15.5 GALLONS of milk....

I have 15.5 GALLONS of milk in the fridge that isn't spoken for yet, with more being added to that number tonight & tomorrow. I only have freezer space left for 6 gallons (already have 6 gallons in one of my freezers from when I had to relieve the fridge a couple of days ago!). Then I'll need to start getting inventive, if it's not picked up! ;-)
I even stopped weaning my older bottle babies, and they are back to getting milk twice a day, as I've just got too much milk right now and not enough people picking it up. I never throw out milk, but I also don't have a lot of extra time to work on cheese making and I can only put just so much cheese for us to use in our freezer. ;-)
The herd will definitely get decreased down to 6 milkers by mid June, after I do linear appraisals (8 milkers is just too many for my current barn size). But I may decrease farther then 6 milkers if customer demand still doesn't balance with the amount of production.
Bottle babies are taking 3 gals/day (3 of those kids, so 1gal/day, are of weanable age), and I still have 6-10 gallons a week that are unspoken for.

And now some pics of my last kids of the year born May 5th & 9th!

Jekuthiel's Lady Zateen
Jekuthiel's Lady Zatin
Jekuthiel's Lady Zaxony
Jekuthiel's Lady Zapporo

SWIMMING in MILK!

Production is up and customer demand is low or decreased. NOT a good combination, as milk backs up quickly! I currently have 13.5 GALLONS of milk in the fridge NOT spoken for. I can only put 15 gallons in that fridge and 3 gallons are waiting for a customer pickup, so I've had to put the over flow into a second fridge!
Here's a picture of my customer fridge from a couple of days ago (almost full). I can put 15 half gallon jars on each shelf (the bottom space gets too warm to store milk there).


You can also see one of my cheese kits in the door that I've started selling!
http://jekuthiel.com/cheesekit.html

So, besides the extra 13.5 gallons I have now I figure I have 7-8 gallons a week that haven't been spoken for, and maybe more if we don't use all our milk for the week. YIKES! Where am I going to store all this milk?????!

I was just looking over my income/expenses for the Dairy and I'm just barely braking even. I need to be making some decisions soon, as where to go from here.
I'm currently milking 6 does with 2 more due to kid any day (then I will be done kidding for the year!), so production will be increasing higher VERY SOON! I know I want to get my total number of milkers back down to at least 6 at some point before Winter, as that's the best number of milkers for my current barn size.
I can't do the local Farmers Market this year (Saturdays, May-Sept), as I just don't have the funds available for the County's Temporary Food Permit ($155) & the Farmers Market membership fee ($50). I also wouldn't be able to do the month of May anyways, as we are busy with my brother's pre-deployment to Afghanistan later this month.

So, I have several options:

1. Sell a couple of the milkers now, instead of waiting till later in June as first planned.

2. Find more customers to fill all my milk slots.

3. Increase milk cost. (I'm currently selling RAW goat milk at the farm for $5.50/half gallon, and you can buy the pasturized goat milk from the store for $4.19/quart!) Though I don't want to do this as I WANT people to be able to afford this liquid gold! ;-)

4. Or a combination of the above.

Well, that's my current update on the Dairy and how we're doing in the milk department!
Our next happenings will be the two does that are due any day. Ramie looks to be carrying at least two large twins if not triplets, this year! J'alapeno is a first timer and looks to only have a single unless her LONG body is hiding twins in there. ;-)
We also have the annual TB & Brucellosis testing to do this month for the Grade A License requirements.

We have been enjoying the nice SPRING weather we've been getting lately and the grass is staring to grow again! The girls have been enjoying their grazing times again (what little they do graze), too!
Well, have a great weekend!
Jessica ;-)
http://jekuthiel.com/dairy.html

Here's a few pictures of the dairy for you to enjoy!

Milker update...

Rose & Miss are doing well!
I just got the SCC (somatic cell count) results back today and they are back in the good range again (the numbers dropped quite a bit in just a couple of days)! So, it looks like I caught them quick enough and they are healthy again!!!!!
They are coming up slowly, too! Rose is back up to 70% & Miss is up to 80% of what they were milking before they dropped in production. ;-)
So they are back in the milking line, and I have dropped the milk amounts for the 3 bottle babies I'm feeding some.
Still not a lot of milk yet, but we're working back that direction!
The next two does (Havana & Mayberry) are due any day now!
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Jessica ;-)

Dairy update for March...

Several changes and goals have been made to the dairy in the last month!
I have come the the realization that I'll never be able to meet EVERYONE'S desire for goats milk with my SMALL operation, and since I have limited space I had to come to some decisions.
My barn can only comfortably house 6 milkers all year long with a couple of younger dry does. So that puts a cap on just how far I can grow with my dairy.
I'm currently milking 4 does, with 2 due in a week and two more due in May. So, as it stands now, two of those 8 does will need to leave the herd between now and May. ;-(
To make things worse, right now, a couple of my current milkers have made a severe drop in production and have have been pulled out of the retail milk supply, so that has made a BIG drop in production and the amount of milk I have available for sale! ;-( I'm still not quite sure what's going on with them yet, or if they'll be able to be added back in to the production line.
So, that will make things interesting for a while, for milk sales, and leave very little (if any) for my family for a while. Hopefully the two young does due next week will be GOOD producers and will be able to carry the load.
Tis the life of raising dairy animals, and we just have to roll with the punches and do what we can to make things work!
I have also made the decision that since my production will never be supper high, and that most of my customers already pick up at the farm. I will no longer be offering milk deliveries farther then Shelton. I just won't have the quantity of milk available, to be able to cover my gas costs to make deliveries farther away then Shelton.
Thank you for your understanding and I will keep you posted as things change!
Jessica ;-)

Faline's Triplets!

Faline in labor and getting close.

 

Just broke her water.

 

NOT a fun udder to milk with teats that size!

She gave me 4.7# of colostrum (half gallon plus)!

And here are the TRIPLETS! 2 Does & a Buck (sadly the buck has a parrot mouth)

 

Buck born at 1:20AM weighing 7.8# (with a parrot mouth ;-( )

 

Doe #1 born at 1:40AM weighing 7.4#

 

Doe #2 born at 1:55AM weighing 7.5#

 

 

Here they are all again!

Doe #2, Buck & Doe #1

Updated pics of the kids!

Let the kids out of their pen to play in the sun this morning. ;-)
Here's 6 of the eight kids born last week!

Rose's buck #1 - 6 days old:

Rose's Buck #2 - 6 days old:

Rose's Buck #3 - 6 days old:

Cayenne's Doe - 4 days old:


Cayenne's Buck #1 - 4 days old:

Cayenne's Buck #2 - 4 days old:


Miss's Doe #1 - 3 days old:

Miss's Doe #2 - 3 days old:

Miss's TWIN DOES!

Miss kidded with TWIN DOES!!!
She was in labor most of the day. After seeing some unproductive pushes, I decided to check and see how the kids were positioned. I found the first doe presented with just her head, so fished around and found her front legs.
She was born at 5:45PM and weighed a whopping 9.5#!!! Miss was glad to get that one out!
The second doe wasn't much smaller at 8.9# born at 5:55PM.
Miss is SO glad to have that one over with! And I'm glad she didn't go all the way to her due date of the 2nd as they were BIG enough!
The second doe is a bit weak, but am hoping that with her molasses doses and time she will turn around (I had this happen with a kid last year, too).

Doe #1 is the one standing up