Milk

[Lance Blythe]

I currently have an unregistered herd of half Pygmy and half Pygmy fainter. I have 1 mixed girl-maybe Nubian-boer cross, 1 blue eyed fainter buck and a dwarf nigerian buck.

I own a tree farm which is next door so I have no desire for anything larger than Pygmy.

 

[AClark]

Since I just took my test for pasteurization license let's see if I can remember all of the "nasties" that can be in raw milk. E-coli, salmonella, listeria, q-fever, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, brucellosis, septic sore throat, diptheria, scarlet fever,typhoid fever, and para-typhoid fever. I have no idea how some of those would be contracted, like typhoid and diptheria. You can test you goat for TB and brucellosis but the ones that cause the most danger are E-coli, salmonella, and listeria and I don't know if there are at home tests for those or not. I know that the big raw milk dairy in CA has all of their milk tested before bottling. I drink it raw but I don't let anyone else drink it raw and I won't be selling it that way.

Camphylobacter too I believe. Listeria you always hear about in the news with cheeses and deli meats - and that's stuff from the store, it's damn near not safe to eat anything anymore lol.
I rapid cool it after I pasteurize and the milk is great, it only takes me about 10-15 minutes total to do it as well (slow heat time on the stove up to 160F). Probably well worth the little extra time not to give everyone a case of "Montezuma's Revenge".

 

[Southern by choice]

Camphylobacter is alot more serious than many think. It is very high on the food poisoning list . Commonly found in undercooked /raw meat as well. That is why the labels on all meats say to fully cook so the multiple dangerous bacteria are killed.

The seriousness of Camphylobacter... 76% of Guillain-Barré syndrome patients have this present at time of infection. (GB is also highly associated with the flu shot -just an FYI )

This lady was part of a cowshare- robust and healthy- not immune compromised...
http://www.about-campylobacter.com/family_campylobacter_outbreak#.Wm86IqinGUk

This young man's cause was from an injection- but thought you might want to see how GBS progresses...

Not a debate about raw or not- everyone should choose for themselves but many are not educated about risks UNTIL after a crisis.
Get educated... so you can make an informed decision.
Almost all patients that got E-coli or Camphylobacter from raw milk all say the same thing... I wish I would have educated myself better.

 

[alsea1]

We tried pasteurizing but didn't like the taste afterword.

 

[AClark]

I know some people say they can taste the difference - I personally can't. I tried it raw (just on me, not the family) and didn't notice anything different with pasteurized vs non-pasteurized. What I did notice though, is if it isn't cooled rapidly, it gets an off-taste. I put my jars in the kitchen sink full of ice water and sit and spin them while I'm cleaning up the kitchen/milking supplies. More area exposed = faster cooling, or that's my theory. I think it tastes like thick creamy regular whole milk.

 

[Devonviolet]

This young man's cause was from an injection- but thought you might want to see how GBS progresses...

WOW! I watched the video. What an amazing journey! I bawled my eyes out! But, it had a happy ending. How sad that this young man had to go through it, though!

 

[easykeeper]

Lance, here's an article that may be helpful for you as it adds some additional information to the conversation. While it focuses on troubleshooting off-flavors in milk, the information included in it will help you ensure you get the best quality milk. http://community.easykeeper.com/easykeeper-extension/troubleshooting-off-flavors-in-goat-milk

 

[Eddy Winko]

A good cleaning regime is essential, we use commercial teat wipes which clean the udder and your hands, but we drink our milk raw, make kefir and cheese from raw milk as well as ice cream, although that gets pasteurised in the process. Also used in soaps.
Keeping things cold certainly helps to prevent any goat flavour.