When I started with the hopes of one day owning a raw dairy, I had an image in my mind of how the milk parlor would/should be set up. However, it actually wasn’t until I started milking and processing raw milk, did I really figure out what worked for me. While I grew up in the country and was always around cattle, never had I stepped foot into a small working dairy. There was a few pictures online that help give me some inspiration but nothing that really worked with what I already had.
Originally, our barn was designed and built for miniature show horses. So the stalls and set up is a bit, well, miniature. But I was determined to make it work, with minimal expense, a few minor adjustments and an addition of a clean processing room.
During the years I have been milking I have made friends with many other raw dairy owners and each of their set up is different. One of them uses a small 10×10 home depot shed with open doors on each side and another friend has her parlor in the main cavity of the barn. Because my barn is down hill (which means uphill on the way back) and further away from the house, I chose add a clean room to process and store my milk. (Not that I couldn’t carry the milk and buckets up to the house, but most of the time my hands are filled with small children). I knew I would need to add a refrigerator in the barn but because we live in Idaho and have temperatures drop down into the negatives during winter, my milk room would have to be insulated in order for the refrigerator to work properly. And if I wanted to run water in my room, then I would need a heater to keeps the pipes from freezing. I choose a small in-wall mounted heater, that I can turn on and off. You cant see it in the video but it is mounted under the counter top.
Hot water was a must in the processing room. Because my milk was to be sold to other families, maintaining a sanitary environment was crucial (and besides I have way to many dishes in the house to be bringing in milking buckets and filters up twice a day). I opted for a cheap 6 gallon water heater. This gives me just enough hot water to wash my hands and my equipment. It doesn’t sound like a lot of water but I have yet to run out of hot water when I need it. The water heater fit just perfectly in the cupboard under the sink.
We had one of our farm workers help build the milking parlor and processing room. It took him about 3 weeks and cost roughly $4000.00.
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- Before
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- Before
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- Inlet from pasture and stall
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- Future milking area and processing room
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- Inlet and stall
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- Future processing room
I have recieved multiple questions regarding the set up of my milking parlor and my processing room, so I went ahead and made a Youtube video. You can check it out here….
Also I would love to answer any questions you may have.
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Loved your video. We are building our barn this summer and I have been thinking hard about how I want my milking parlor to be and my clean milk room. It was very helpful to see someone else’s and gave me some good ideas. I have the exact faucet on my claw foot tub and love it. I wish my girl would only eat hay at milking time but she was used to grain before I got her and that is what holds her still. I have one holstein dairy cow now and she is my first. I have had her for almost 2 years. She is finally pregnant and I dried her up. Now I am looking at getting a another dairy cow because I can’t stand not having any milk when she is dried up, its terrible when you are used to it. I am looking at a gurnsey, brown swiss or jersey. I want more cream, we call it liquid gold at our house. Thanks for the information, I love your site. I also have a milking machine I bought it last year, tried it once and she went crazy it scared her to death. So I have not brought it out again.
Love your clean room! So cute! We have a heifer that We are hoping to breed this next month. First time dairy owners?. We are in the bnn process of designing our barn area. What size is your clean room just to have an idea of space? Thank you!
Thanks for posting your video. As others have commented, it was nice to be able to see a milking parlor and clean room and get ideas from it. I, too, was wondering about the sizes of your milking parlor and clean room. Can you provide the dimension? Thanks.