>What features in the parlor make it easier for a woman to do the work?
Hi Pam. My wife and I milked up to 120- goats in a parlour for almost
10 years and have helped a number of others get set up in our area, a
number of them women and/or husband and wife, often with women doing a
majority of the milking.
I'm assuming you're asking this in terms of women often being shorter
or small than a lot of men?
I know some considerations would be different with a cow parlour, but
over the years the biggest problem for women I know in dairy is the
distances involved in reaching with the milkers. If you're building a
pit, just make sure you'll have room to reach to the udders without
extending yourself all the time unless you want to be laid up with a
sore back. I.e. perhaps you could set up some kind of raised steel grate
on the floor to shorten the distance.
Often the dimensions outlined in standard plans -- or the whims of the
dairy supply people doing your set up -- are based on men's supposed
average physical dimensions. Remember you'll be doing it all twice day
(maybe three?) so be sure it's comfortable for you.
Have an easy , safe and trouble free way to get the goats/cows in and
out of the parlour.
Same thing in the milk house. Consider how much you want to be wresting
with big containers of chemicals for the sanitizer, wash etc. If you
need to, it might be worth a few extra dollars to buy your chemicals in
smaller containers. (My wife has burned a lot of holes in her barn
clothes tipping a big container of chlorine to get the chemical out for
the sanitizer till we got a smaller container to put it in)
Depending on the size of the milk tank, if its' a manual wash, make
sure you can get around and get around there well enough with the brush.
If it's a clean-in-place tank, make sure you're not having to climb
around on a jungle gym set of ladders to be able to check in the hatch.
Hope these few ideas are some help!
As for a tractor, don't be in a hurry to tie up a lot of money in one.
We've used a discount brand (Universal) of tractor, 45 HP with a set of
manure forks on the loader. Granted, this isn't doing much field work
except for haying. Most field work we need ie. putting in a new hayfield
we've got a neighbour to do on a custom basis.
This tractor easily handles 4-5 ft round bales, including on occasion
4' bales of wrapped silage (which did take some care to manoeuver
around). It does cleaning out and will operate a spreader, snowblower
etc. Actually, the snowblower is a big consideration in our region.
However, there probably are inventive ways to get around having one
altogether, especially if you can do a lot of grazing and stockpiling,
as we are moving towards.
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Mark Hall
Lover's Creek Farm
Grenfel Ontario Canada
