Milk

[BlueCoyote 0]

we've just started milking two of our goats - between the two of them we get about a gallon a day.. not bad eh?

 

well this is new to me..... goats milk is ok but not very good on the breakfast cereal. kids seem to like it though.

 

my mom keeps insisting that i need to look up pasteurisation.. so here i am. i found this little article http://www.realmilk.com/rawvpasteur.html from 1938 that is just ragging on pasteurized milk. makes it sound down right evil and akin to rat poison!

 

well its obvious who won.... if you buy your milk anyway.

 

i'm not done with my research but anyone have thoughts or opinions on it?

milk doesnt last longer than a week in my house.... not with two boys and a husband plus myself.... my mom also grew up on a farm and they never cooked their milk and none of them have died or become deathly ill.

 

now does anyone here have milk cows or goats? any advice on what i should do? i had no freakin idea i was going into Debate World when i started milking these damned goats. this is worse than the debate over raw dog food vs kibble!

 

my biggest concern is parasites. i dont think my goats are wormy..... they get medicated goat feed.... but should i have a vet look at them anyway? or worm them myself just to be safe. and if i do worm them myself... will that taint the milk?

 

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Raw milk? I always preferred to fry mine!

 

Listen; Over here for centuries gone by, goats milk was considered the best thing on earth for children and sick people. We even have special little churns which people used to carry it to the convents in. And I'll bettcha that stuff was straight from the goat.

 

I had a milking goat here - I don't use milk myself - and gave hers to my Dogs. They couldn't get enough of it and it did them no harm.

 

Just seive it through a stocking, to catch any hairs or flecks of muck from the udder / belly, and get on with it.

 

World's so obsessive about 'Hygiene' that kids suffer all manner of sickliness now.

[BlueCoyote 0]

good point there! and good idea about the stocking.

 

as i'm new to it i used the handiest cleanest thing... paper towel. and naturally the milk tasted like paper ..

this morning however i used a clean cloth to strain it. havent tasted it yet though..... but now i'm afraid its going to taste like the laundry detergent!

so far we've been at it for only a couple of days. the first batch of milk went to the pig because my mom leg the goat stick her foot in the bucket....

 

thanks for the fast reply!

[cúagusgiorraí 57]

I wouldnt bother pastuerising it. I think pastuerisation is to make it last longer? Most people I know who have milking cows and goats, drink it fresh. Its all natural. So what if theres a few bacteria in it, it'll only strengthen your immune system.

[BlueCoyote 0]

what about the possibility of parasites or worm medicine messing with the quality?

thats the bit that scares me the most lol

 

i wouldnt be surprised if my kids needed a good worming - they're toddlers after all and will put all kinds of stuff in their mouths! - but i would rather not do it that way if i can help it!

 

and no not worried about storage. my cousin is planning to come up once a week starting friday for a gallon of it for herself and her family which is fine. we'll have more than enough!

Edited May 13, 2008 by BlueCoyote

[desertdog 149]

we get goats milk from a local supplier, when she has to much she freezes it, and its not pasturised,

[BlueCoyote 0]

thats the other thing i wondered, was freezing it ok. now i know

 

as for feeding: so grass feeding with grain is better than straight grain fed? when we first started this i told my mom she needed to steak them out in the field (in a shady spot of course) and let them have their fill of grass but she said that would make the milk taste bitter....... i dont think it can be any more bitter than it already is though. she was feeding milk producer - the kind you feed to cows - but ran out of it. now its just goat feed plus the odd mouthful of grass they can grab while on the way to being milked.

 

thats interesting about the excema problem too. you dont react to the goats milk at all? i dont know much about the disease except that it effects your skin. i have a little cousin that has it real bad. he's only 2 1/2 and already has the worst luck of anyone i know. the first time i saw him with his skin all red and raw i almost had a fit because i didnt know what was wrong with him.

i'm going to recommend to his mom and dad to try the goats milk and see if that will give him some relief. he cant eat certain foods i know. hot dogs being number one... or sandwich meat. and probably dozens of other things.

like i said.... already starting his life with bad luck.

[Clancy 1]

Don't pasteurize! It kills all of the enzymes in the milk that allow you to digest it properly. And I would agree that it makes it toxic especially the ultra pasteurized milk. Think liquid formica. Why do you think so many people are lactose intolerant? They killed all the healthy enzymes in the milk.

As far as taste goes, milk takes on the odor of the area in which it is milked and what you feed is what you get. Milk in an area that doesn't smell so much like a barn, even if you have to milk outside. Alfalfa hay is supposed to be good for taste and good pasture. Don't let the milk goat browse trees as oaks will give it a bitter taste. Of course grain is good because goats don't live on grass alone.

The key is to chill it quickly and you won't have the "goaty" flavor. If you milk into stainless steel and then when finished strain the milk through a filter, even a coffee filter, into another stainless container or glass bottles in a bowl of ice and water it will chill quickly and keep longer. Keeping the milk in glass is best.

As for worms....you won't squeeze out worms from the teats. Just trim the udder area of hair and wipe clean with even a slightly soapy washcloth and don't squirt the first pulls into the milk container.

I hope this helps. Goat milk is great if you can keep away the "goaty" taste.

Edited May 14, 2008 by Clancy

[BlueCoyote 0]

i talked her into letting them have the grass just now lol of course ten minutes later one of them got loose and trotted her smart ass into the vegetable garden. have to talk to my mom about building actual GATES because propping things up wont do....

 

and just now my mom called and has given me a list of questions about goats:

do you keep them penned up in a shed or barn?

do you tether them out or let them stay out on a pasture?

 

basically where do you keep them when they arent being milked?

 

 

 

about my cousin. if he was my child i would be doing everything possible to find a cure or some sort of relief for him. he looked pathetic and terrible when i saw him with the outbreak.. where as an hour before he looked like a normal toddler... i felt like crying because he looked so bad - yeah i'm mushy like that when it comes to any child!

my husband uses the liquid vitamin E pills when ever he has a cut of any sort. i've used them before too but .... i have a big problem with sticky things. i dont know how he can just apply it to his arm, hand or what ever and just walk around like normal. EW! its like pine sap..

 

still i'll suggest all of that. i'm becoming a big fan of homeopathic remedies... but convincing others can be hard. my cousins are very "Modern" but i'll do what i can to convince them. like i said.... if this was my child i would be looking all over for a way to keep him healthy!

[BlueCoyote 0]

didnt know that about them eating through ropes. i'll be getting my leashes back ASAP!!

 

my mom worries about tethering them but its possible to do it and it be safe. my front lawn is HUGE... its fenced in but it has a few different varieties of poisonous plants in there that a goat shouldnt be eating.... and my husband would be having goat for dinner if they stripped the grape vine....

still, the pen they are in is nothing but dirt now.. i dont see any excuse for keeping them in there all the time. i have a proper steak that hasnt been used yet... but my mom is leery of using it. she thinks the goats might get lose, climb a fence and hang... i suppose that could happen. but so could any number of things. goats are better at getting trouble! we have one that purposely seeks it out. tried to break into the chicken house today... gets her head caught in the fence all the time - we did have a bar tied to her horns to prevent it, but she got it off - neighbour was knocking on my door at noon yesterday to tell me one of the goats was caught out in the sun. stupid animal knows how to get her head back out, but that day she i guess she forgot. that one in particular (boar/nubian) and her sister are only a year old... the other two seem to be older. they dont get up to nearly as many tricks as the others!

[BlueCoyote 0]

the more people i talk to and the more i read and learn i cant understand why more of my own countrymen and women dont do this sort of thing. surely the time you put it into its worth it! milking our two twice a day doesnt take any time at all... and these are wild goats you have to catch first lol still, not that much work because the pen is small and they're getting used to us every day.

the two larger goats - havent bred them yet - are a lot tamer and will probably be easier and give more milk. problem there is our stupid government prohibits you to sell milk to the public without the proper permit... though you can sell it as food for animals lol

 

so far we have eggs and milk being produced on our little patch of land. soon, within the next few months we'll have rabbit and chicken and probably a few ducks on the table.... but i am a little too fond of my little duckie gang .. they follow me everywhere! not sure i could bring myself to eating them.....