Best Goat

[babsbag]

I have thought about taking ice to the milk room with me. I actually bought a used commercial ice maker last year just for that reason but since I am building a dairy I decided that my time was better spent working on the dairy than it was on installing an ice machine. However, the dairy is taking longer than planned so I may change that plan yet again. I have water nearby but the room I milk in is rather small since I am now milking two goats at a time. I visited a dairy where they had the alcohol/water slush in a freezer and she had her milk can sitting in that while she milked. Of course she was milking by machine and not by hand.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Wow - 3 pages worth of posts and there's no love for the Toggs? I'll be the first to spread some Toggenburg love. What I like about them is that they produce consistently and are QUIET. Im sure every goat is different but I've never met a quiet Nubian. My wife and I have some Nigerians and I milked one last year but we wanted to have enough milk to be able to make cheese, soap etc. I was consuming all of the milk I was getting and we never got ahead.

I haven't noticed the strong "goaty " taste that they are known for. I do have them on 4th cutting alfalfa only and they get grain on the stand. Their milk isn't as rich as othe s but I like the taste. The 2 that we have are pretty laid back and easy keepers. By the way did I mention that the ice cream is really good?

We have Nigerians and have plenty of milk for drinking cheese and soap
Oh that's right I have 40 of them so of course I've got plenty of milk
I keep forgetting everyone doesn't want 40 goats
I don't know why....

 

[Goat Whisperer]

 

[SteveElms]

@OneFineAcre Believe me I would love to have 40 goats. We're getting there, but still a few short. It's always good to have a goal.

If I had 40 goats in milk the only thing I know for certain is I would no longer be married. These pictures are of our refrigerators tonight with the milk we have accumulated. It's causing my loving wife a wee bit of anxiety. Each row is 4 quarts deep too for a total of 13 gallons. That's from 2 goats and 9 days. We've also made some yogurt and frozen yogurt this past week, but do to our grandson being born last weekend, she did not get any cheese made.

 

[babsbag]

Congratulations on the grandson; that is certainly more important than cheese.
You have some options for the milk "problem". Less goats...not gonna happen. Bigger refrigerator, raise a pig, buy a calf, get a larger family to help consume the milk, make ice cream. Or do like I am doing...build a dairy.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Congratulations on the grandson; that is certainly more important than cheese.
You have some options for the milk "problem". Less goats...not gonna happen. Bigger refrigerator, raise a pig, buy a calf, get a larger family to help consume the milk, make ice cream. Or do like I am doing...build a dairy.

A couple of feeder pigs would be the quickest, easiest option.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Pigs are great for using up extra milk - mine love it. BUT - chickens love it too. Apparently they are not supposed to be able to digest milk (but nobody told my chickens that) - so I let mine sit out until it clabbers...they scarf it up! Gotta admit it though... I like clabber nearly as much as the chicks do! My 87 year old father tells about eating clabber for breakfast, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon.

 

[TAH]

I would love to have 40 goats, maybe when we move including the kids. We have 2 milkers and they give us 2 gallons a day, I don't know how many more I can handle tho.

 

[TAH]

When we had chickens we let them have goats milk.

 

[Southern by choice]

We are milking 9 goats and we get 7+ gallons a day.
We send alot of our extra milk to our friends pigs, we give some to our dogs, most is going to our bottle babies. We still make cheese, store for soap... but we aren't even drinking it right now.

When you put warm milk in your fridge it takes the overall temp down and takes a long time for a fridge to recuperate. Because of this the milk takes a long time to get cold. When this happens generally 2 things are affected... taste and keep. Often you will not get the shelf life you want. Chilling the milk as fast as you can and then putting it in the fridge will help on both accounts.

BTW @SteveElms I DO have a quite Nubian! Ruby never makes a sound.... unless you are REALLY late with milking but she isn't even as loud as a Nigerian even then. She is the best goat ever... but we know she is the exception to the rule.

Lamanchas are great consistent producers and so far ALL of ours are quiet. They also have very high butterfat.

Millies milk was posted here somewhere- look at that fat!