how to milk a goat (2 of 2)

As I was milking this morning, it occurred to me that I had left several things out of my previous milking post. I thought I would put them here. These are the things that become automatic and thus invisible, like trying to give directions to someone after you’ve lived somewhere so long you’ve forgotten all the street names. So here is How to Milk a Goat, Level 2–the details. Turns out I knew more than I thought I knew!

Stripping the Foremilk

Sounds nasty, doesn’t it? It’s really no big deal. In fact, it’s such a no-big-deal that I forgot to mention it in my first milking post. Foremilk is just the first milk, and stripping it means you squirt the first squirt or two onto the floor, or into a dark enamel strip cup, or onto a paper towel (what I do) to check the health of the milk and the goat. Just glance at it, then move on. It takes maybe two seconds. What you’re looking for is clots or flakes or, goddess forbid, blood. Yuck. Any of those things would indicate mastitis, which means treatment for the goat and you probably don’t want to be drinking that milk. We have never had a case of mastitis, not one. Having said that, I will probably go out there tomorrow and Fancy will—no, no, I’m not even finishing that thought. Cancel, Cancel that thought! (No, I’m not superstitious, why?) So, squirt squirt, milk looks good, on with the show.

Do the Udder Bump

This is a special dance move you have to do to call in the milk divas and honor the milk. No, no, that’s in some other alternate universe, silly! In this universe, bumping the udder is what you do to get the milk to let down into the udder. I had no clue what this was all about until I saw the kids, the goat kids that is, butting Fancy’s udder, and I mean RAMMING their little heads into her udder, five or six times, wham Wham WHAM. If my kids had done that to my udders—I mean breasts—when I was nursing, well, let’s just say our nursing relationship would have been very, very short. But having seen the goat kids whaling on poor Fancy, I don’t feel bad at all about knocking her udder around a bit. I’m a heck of a lot more gentle than her babies ever were, and it makes the milk whoosh out. I make a fist, which I figure it about the size of those vicious little kid heads, and knock into the sides of her udder. Knock, knock, is any milk home?

Teat Dip

I mentioned in my other post that you dip the teats to clean them before milking. Well, you also dip them after milking, to kill off any nasties that might give the girls problems—the germs can work their way up the now open teat, and it takes a little time for it to close back up again. Dip, dip, and you’re done.

Cooling the Milk

The grade you see on milk in the store is largely related to how fast the milk is cooled. Grade A milk is cooled to 40 degrees within 30 minutes. At home, this is pretty much impossible, unless you buy special equipment, which ain’t going to happen on a two goat mini-farm. Grade B means the milk is cooled to 40 degrees in 90 minutes. Grade C is cooled to 50 degrees in 90 minutes, and grade D is 40 degrees in 105 minutes. You can get grade C or D by putting your milk in a jar in the freezer (the difference depends on how much milk (it takes longer for the cold to penetrate larger volumes) and whether you remember to stir the milk). This is what we go for. Given our very small operation, I can give extra attention to the health and cleanliness of our goats, and the small amount of milk being processed means cooling happens more quickly as well. So I feel pretty good about our grade C milk. We have never had any off flavors or milky badness.

Cleaning the Milker

How could I have forgotten this? After putting the milk in the freezer to cool, I take the milker to the big sink to clean. First you run a couple of cups of cool water through. NOT hot water, or you’ll cook the milk into this incredibly hard stuff called, appropriately, milk stone. You don’t want milk stone in your milker. After the cool water has washed the milk away, I squirt a couple of cups of warm water with a bit of clorox added, to disinfect it. Finally, I squirt some HOT water through, to get the clorox out. Then I hand the deconstructed milker up to dry until next time. The cleaning process takes about five or ten minutes. Not long

So there you go.

Tags: goat milk, goats, milking

Category: goats, honeymilk farm