Records

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A sample monthly report from NMR gives the details for each goat (left). The part of the sheet blanked out (on the right) contains details relevant to cows, but not goats. This is just one page from many, but contains some of the goats on the females page, including Givendale Eve ( top line ) and Givendale Amber ( third line - the data actually refers to her 3rd lactation, not 2nd as printed). You will see from the report that most goats being recorded are first kidders (usually kidded at 12 months ).



	We milk twice a day at 0530 and at 1530 hours, the freshly kidded females being milked at 12-hour intervals. 700+ goats are milked daily. It takes approximately 1 hour to milk 300 goats. The milk is stored in refrigerated bulk tanks and we have 10,000 litres of capacity. It is collected every other day by tanker. The milking parlour is a 40-point Westfalia rotary with full electronic ID, flow meters and ACR's. This system is used by all milking goats, but in addition we have the facility for butterfat % and protein % testing.


	This means that each goat has her own electronic transponder and is milk recorded in kilos twice a day every day when she goes through the parlour. The information is stored on the Westfalia Dairyplan 5 database, which is linked via computer to the parlour. The database also stores full veterinary, genetic, reproductive and past lactation data for each goat. Our milk recording data is therefore accurate and extremely useful as a herd management and improvement tool.


	Although the goats have been recorded for yield on a daily basis for a number of years, linking that to fat % and protein % started in August 2003. Initially this complete analysis is being applied to freshly kidded goats, and a few older ones. Numbers will increase. The photograph on the left shows the "under deck detail" before the milking point has been used. An empty glass sample pot (with a blue lid) is in the milk line and behind it is the flow meter chamber. The blue lidded pots are attached and removed by an NMR operative (monthly) to get figures for fat% and protein% for each goat under test.


	In this picture the milking point is in use. The sample pot has a tiny trickle of milk entering it throughout the time the goat is being milked, hence a representative sample is taken. We place considerable importance on the "solids" content of our milk. Monitoring and recording them is an essential part of our performance testing and our breeding policy. The goats are recorded to gain Official figures through NMR and the aim is to have these figures recognised by the British Goat Society to gain BGS Milk Recording Awards.