# Using Electric Breast pump to milk goats?



## Daniel Babcock (May 28, 2008)

My family and I are new to goats and doing all we can to learn all we can. We have just purchase 3 mini manchas (two first generations and one 2nd generation) We are loving them already and are excited for them to grow up so we can breed and milk them. 

We like the thought of raising our own unpasteurized goats milk and have determined for ourselves that the best way to prevent contamination is to machine milk or come up with a system of hand milking that takes the milk from the teat directly to a sanitized holding tan.

I have studied a number of hand milkers (I cant drop $1500 on a milk machine) including the maggidans the udderlyezy etc but have read mixed reviews on each.

I was wondering if it would work to get a high quality used (Medela) breast pump and use a teat cup for goats and have it pumped to a sealed steal or glass bowl bathed in ice water?

Your comments on the potential success of this would be appreciated as well as comments on other alternatives.

thanks much!


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## Tricia (Oct 26, 2007)

Hi Daniel -- I'd recommend just to learn to hand milk cleanly, keep healthy clean animals, keep a good milk bucket sanitized, and lab test initially if you're concerned about the efficacy of your procedures. Milking a small herd isn't rocket science!


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## Good Goats (Oct 26, 2007)

I agree with Tricia. Learn how to hand milk. Sometimes it would be easier to keep your hands clean and have clean milk than have to clean a machine and the tubes, etc. There are tons of sites online with tons of info on how to cleanly milk. Have fun!


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

I used the very breast pump for two years and works fine but don't let it back up it ruins the pump. It will only pump into a 4 oz bottle so you have to keep dumping the bottle. But if you have teeny tiny teets then yes it works. HOWever I would make my own for $15 buck now. 
Also you can make your own big milker for less than $500.


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## Little Moon (Dec 29, 2007)

Sorry to hijack this thread, but Sondra can you point us in the right direction to building our own milker for under $500???

TIA,
Anne


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

http://www.dunnmilkingfarm.com/milker_under__10.htm
above is a little syringe milker you can build for $15

Anne go look at Cottoneyed does website and she has a milker built there.

We already had an air compressor so DH turned it around so it became a pump. 
Got a surge bucket milker off ebay for $40 and with shipping was $70
then bought my inflations hoses etc 
Now I just bought a smal airconditioner pump which is quieter than the compressor and of couse smaller but got it off of craigs list for $70 made a pvc holding tank like Chris has on her site and WALLA


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Until you get several generations in on your mini manchas I don't think hand milking is going to be a problem. Plus with their dispostions they will be great for you and your family to learn to milk on.

I would also put some time in hand milking then look into getting a machine put together. 

I am not a fan of the use of the suction milkers folk are making. Instead of drawing the milk out of the udder as in draw, pulse, draw pulse...it is drawing like a vacume cleaner. This is not healthy for the teat or the orifice. It is how the original milking machines worked and they did alot of damage to teats. Now in an emergency or if you do have a tine teated FF, than yes I can see that, but not for full time milking. You need to be using a pulsator. Vicki


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

gen 1 usually have wonderful beautiful teats in fact Vicki now has a gen 1 and (3)gen 3's 
all have nice sized teats. I only have one line out of all my goats that has tiny teats and milked them all by hand for 6 yrs.


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