Pickup Powers "Poorboy" Milker

Pickup Powers "Poorboy" Milker LIVESTOCK Sheep/Goats 27-6-3 With only a slight modification to the intake manifold vacuum line on his pickup, Jeff Hoard, Austin, Nevada, put together a milking machine that he now uses to milk goats. Hoard's dairy goat herd numbers just 10, so he couldn't justify spending thousands of dollars on new equipment. There's also no electricity available where he keeps his goats so he had to search for another way to do the milking. "I figured we could use a car or pickup engine to provide the little bit of vacuum needed for a small milking machine, but I spent several months thinking about just how we'd make it work," he says. In the end, he cut the vacuum line on the engine, installed a æT' in it, and added a ball valve to that. A line from the valve to his milking machine creates just the right amount of vacuum. His homemade milking machine features a pulsator he purchased from a farm supply store and a regulator he built from PVC pipe and a marble. Both are mounted on an 8-qt. pressure cooker. "I decided on a pressure pan because I figured it would be able to take the vacuum and hold the seal," he says. He made teat cups from PVC pipe fitted with regular milker inflations. The lines from the teat cups that run back to the pressure pan are clear vinyl. "This lets us watch the milk flow, so we don't leave the milkers on too long," he notes. Hoard says once he figured out how he was going to make his milker, he put it together in less than 3 hours, and for a cost of less than $200. That's about a tenth of what he would have spent for one milking unit, he estimates. While his system is sized for goats, he says it could be pieced together for cows just as easily. He says an idling car or pickup engine creates enough vacuum to handle multiple claws, so you could milk two or more animals at once with it. He's considered using a larger pressure cooker, perhaps a 22-qt. model, to see if he can still maintain the proper vacuum. "That would let you collect about 5 gal. of milk before you'd have to empty the container," he says. Hoard added a vacuum valve to all his vehicles, so he can milk no matter what he's driving. "Some of our goats are pastured quite a ways from the buildings, but with this, we can milk them anywhere," he says. Hoard says several of the people who've seen his milker asked if he'd make them one like it. He says he can do that for $360, and ship it postage paid. Or if you'd like a machine but want to make it yourself, he could put together plans and a materials list. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jeff Hoard, HM Ranch/Hoard Mfg. Co., HC 61, Box 6108, Austin, Nevada 89310 (ph or fax 775 217-9264).

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