Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[OneFineAcre]

You want a cup to squirt those first squirts in so you can look at if and see if there are any globules, stringy stuff, tinged, blood etc.
If you do then you need to test... the test strips and cards are useless.
You do want on your shelf a CMT (California Mastitis Test)- you can get it online for about $15.
Hopefully you will never need it but if you ever do you will want it!

Should add that to the list of things we aren't doing

 

[Mini Horses]

LS those Troy-Bilts are rugged, hard working mowers -- I have one! But they DO get quirky when repairing. Just found that I am lucky to own a model that had changes mid production. My manual sometimes says one part # & it was changed -- you find out mid fix with wrong part! Just happened this week....but, is still a good mow!

And, yes, things are sometimes "tight" to work. Just sayin -- from one "mechanic" to another

 

[Southern by choice]

Should add that to the list of things we aren't doing

You don't strip the teats?

 

[greybeard]

That sure sounds simpler than our Cub Cadet. Kubota is another that has some questionable design ideas in some areas. Our PTO switch is a prime example of how NOT to design something.

Biggest problem I saw when working at the Kubota dealership (in regards to elec PTOs) was the retaining bolt would get loose and fall out or simply shear off. When the PTO dropped down, the upper hub that contains the coil fell out of the locked position and that allowed the hub to spin, shearing the wires off. On maybe, 1 out of 5, the wires broke long enough to allow us to solder the pigtail back on. Otherwise, it was a $250-$300 complete PTO clutch replacement. On 2 out of 5, the bolt had been loose long enough to allow the threads in the crankshaft to become worn and that mean either a high labor cost to replace the crankshaft or an equally expensive replacement engine.

Cub Cadet had similar problems with their PTO clutch retaining bolts. Most of these problems were on the vertical engines.
I 'may' have changed 1-2 PTO switches while I worked there.
Most applications, the alternator provides charging to the battery and ignition voltage. The PTO clutch coil, PTO switch and lights got it's voltage directly from the battery circuit. PTO clutch amperage is too big of a draw to be powered by the charging circuit.
Problems with the PTO switch usually came from low battery voltage. Low voltage, with a set resistance in the coil = high current. High current burns the weakest link out, which is the switch.

We took in all brands in the shop.

With the exception of the original "Horse" rear tine tillers, we in the shop had a saying about Troybilt.
"Troy should have never built a 'dang' thing"
We made tons of $$$S off them, but we in the shop hated to see anything red come in the shop.

 

[OneFineAcre]

You don't strip the teats?

We strip them
Not in a cup

 

[Southern by choice]

We strip them
Not in a cup

What do you strip them into? Or do you just strip on the ground?

 

[OneFineAcre]

What do you strip them into? Or do you just strip on the ground?

Each gets a clean rag, so after we clean the udder usually just do a squirt teat from each into the rag.

 

[Southern by choice]

Each gets a clean rag, so after we clean the udder usually just do a squirt teat from each into the rag.

Oh, so still similar... at least you can see if something is there. Rare with Nigerians anyway - they just have such a great history of not having mastitis issues.
Nigies really are amazing little goats... they have these large litters yet rarely ever have issues with ketosis or hypocalcemia, rarely mastitis.... they just plug along!

 

[Latestarter]

I've been doing a couple of squirts onto the ground from each teat, then look very closely at the first few into the bucket... If no lumps, strings, pink/blood, or anything else unusual I just finish the side up and move to the other side. I'm not drinking very much of the milk right now as most is being taken by CC. I get some like every third day or so and it's always FIFO (first in - first out).

 

[Hens and Roos]

Now that we have bottle babies(Coco's bucklings) I pretty much told DS(15) that he cant drink any of the goat milk.....he drinks as much at one time as the bottle babies do for a day!!