facebook forum. I’ve started a goat Pinterest board. And please, kind readers, if you have words of wisdom for these goat newbies, DO share them with us! We’ll take all the help we can get. 😉

Follow They’re Not Our Goats’s board Goats! on Pinterest.

But when I open up my fridge to find jars of fresh, sweet, creamy whole milk- even with a bit of cream on top- it makes the learning curve totally worth it. There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction I get from participating in getting my food as close to the source as possible- and milking your own goat is about as close as you can get for dairy products.

Dear Leslie, we will learn together. We will get to be friends. We’ll make this thing work. Right? Right!!!

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks in advance for supporting my efforts with this blog!

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Thank you for sharing!

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