The ramp makes it easy for the girls to walk up. The height makes it easier for Lee to reach for milking. Notice the platform on the side which makes it very easy for the does to turn around when they are done being milked, so they can go back down the ramp.
The board on the left moves to the right and locks in with a hook latch. This keeps the goats in the stanchion and makes it so they can't nip the person milking them. Mostly, it keeps them occupied while they are being milked with the nice feed bowl right in front of them. Lee designed this stanchion and built it out of scraps in our garage. The plans for the stanchion can be found here on the web.
In 2001, he built another one, that has access from the opposite side, so now we have a left-hand stanchion and a right-hand stanchion. He also re-vamped an old Surge belly milker so he doesn't have to milk by hand anymore:
He bought 2 of these machines and a surplus medical vacuum pump. He built his own vacuum chamber out of heavy-duty PCV pipe, replaced the teat cups (those above are for cows) with smaller clear cups for goats. He traded/bartered one milk machine setup for a Nubian buck and a Nubian-cross doe, and now another goat herding family also does not have to milk by hand! He has built several of these systems now.
We don't have goats any more, and so he does not milk now. We don't have any of the milkers left, as he sold the last one a few years ago.
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