Efficient Homestead: A More Efficient Milking Routine
Today I want to talk about efficiency. Efficiency is something that I can geek out over! It is something that is becoming a bigger part of our homestead and will be a common topic on this blog. While I was working on making my shoe business more efficient in order to compete with much larger companies, I had to really focus in on getting my process as efficient as possible. You can read more about my experience in lean manufacturing here. I found that the areas that you can really save time and energy are the things that you do every day, over and over. If you decide to get dairy animals of any kind, you will find that it is a daily commitment. It will take way longer than you think when you get started to do the milking chores. However, as you get the hang of things you’ll find a system and things will get easier. HOWEVER, it is super easy to get stuck in a rut of doing things a certain way even if it isn’t the most efficient way to do it! I’ve been making a lot of changes to my morning milking routine and I want to just show you how one small change can make a big difference. While this example is specific to milking goats, it can be applied to anything you do including homesteading, homeschooling, cooking, home management, gardening, etc.
We turned a horse trailer into goat/chicken trailer with automatic watering a milking station. It turned out great! I will do post just on this trailer at a later date!
When we first moved into the house we’re currently living in, we had to do a lot of work to sort out what belongings we needed immediately and what we would store, we had to clean the house, figure out the wood furnace, and all the other general chaos that happens when you move! We had been living in a temporary situation for several weeks because of the car accident and we took our time moving because we had a very heavy trailer, five kids, three goats, ten chickens, and a cat! We were very tired when we got here. Luckily there was a barn and pasture set up with fencing, water, and forage for our goats, but I needed to get our milk stand ready for use. I had cut the legs off the stand because I was milking them in the animal trailer during the moving process. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, but I was eager to have a better setup!
I noticed when we got here that there was a feed box that had already been built right into the wall of the barn. I set up the milk stand right in front of that so that I’d have a place to put the grain and alfalfa pellets I give my goats while I milk them. At first, I had stacked some scrap lumber under the milk stand but after a few days I discovered that putting the milk stand on a few used tires that were left here put it at the perfect height and actually made a more solid and sturdy base than the scrap lumber. I put a few nails on the wall to hang a few tools I use, and setup my unique solution for tying my goats feet down (I’ll make a separate post about that later!). I brought in the garbage bins that I use to store the grain and alfalfa. It didn’t take long to set up and I was up and running! Well, it didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to make some changes. Since then I’ve been taking the time it takes to actually do the milking to think of ways to make the process more efficient.
I realized yesterday that one of the things that would be more efficient is where I keep the bins where I store the grain and alfalfa. In all the hustle bustle of moving in and trying to just get something set up, I just brought the bins in and set them against the wall without any real thought or consideration. Then I just got used to it! I realized that I have to scoop the grain/alfalfa, then walk across the room and put it in the feeder, then get the goat into the stand, then after I’m done I have to get that goat out and swap places with goat number 2 (we currently have two in milk), go back to the stand to lock the goat in, walk across the room to refill the treats, then go back to the stand to put them in. Because there is already a goat in the stand impatiently waiting, she will often try to eat before I’m ready and spill the alfalfa. It’s a lot of extra movement, effort, time, and waste of feed. It might not seem like much but if you are doing it every single day then it adds up fast. This morning before I got started, I just moved a few things and put the grain and alfalfa cans right next to the milk stand against the wall. It took me maybe ten or fifteen seconds but saved me 30 seconds of time in just one milking session. One of the principles that Navy SEALs use is “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast”. I took a little time to make a small change and it made the whole process go more smoothly which saves time in the long run. It also results in happier animals and a happier farmer with much fewer swear words! If you work with goats you know! There is no magic formula to this but it takes practice and a particular mindset. You need to be willing to try new things and break routine. The best advice I got in manufacturing is to stand back, look at your station or process and try to just cut two seconds off of any particular process. Start there and often one idea leads to another. What process do you have that you want to get more efficient?
