# Goat dairy facility plans



## cowboygourmet (Mar 13, 2009)

Does anyone have any really good plans for a small to medium size goat dairy facilities. Including pens, barn, milk room etc. There may already be some available on this forum somewhere but I have not located them yet. I would like to build new facilities and am looking for ideas. I want to milk about 30 does.


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## Kelly (Jan 20, 2011)

"The Farmstead Advisory" has some designs but what I liked the most about this book was all the insights, tips and advice it offers when drawing up a plan to suit your needs. There is loads of other info as well which may serve useful to you. You might try Amazon, see whatcha think!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

And make sure to contact your local inspector before you start building anything, if you think you might ever want to go Grade A. It would be a shame to get something fabulous built only to find out that it needs modifications to pass inspection and they could have easily and relatively inexpensively been incorporated into the building process.


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## Kelly (Jan 20, 2011)

I have to make a correction. The book I recommended is Farmstead Creamery Advisor. It does advise to work closely with your local inspector. Sorry about that. Don't know where my memory has gone.


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

What Stacey said. The inspectors were here on the property before I broke any ground. Yes, I designed my barn and cheese room myself with their guidance. Point one, you can not got through from the barn to cheese room without exiting one part of the space and then entering the cheese room. You can go from the milking parlor to either the barn or the milk room. Lots of concrete, lots of frp on the walls and enameled tin on the ceilings of the parlor and milk room. Hot and cold water in every conceivable corner with of course paper towels! Hand sink here, hand sink there, hand sink everywhere! The layout of the animal space was pretty much not an issue only the three "dairy areas": Holding Pen, Parlor and Milk Room. My cheese room is a separate permit. Water source needs to be 100 ft from the barn or other animal living areas, ie. manure pile. There are even guidelines on where to put light bulbs and how much candlepower for each space. I had wanted a barn where I didn't have to leave the building to any of my work. What I have is as close to that as I could legally get. I had to separate my animals from the milk and all that from the cheese areas. You have to physically leave the building and re-enter to get into the cheese room. Thus, 4 doors on my barn: one to the upstairs, one to the storage room which you then go through to get into the barn area and parlor, one door for the milk room (where the bulk tank is and the sinks to wash the milking equipment) and a door to the cheese room. If you are intent on being a regulated dairy facility, these are some of the requirements to be aware of. You can't heat your cheese room with a wood stove either. Double Darn! Our fuel bills for the dairy are high. We use propane for water and pasteurizing, electric for the old DeLaval vacuum pump which uses a great percentage of our bill (I milk on a pipeline system and the vacuum pump is used for the washing as well as the milking) and electric for cooling milk and heating/cooling the cheese room. I milk 25 -30 does at peak and 2 Jersey cows. And yes, I LOVE my job, too.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

If you are talking of building in TX part of the law is that they have to approve your plans before you build. Your inspector can be a big help--I'd start with a call to them if you are talking Texas.


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## jdranch (Jan 31, 2010)

I have heard the above mentioned book is a good resource.


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