I keep thinking about this. We used to keep goats for dairy and I did love them so much. But we prefer cow milk and allll of the cheeses and ferments, not to mention the opportunity to raise a beef cow. My hang up is the amount of milk we would get in a day! We go through in a week what I might get in a single day milking. What do you do with your unused/extra milk? Do you have waste? Raise pigs on it? Or do you only milk once a day and let the calf have the rest? Questions, questions...
Discussion
We milk twice a day. 4-5 gallons each day. Morning milk went straight to pigs - this cut their food bill in half. Afternoon milk (2 is gallons) we would refrigerate then skim cream in the morning for coffee, butter, ice cream, etc. Once a week I would use a gallon for yogurt. I gave/sold 3 gallons a week. We fed clabbered milk to meat birds during the summer (1 1/2 gallons each day for 50 birds).
There was a beautiful flow of resources once I got the hang if it. A real economy (management) of goods.
There were times I was overwhelmed. But the worst that could happen is it gets poured on the garden or more gets fed to pigs.
When you say morning and afternoon, is that 12 hours apart? Or do you not need to stretch it that far?
We milk at 6:30am and 6pm. My husband and I together. That commitment scared me at first, but it is now the rhythm of our day. There is some flexibility, but when you demand that much of the cow you can't skip a milking.