Hello! Does anyone here test their milk for bacteria and such, outside of mastitis strips? I'm curious about the protocol for "guaranteeing" safety in raw milk.
Read more…In November I purchased a new doe as I decided I want to improve my herd. She is 4 years old, and has freshened twice before coming to me. She was already bred when I bought her. She comes from wonderful lines, and milk scores on both Dam and Sire
Read more…I have been giving Sweetlix Meat Maker to our does for about five years now. Shame on me, but I just recently discovered a Sweetlix mineral designed specifically for dairy goats. In doing a little research, some still prefer the Meat Maker even for t
Read more…I am wondering how to pull as much fat as possible out of the milk while still keeping it in it's raw form. I have been looking for 2 days now on how to produce skim milk from raw milk and have not found an exact answer. The cream that rises to th
Read more…Hi,
I'm having trouble milking a goat and would appreciate some advice. She delivered a still born 3 weeks ago. On this website I learnt that the milk for 2 weeks is colostrum, so since I have no freezer, we just milked her and didn't catch it. We mi
Read more…Hello all!
I'm looking for some ideas and inspiration on things to do with goats' milk. This is my first summer with a milker and aside from making my coffee delicious, I haven't done a whole lot with it. I'd love to try some cheeses, but with jus
Read more…6 month lactation for this doe. I'm drying her up and am milking once every day or day and half as needed. My last two milkings surprised me with the cream! Anyone else ever see this? I'm floored. Someone on another site questioned my honesty and sug
Read more…We are fairly new to Nigerian Dwarfs. We currently own 3. Our second goat just had a kid 2.5 weeks ago and we just sold it yesterday and started milking her.
Our first goat gave us a quart of milk each milking for the first 4+ months. We milked t
Read more…Has anyone else had experience with Dansha Farms? I ordered a manual milker from them and the pump on it broke on the first use. It just snapped. So we called them and they said they'd send out a replacement pump. It arrived a couple of days later, p
Read more…I have a doe with double teats that make milking difficult. I usually get squirted in the eye by the extra little one. I thought getting a milking machine would help but her teats are too small and the inflation collapses right at the end of the te
Read more…Hey all- in the past few weeks, my doe's left side of her udder has started producing almost three times the amount of her right side. Overall, milk production has gone up slightly so it seems that as the right side has become slightly less producti
Read more…Oh my goodness, I made a batch of cajeta (goat milk caramel sauce) today and it is amazing! It's so complex, creamy and not overly sweet. It certainly wasn't hard to do and it only needs a few ingredients. Though it did take a couple of hours and nee
Read more…My 2-year-old LaMancha, the one we've had so much trouble getting bred (even after vet checks, diet checks, minerals, copper, etc.), now has had her udder filling up the last few weeks.
At first I thought, yay! Maybe she's finally bred. But her udder
Read more…Hello! We recently re-homed our two kid wethers after three months of nursing. In the few days since, our doe has decided she does NOT like her grain. It's a sweet feed for dairy goats and she's been eating it for months, although she's never exac
Read more…I've pretty much reached the end of this milking season. Daphne is already dried up and just this week Juniper's supply has dropped dramatically. She's down to about 10-12 ounces per day and once I get the last of my soap and hand cream orders finis
Read more…I'm planning to start making some soap with milk from my Juniper. To get a general idea of what the butterfat percentage of her milk is, I kept a cup of it in my refrigerator for several days to see how much cream rose. I skimmed off a little over a
Read more…Went out to the barn to milk this evening and discovered many of them had gotten into the feed room! Not sure how they got in (probably let in by our clever and sneaky wether) nor how long they were there, but 8 goats can do significant damage in 3
Read more…HI everyone,
Needing some advice with a First Freshner.
I have sisters who kidded first time this year, both gave me twins which was lovely.
One doeling has taken really well to milking her sister is a whole other story. I have managed to milk her
Read more…Hello! I have a question on expectations for a nursing doe. This is our first round with attempting to milk and both the doe and I are amateurs. I milked her a bit by hand last year -rather unsuccessfully (it was the first time for both of us), an
Read more…I have a first freshener with 7 & 1/2 week kids. I separated the kids last night and noticed today that she has a small 1/3 inch cut on the upper part of her teat. I plan on milking her to relieve the pressure but I don't want to cause more damage to
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