Why milk a cow and not goats?

I never said that it was off-flavored, it just doesnt' taste as good as cows milk. But it is a matter of opinion. My children who also drank the same goat's milk as I did, prefered it above the cows milk and went on strike from drinking milk when I switched to cows milk. But I could never get used to the taste of goat's milk and didn't ever find it to my liking no matter what breed I milked and I milked Alpine, Togs, Nubians and Lamancha's.

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Raising grass-fed beef and lamb.

You hit the nail on the head!!!! And I believe the breed of goat can help with the sweet flavor. I was a confirmed cow milk only person, but saw the light and now I love goat milk better than cow and find it to be better for me as well.

I have Nigerians and I can milk mine for a year or more. I had one doe that I had to dry up after a 15 mon. lactation period because I wanted to breed her again and I like for them to be dry during their pregnancy. Just my thing. Nigerians have a higher butterfat and protein count also. They may be smaller, but pound for pound they give more milk than the full size ones- a generality of course.

While I'm a cow person by choice, I've had several years of trying to gain a taste for goat's milk because that's what my son has always needed. I just can't make it happen. I've tried everything from "you're just not handling it right" to "You're just not getting it in the frig quick enough". I still don't like it. It's great to cook with and makes excellent ice cream and cheese. I just don't like to drink it. It's an aquired taste. My son knows no difference. He's been drinking it for years. He may say the same thing about cow's milk as I do goat's if he could drink a big glass.
Some have told me that it's a cleanliness issue. I'd have to say my milking routine is as clean as a grade A dairy without the concrete floor. My pre and post udder care is the same as a grade A dairy. And, my refrigerator works great. I still think it tastes and smells nasty. Just my opinion. It's what you prefer.

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Francismilker

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

My daughter and hubby will drink the goats milk no problem, my son takes some convincing and I, after a year of trying to learn to like goats milk, still prefer cows milk. I love my Nigerians, they have sweet personalities are easy to handle (no escapes) and they put with my kids, but they don't make my heart sing like seeing my two Dexter heifers every morning does.

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Wags Ranch Nigerians


"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

When my children were young we had milk goats. One was pretty docile but the other one - Annie - was an escape artist. She spent her whole day plotting her escape.

We tried hard to like the milk. Every day we'd hold our noses and drink it together. I finally gave up when my daughter complained "Mama, it tastes like Annie's breath." I had to admit, it did taste exactly like the goat's breath. After that, none of us could drink it.

Even now, 20 years later, if I try a taste of goat cheese, yep, it still tastes like Annie's breath.

Put me down for cow's milk.

well, I think this topic is just going circles between those for goat and those for cow. But I'll add my 1 cent.

Raised for several years on goat milk when I was very young, remember it tasting nasty. Then we bought milk cows and I milked them and drank cow milk for years. Now years later after having kids allergic to cow milk and finding myself having grown allergic to it, we moved back to milking goats. I find the milk w/o any bad flavor to it at all. I have had one goat who quickly left who never had good tasting milk. Also had one getting mastitis who had nasty tasting milk. But with having goats dry-lotted, with no access to weeds, being fed free-choice alfalfa pellets and minerals and dry-whole grains, I find nothing untasty about the milk we get. I have a seperate enclosed storage shed that I can milk 5 goats at a time in, and they don't pee and poo in there or while you milk them like cows. I have my goats in a small area that would be torn and mucked up by a milk cow. If you have good producing goats that peak at 2 gal. and produce 1.5 gal/day then I am better off feeding a goat pricewise than feeding a cow. someone already mentioned that they are more cost effective for the milk produced. Of course easier to work with.

ANd not sure what is meant by you can't milk a goat as long as a cow. We milk our goats a min. of 10 months, most closer to 13 months and they are still producing a good gal. /day by that time. We give them their 6-8 weeks dry and they are producing again. We stagger breedings of our goats so we haven't been w/o milk for years now. Right now we are still milking 2 and have two due in the next two weeks. The others due in the spring and a few held over for next fall hopefully. A loss of a doe mid production isn't near as significant as it would be with a single cow.

Oh and to comment on someone who mentioned why milk numerous does when you can milk 1 cow (time and milk-wise). I can milk the same amount of milk out of a cow just as fast as I can get that milk out of x amount of does. Really probably faster with the goats.

All comments from a cattle ranching family. In fairness we would have nothing to gain from having dairy cow calves to eat for meat, as we have all we want on the ranch which to us are better. My once very pro cattle, anti-goat husband wasn't very keen on getting into goats, but now he tells everybody how much better they are to keep then milk cows.

just our perspective.

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A Colorado cattle ranching family

http://www.edmundsonherd.blogspot.com

http://www.edmundsonranchgrassfedbeef.webs.com