West Virginia Raw Milk Herdshares: Investing in a Milking Machine

Average investment for the items below would be about $2,000

Your GO TO Sources online for Dairy Equipment

Lehman’s

Hamby’s

Hoegger

Jeffer’s

Farm and Ranch Supply

Enasco

Affordable Milkers (rebuilt and very good prices)

For those looking to Machine Milk:

There are several styles of machines / attachments to look into.

Option One (Surge option for cows) / Option two (Bucket for cows or goats) / Option three (portable vacuum) / Option 4 (multiple animals)

If you have goats and cows, you can use the same lines and machine, but you will need a cow claw and a goat claw. You can also get the machines up to milk more than a single animal at once, if you chose. I do not recommend this until you are smoothly used to milking one animal with the machine.

I found the machine takes time to get used to. Unless you have more than 4 goats in milk or a high production cow, it also takes more, not less, time, as cleaning and handling the equipment has to be considered.

These machines hold value and with some replacing of inflations and hoses, can be made like new if you want to buy them online through ebay or craiglist, too.

You will need to experiment to determine the setting you will use on your cow or goat with your vacuum pump, whatever is comfortable for the animal - it is important to use the right setting, and it is different between goats and cows, as well.

1. The Milking Machine: The bucket, the hoses, the vacuum, the claw

3. A strainer and filters. Large if milking the cows, like found here. Smaller is milking goats,like found here.

4. Cleaning supplies for the machine set up. You can piece this together or purchase a kit like is found on this link or here.

5. A nice milking stanchion, especially for goats. Wood is cheaper and is easy to build at home, but metal is more sanitary and will last longer. Check ebay for low prices for shipped metal stands! A head stand or entire stanchion can be built for cattle, and there are various options for this. Keep in mind easy and ability to clean.