Milking Our Nubian Goats

Today I would like to tell you about what we do to keep our milk tasting the best it can. Milk by its very nature absorbs odor so, the process of keeping the milk tasting good starts before you start milking. Use only stainless steel milk pails. These need to be sanitized between milkings. After I sanitize my milk pail I let them air dry. Next the milk pail goes into the freezer(I will explain later). The next step in keeping milk tasting good is the location that the goat is milked. We milk our goats in a separate building from where they live, this keeps the barn smell out of the milk. The building that you milk in should also be sanitized after each milking. Now I am going to talk a little bit about the milk pail. As I said earlier, I store my clean pails in the freezer. The reason is the faster you cool the milk the better it will taste. I place a frozen ice pack in the bottom of the milk pail, again to speed up the cooling process. Next my milk pail has a plastic lid with a steel filter used for coffee placed in the lid. This helps eliminate debris and hair from falling into the milk. Preparing the goat for milking. Make sure that the goat is clean and with out alot of dirt on it or its udders. Take a pair of hair clippers and clip the goats bag. MILKING THE GOAT. I use a baby wipe to wash the teat. (I also keep them warm by using a baby wipe warming device). Next the teats get stripped of a little bit of milk so that I can check for any impurities. When I am done milking the goat I put a little iodine solution on the teat to prevent infection. As soon as the milking is complete the milk needs filtered and cooled. I use a cooking oil funnel with a cloth filter to transfer the milk to the glass storage container. (Glass is superior to plastic when it comes to taste). The milk is double filtered before it is rushed to the refridgerator. Please come visit me on facebook at www.facebook.com/heavenonearthranch Have a great week, Keith