Milking Priscilla

Priscilla

When we decided to make our move and have a farm, I wanted to have animals that had a purpose, not just pets that we would put our money into and not get anything back.  With the goats we got them to help maintain our pasture but I also wanted them for milk.  You can have goats for meat too.  Maybe we will one day but just dairy goats for now.

Priscilla, who just turned 2 in May was offered to us with her two baby girls. Pat & Katie, the breeders knew my intent for getting dairy goats and they were trying to reduce their herd a little bit.  Priscilla was not part of their original herd so she was low in the pecking order.  Jamie and I decided to get Priscilla and her baby girls.  Now with Priscilla being the oldest one in our herd, she is and will be the herd queen for the rest of her life.  In one day she moved from the bottom of the totem pole to the tippity top.  I'm quite happy to know that I had a hand in making her life a little happier.

Well onto the milking.  Priscilla is currently nursing her baby girls still, who will be 2 months old on June 18th. 

Priscilla's girls - Abby & Maddie

Although Priscilla is still nursing her babies, we are currently milking her once a day in the morning.  This will help with milk production down the line.  The more she is milked by us and nursed by the babies, the more milk she will continue to produce.  In a month or so when the girls are almost 3 months old and eating more grain and hay I will start to milk Priscilla 2x a day and the babies will be weaned.

Since Priscilla has been being milked for quite some time, she knows the routine.  Which is very nice for me not to have to struggle with her and train her.  I go into the barn with a scoop of grain and she just follows me out into the milking area. She hops up on the milking stand and I put the grain in the bucket.  Once she starts to eat we lock the head gate.  The head gate does NOT hurt her, just keeps her in place.

Priscilla eating her grain on the milking stand

Once Priscilla is comfortably on the stand and eating, I have to go through a strict process for cleaning her first to make sure that the milk will be the cleanest we can possibly get.  I wash her bag (where all the milk is) and her udders with a soft face cloth that was dipped in a bleach water solution.  Then we use special antibacterial wipes especially made for milking to wipe off her udders.  We then take a couple of squirts of milk from each udder into what is called a strip cup.  A strip cup is a fine mesh wire cover over a cup that you milk into to make sure there is not lumps or blood in the milk.  If lumps or blood were evident she may have what is called mastitis, which we would then need to give her medicine for and not use any of her milk for consumption until she is all better.  I'm glad to say she has no clumps, lumps or blood.

Now we get to milk

Me milking Priscilla for the first time at home

Hailey milking Priscilla too

Milking Priscilla is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it.  Most people do not use such a large pail for one goat but until I get the hang of it I need a wide opening to squirt her milk into.

Hailey also loves to milk Priscilla and has every morning since she got here.  I actually sit on the grain bucket on one side and Hailey kneels on the other side and we usually milk her together.  Drew also has tried and did pretty well. He was surprised at how warm the milk was.

Priscilla's milk from the first day, very little

Priscilla has given us more milk each day. The first day she gave us not even 1/4 cup. We think this has to do with us not having the feeder for the grain set up for the babies to eat from.  We just got rid of the little bit.  Day 2 was great, we got 1/2 pint and Day 3 was even better with us getting a full pint.

Once we finish milking, we bring it into the house and filter it through an extremely fine filter especially for filtering raw milk into a glass canning jar.  The jar then goes into the freezer for an hour to rapidly cool it.  Once cool we put it in the fridge.

Day 2's milk was not very much as I said so we decided to all try drinking it.  I tried first and have to say that it tastes quite like cow's milk.  Hailey tried and agreed. Jamie tried and he said it tasted different but okay.  Drew of course wouldn't try it.

Day 3, full pint canning jar of goat's milk

Day 3's milk was much more and I decided to freeze it.  Once I have at least a gallon of it I am going to try to make cheese.  One type of cheese is called Chevre. It's a soft spreadable cheese you flavor with herbs or just about anything else you can think of and spread on crackers and eat.  The next cheese I'm going to try is Feta,  traditional Feta is actually made with goat's milk. We love feta in our house and use it on our salads all the time.

I'm hoping in time to teach myself to make other cheeses like Cheddar, but those take longer as they need time to age.  I also can use the milk in anything you would use cow's milk in and you can make soap with it too.

The uses for goat's milk are endless and I hope the experiment with all of them. Just think about how much milk I will have when all 5 girls are in milk in a few years!!!