Our best milking doe, an Alpine, has only one teat, due to an injury when she was with the folks before I got her. She still makes a gallon per day at peak lactation. I've been looking at the milking machines, but don't have enough info about them to know if you can 'turn off' one inflation when milking a one teated doe. Can this be done?
You can buy plugs that you can put into your inflation to plug one side when milking a doe like this. Also, depending on how you set up your inflations you may have a shut-off valve on your line, if you have 2 lines (1 for each inflation) then you would only need to shut the valve off. If you have 1 line from your milk can that splits then I would just go with a simple plug, their only about $2-$4 and you can order them from partdeptonline.com Ray
Our machine has valves. ...don't they all? I mean don't you have to turn it off to stop suction before removing inflations?? Some of our does milk faster on one side than the other- we routinely shut off the side that finished first.
Nope, a lot of the old timers just used the plugs like Ray was talking about. I actually used the plugs with my first bucket. You are just shutting the air off a different way with the plugs then you are with the valve. But the valves are a lot handier. And after you start using claws its even better because you don't have to use either if you don't want to. I've seen those plugs hanging around in a lot of old cow milk barns.
And don't forget you can also just kink the hose to cut off the vacuum. Personally, I use the shut off valves and love them. Sara
Dont go out and buy a plug. The black rubber ones after about a year will try dry and brittle on you. The best ones are the hard plastic style. Or, what we used is really simple. Go to the grocery and get a can of Pringles...the old style with the clear lid. Eat the Pringles and save the lid and just place that on top of the inflation and its flexable enough to make a seal on it. Then just wash it like you do the rest of your milking equiptment. Ken in MO
Ken you are my kind of guy. My milking machine has the classic claw set up and it milks my one teated doe perfectly! Jolene
