How to Milk A Goat: My Simple Routine for Beginners

When we brought home our first little herd of goats, I immediately began dreaming about how one day I would be milking my own. But there was a catch in my dreams: I don’t know what I’m doing. How in the world do I even start to milk a goat?

I researched the topic online, read a few books, and was still a little nervous about doing it myself. I had never milked anything before! I was mainly concerned about the cleanliness. Should I get the milk tested? Should we do a blood test on the goats??

SO many questions. I researched the best I could, and then with a nudge from my husband, we started milking.

For the record, we did not get anything tested. My reasoning behind this was that my goats were healthy and were raising healthy babies. We had no problems with them, so we were fine to move forward with milking.

Disclaimer before we move on: I want it to be clear that this is MY personal method of milking my healthy, clean goats. I encourage you to research more than just my method, and take your personal preferences into consideration. Humans have milked for thousands of years, and there is great variation in how one chooses to get their milk and then consume their milk. This post is simply how I milk every day, for three years (as of 2021) and we have never had any sickness or any adverse events happen whatsoever. I am confident in my goats and my milking process. Let that be my disclaimer to you. Use your own common sense when fooling with your own animals and your family!

Let Me Show You How to Easily Milk Your Own Goat

In this post, I’m going to attempt to write the instructions and tips that I wish I had read before I started milking. I did find some great resources out there that helped a bunch. I sort of pieced together info from here and there until I found what worked best for me.

(Maybe one day we can do a video on this topic, but I’m not so great at video for now!)

Reasons We Started Milking

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to have a milk cow. Well, we are still working on that, but for now, I am 100% ok with goats. I love milking goats!

I will not go into detail here about the pros and cons of milk cows vs. goats. The reasons for us are that they are smaller, more manageable and eat less. That’s enough reason for now!

Here on our farm, we strive to raise all we can ourselves. We harvest all our own meat, mostly all our own vegetables, and the next step in our minds was to have a source of our own dairy.

We love goat milk. Instead of using this post to explain all the benefits of goat milk, let me point you to a post I wrote last year: The Truth About Goat’s Milk.

Health benefits aside, we wanted to take one more thing off the list that we depended on the grocery store for.

The Easy Way

Like I said before, I’m going to give step by step instructions that show you how I easily milk my goat. I wish I had this guide when I started out! I would have been more confident had I known that it doesn’t have to be that complicated. (I don’t do well with complicated!)

Let’s Start With A List

I’ll start off with my milking equipment.

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase through my link, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

The only thing I purchased is my stainless steel bucket. I absolutely love it, and wouldn’t do without it. In fact, I started out with a bowl, a towel, and two clothespins to hook to the towel so it wouldn’t fall off the bowl!

I highly recommend this bucket: Stainless Steel Milk Pail with Lid

You’ll also need:

-A bowl for warm, soapy water

-An old kitchen rag, or towel cut into squares

-A kitchen funnel. I use my plastic canning funnel.

-Filter. I use a reusable coffee filter, that has never been used for coffee. I used to just use the paper coffee filters, but the reusable ones are soooo much better.

-Quart mason jar, and lids

How I Clean the Equipment

Before we get into the actual milking process, I’ll go over how I prepare my supplies.

I do not sterilize my bucket or my jars.

I use hot, soapy water, and clean my milk bucket right after I milk. That way nothing is left setting around. (Have I left it in the sink with soapy water to “soak”? Yes, I have. Although I try to not do that.)

I will also wash my filter and funnel as I am cleaning my bucket.

I’ll have a dry, clean jar set out the night before, as well as my dry bucket, funnel, and filter, so I am ready to go in the morning.

How I Milk the Goat

First things first: I wake up before my kids so I have alone time to milk. I can’t begin to explain how therapeutic alone time in the barn is. But that’s a post for another time.

I grab my milk pail, fill a bowl with warm, soapy water, and grab my rag. For the bowl of soapy water, I just use a squirt of natural dish detergent.

I walk out to the barn where the mama goat is waiting for me.

A Note on Milk Sharing

For the first few months of milking, we will milk share with the baby goats, the kids. This means that we will put the babies into a separate pin at night (in the barn right beside their mama) so Mama will have all night to make milk for me.

In the morning after I milk her, I let the babies out, and they nurse on her all day. Keeping milk production at peak. It’s a great way to milk, especially if you’re a beginner. Just gotta remember to put the babies up at night or you will have no milk in the morning!

Back to the Milking

We have a handy milking stand. I suppose the proper term is milking stanchion, but we just call it the stand.

It may take a day or two for your goat to get the idea that she needs to jump up onto the stand…but in my experience milking four different goats, they quickly learn that if their feed is in the stand, they will happily hop up and start eating.

Our stanchion has a headgate with a feeding trough so once they stick their heads through, I’ll just close the head gate and that’s all there is to it!

I will sit on the stand next to my goat so my head is almost against her body.

First, I wring out my soapy rag, and I will wipe her teats clean.

This is not a big job at all. If you have the proper sleeping arrangements in the barn…a nice bed of hay or woodchips, or whatever, then she shouldn’t be that dirty.

But we are talking about an animal that lays in it’s own poop, so sometimes, there is some yuck that needs to be wiped off.

I will also brush my hand under her belly to make sure no pieces of straw are hanging around, ready to fall in my bucket.

After I clean her, I will express two or three squirts of the milk onto the floor.

This just flushes out the teat– if there were to be any bad bacteria lingering around I don’t want it in my bucket.

Now, some people will bring a separate little bowl with them to check the expressed milk for any blood or abnormalities that would indicate mastitis or some infection.

I do not do this.

I’ll go ahead and start milking normally after I waste a few squirts. I will keep my eye on the milk in the bottom of my bucket. If I were to see anything strange at all…I would not bring it inside to drink.

So I just skip the inspection bowl, and just use my bucket to check for stuff. I have never had anything abnormal pop up in our three years of milking.

Warning: It May Take Some Practice

At first, your hand is not used to the motion of milking. You sort of have to train yourself to properly milk! If you just squeeze…nothing much will happen.

You need to start at the base of her teat, where it meets her udder, and use your fingers to coax the milk down. It really isn’t hard once you do it a few times.

When I first milked, it took a lot more time than it does now. You will get quicker at it!

I even blew up a rubber glove and practiced the motion on the glove!

It will become clear that you are not milking correctly if no milk comes out.

I will use both hands to milk both teats, but if I see that the goat is getting aggravated and about to kick, I will milk with one hand, and either hold her foot or the bucket with the other hand.

It is not fun getting a muddy foot in your milking pail! Believe me!

How Do I Know I’m Done Milking?

You will be finished when the milk stream slows way down. There will always be another itty bitty squirt come out…but when the steady stream stops, you can be done.

I will milk until I notice her slowing down, then I will gently nudge her udder with my hand. (Kind of like when a baby goat butts his head into her udders. But I’m not that rough!)

I’ll milk for a few more squirts, then when I am just getting barely any, I’ll quit.

Here’s another thing that I do NOT do:

I don’t apply an udder balm or spray of any kind on her.

Because we milk share with the babies, if I were to waste my time applying a cream…the babies are going to be hitting her as soon as I do, and it will just get sucked off!

So while we milk share, I do not apply udder balm.

When we wean the babies and move to twice a day milking, I make an udder balm out of beeswax, coconut oil, essential oil and sometimes shea butter to keep her moisturized. (I’ll have to share that recipe in the future, when I make more! It’s a very simple mixture.)

Once you put the lid on the bucket, and undo the headgate, let the babies out!

They will be very eager to get to their breakfast.

What Do I Do with the Milk Now?

Once you’ve milked, it’s time to get it strained and chilled as soon as possible.

I always walk directly from my barn to my kitchen, no stops in between, to get my milk put away.

I believe this is the most important step in keeping the milk clean and healthy.

On my table, I will have the filter and funnel already set up on my quart jar.

I will simply pour the milk into the filter, and let it all drip out.

If I need more than one jar, I always have another one close by.

Then, I immediately screw on the lid, and put the jar in the fridge.

I always like to store the milk closer to the back of the fridge where it will be kept the coldest.

That’s really it!

Like I said earlier, I will rinse my bucket and all other supplies in my sink with warm water, then wash with normal dish soap. I’ll turn my bucket over to let it air dry. Once it’s dry, it goes on my table where I can quickly grab it for another morning!

I don’t like to make anything complicated if I don’t have to. Some folks may prefer to milk in a different way than I have described, and that is fine, too.

That’s the beauty of farming: you find what works for you and then maybe share it to help someone else.

Happy milking!

Never hesitate to email me your questions! I’d love to help you out if you are timid about starting to milk. I was there once, too!

Other Resources I Found Helpful in Learning About Milking

Weed ‘Em and Reap Tutorial

Milking Routine from The Prairie Homestead

If you want to read more about our home and farm, visit Farm Life.