The goats needed to be milked every 12 hours or their udders would become painfully swollen and possibly infected. “I was right on the 12-hour mark,” said Garcia, 40.
He and his uncle, Bartolo Garcia, had planned to find a freeway rest stop where they could milk the 50 goats Jose Garcia had purchased in Minnesota to add to his herd of 500 in Merced County, Calif. They’d been taking turns at the wheel during the nearly 2,000-mile drive.
“I kept praying the traffic would get going, because I knew how uncomfortable the goats were,” he said, adding that he was also hauling 25 young goats that were already weaned.
“They’re high producing animals, and they really can’t go much beyond 12 hours without milking,” Garcia said. “I was getting ready to lace up my boots and milk them in the trailer, when things finally started moving.”
They had been stuck in the storm for more than five hours, and Garcia said it probably would have taken several more hours to find an interstate rest stop. He was relieved when he learned there was a livestock supply store in Stansbury Park, Utah, about an hour’s drive away.
Lisa Fernandez was preparing to close shop for the day at the Tractor Supply Co. store when Garcia rushed in, visibly worried.
“Have you ever milked a goat before?” he asked her, explaining the situation.
“He said, ‘If you’d like to try, I can show you how,’” recalled Fernandez, assistant manager of the farm supply store.
She agreed to help him, but he still seemed desperate. He had another request.
“He asked if I knew of anyone else who might want to pitch in because all 50 goats needed milking,” she said. “He said he could use any help I could find.”
Fernandez and another manager quickly called some of their employees and asked if they would help. One employee posted a notice on the Lake Point Crew private Facebook page, asking for all available hands.
“My boss is trying to find people to help these farmers for about an hour to hour and a half to get these goats through the night,” Tosha Carter posted. “Would anyone be interested in helping?”
Within 30 minutes, about 40 people showed up to help on a chilly night, even though the vast majority had never milked a goat before, Fernandez said.
“I sure hadn’t milked one, but I was happy to try,” she said.
Fernandez said she fetched some buckets from inside the store and grabbed a bunch of supersized soft drink cups to hold the milk. Several people arrived with jars and bottles so they could take fresh goat milk home with them, she said.
Garcia showed her and the other volunteers how to milk the goats in the parking lot and get a steady stream going.
“He said, ‘Grab at the top with your index finger and thumb, work your way down and don’t yank,” Fernandez said. “It took me about 20 minutes to milk the first one, then I started to get the hang of it.”
Abigail Ryba, a salesclerk at the store, said the task was easier once she got a good rhythm going.
“The goats seemed a lot happier when we started milking them,” she said, noting that some of the goats were milked inside the trailer, while others were milked in the parking lot.
“I’ve been around goats at a horse rescue where I volunteer, but I’d ever milked one before,” Ryba said. “I love working with animals, and all of these goats were super sweet.”
“The people who weren’t milking goats were comforting them, letting them know it was all going to be okay,” she added.
Garcia said he was stunned that so many people dropped what they were doing on a cold Saturday night to milk goats for a stranger. KSL Television reported the community’s spontaneous act of kindness.
“The parking lot was full of people wanting to help,” Garcia said. “Even the sheriff rolled up to see what was going on. He wondered why he hadn’t been invited to the milking party.”
By 11:15 p.m., all 50 goats had been milked, and he and his uncle were able to get back on the road to California, he said.
“It would have taken me hours to do this alone,” Garcia said. “They got me out of a huge jam, and I now consider them all friends. I told them to come visit my goat farm in California any time.”
Fernandez, for one, might be tempted to take him up on the offer.
“I grew up about 90 minutes from where Jose lives, and I’m looking forward to staying in touch,” she said. “Because of him, I can now check milking a goat off my bucket list.”
