Celebrating a Maggie Milestone!

Wow!  I had to take a picture because I couldn't quite believe it myself.  After nine months of daily milkings, Maggie FINALLY stood still and let me milk her all the way out into my milk pan. 

Her mama, Epi, has been standing still for milkings for the past two years.  But not Maggie.  She thinks it's much more fun to kick.  And dodge.  And try and put her foot into things. 

After losing too much milk to a misplaced foot or kick at the beginning of her milking career, I began always milking her into a smaller container.  She still danced around and kicked, but when I had to dump the milk and start with a new container, it wasn't ALL the milk.

Once the pigs arrived at the farm, I began milking her into a five gallon bucket.  She can't get her foot up that high to get inside, and she started to calm down.  We also switched to a locally ground grain that is super fine, but really nutritious with peas and other local crops.  It takes a long time to eat a little bit.  Which helps to keep her still. 

Since we lost water all day Friday and half a day Saturday (pump went out), I had enough milk for the pigs, and wanted to keep all of the milk on Sunday.  However, I forgot to bring the smaller container out to the barn with me, so I decided to give it a try.

And Maggie stood there and let me milk her.  No kicks.  No dancing.  Just a good girl eating her nummies.  It was a huge blessing! 

I'm not sure if it'll continue or not, but at least now I know she CAN do it.

Just wanted to share this Maggie milestone.