Our doe recently had three kids, and we are wanting to milk her. We've done some research and asked some questions, and based on our family, we feel it'd be best to milk once a day. Our plan is to separate the doe and kids during the day, let her udder fill up and milk in the evening. During the night, allow the doe and kids to be together, and allow the kids to nurse freely. I guess my main request is for some advice in the best way to approach this. We only have one pasture area, one small goat barn with one pen inside. If we separate the mom and kids during the day that means the poor kids will be in the inside pen all day and get no exercise outside in the pasture. Or should we keep the mom in the pen all day? We have two other wethers that share the same space. If any of you have a similar setup, how have you approached this... just looking for some help! Thanks in advance.
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Yep, that will work fine.
Jabe Thomas said:
Things have been going great. We separate the babies from mom at night and milk in the morning. They are then together all day. My question is if we go on a short vacation, would it be okay to leave the babies and mom together all night for a couple of nights, and not milk the mom? I'm not sure the person doing our chores will want to venture into the milking business. What have you all done when you want/need to get away for a couple nights?? Thanks!
The culture I get from cheeseandyogurtmaking.com makes a quart (2 pints) which is better for me because I don't use up all the culture before it goes bad otherwise. Even the ice cubes eventually lose their punch (die) after a few months. I make chevre in small batches (a quart at a time) until I have more milk than I can drink and use daily.
I also had a thought about why some people have to cool their milk more quickly than others... I'm sure the ambient temperature would have a lot to do with it! I live at semi-high elevation and early mornings are cool even in the summertime (50s-60s) so I don't worry too much about the milk warming up before I can get it into the fridge.
2) You could take a jar and stop 1/2 or 3/4 through milking to pour off milk so you don't lose the whole pail if/when she steps in it.
3) I would say chevre, but most cultures are measured for 1 gallon, when I wasn't getting as much milk I split it in half and did a half gallon but I think it would be tough to split down farther for a quart. Ice cream is fantastic, especially if you have an ice cream maker (we make a custarrd base with 4 cups goat milk, 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar then chill it before putting it in the ice cream maker... Strawberry is our favorite flavor so far). Butter is probably the easiest to do with small amounts of milk/ cream. Let the milk jar sit quiet for a day or two, skim the cream into a small jar and shake, rinse the buttermilk out with ice water once you have the butter glob, press the water out with butter muslin or cheesecloth (i skip this if it is only a tbsp or two since we eat it immediately), and then salt it... Yum! All three are simple and delicious, just depends on your tastes and how much milk you have to use. Kefir would also be very easy to do if you got some kefir grains or culture, but some people don't enjoy it.
I would just give her more grain! :)
In need of some advice...
1) My doe is finishing her grain before I finish milking. Granted I'm not the quickest milker in the world, so as I become more efficient, that will help, but if you could share some hints/tips if you've experienced this problem that'd be great. Patty, I see you use Chaffhaye. I've looked around and can't find the stuff. Anything else similar?
2) This is probably a result of #1, but two out of the last three mornings the doe had stepped in the milk. Talk about frustrating! Both times she stepped in it toward the end when we were about done. I hope this isn't becoming a habit! I guess I don't know if I have a question here... just a frustration.
2) I'm milking one doe, once a day and getting about 16oz per day. Not bad, right? Anyway, we know there is all kinds of stuff you can do with goats milk. We've drank it, and it's good! But, we'd like to try our hand at butter, cheese, ice cream... something. I would love it if you could give me your recommendation for first timers on something simple and easy to do. A starting point, if you will.
That's really close to what I do. Grass hay only in hay feeders free choice. Minerals and baking soda free choice. On the stand, Purina goat chow (though this is a recent switch from mixing my own grains) with BOSS and Chaffhaye. The Chaffhaye really buys me time on the stand, so I love that. It seems to be working well, so I'm happy with it. I also add a little kelp granules to the grain when I remember.
Jabe Thomas said:
Here's a link to a blog post about freezing the cream for butter. I skimmed and made butter for the first time a few weeks ago and found this as I was researching it... Hope it helps. The raw goat butter is AMAZING, by the way!
You can make butter without skimming! I think there's a video linked here to a lady that does it, but yes, you can skim off the top. Not 100% sure you can freeze and then make butter, but you could try it and see!
Yet another q. I see the creme has risen to the top of some of the milk I've gotten. Pretty cool! We really want to make some butter, but because we're only milking one doe there isn't much creme. Is it possible to scrape the creme off the top and freeze it until we've got enough? For instance, could I keep a Mason jar in the freezer and just keep adding to it?
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