Still Bad milk!

The reason I asked if you had milked them for an entire lactation is that they may do the same thing every year at this time. I watched my sis try to figure out how to "fix" her goats' milk for several years. They tended to get funky around the same times of the year for whatever reason. She examined everything and anything that could've affected milk taste, finally came to the conclusion that it was just the goats.
She had an Alpine and a Saanan. The Saanan's (sp?) milk was consistently better than the Alpine, but she had her moments as well.
She gave up and now milks one of our cows.
The only breed of goat whose milk we've ever been totally happy with is Nubians.
Some say that Kinder milk is even better.

My girls are Alpines and the milk is delicious. I'd say it might be that feed mentioned above.

Ruth

I"ll try to change the feed. I'll probably get some calf grower and some BOSS, and still give the alfalfa pellets. Hopefully this will change her milk.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

why don't you try and switch to plain oats? top it of with a little bit calf manna ans boss. they really don't need more if you feed alfa pellets and you are in have control what they are eating.
as i mentioned above there can be something in the hay also. have you tried to milk your other goats and taste the milk?
if that all doesn't help i'm wondering why the breeder sold those two does to you. have you asked her about the bad tasting milk?

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Susanne Stuetzler
Ain-ash-shams
Nubian Dairy Goats

please visit us at
http://www.ain-ash-shams.net

I will second Steff's suggestion. Cornell can do a culture/sensitivity test for under $20. Contact them directly.

My guess is subclinical mastitis, which can be diagnosed with a milk culture. Something like 70% of mastitis is subclinical and never shows fever, blood/flakes in milk, etc. But bad tasting milk is certainly an indicator too.
The sensitivity test will tell you what antibiotic to use. A lot of mastitis organisms are resistant to the more common treatments like Today.

I had a doe last year with subclinical mastitis who never showed a single symptom. No change in udder or milk (I hand milk) at all, but she had a test with a really high somatic count. She had a non-aureus staph infection which cleared up with Pirsue.

mastitis milk will taste salty but not bitter.

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Susanne Stuetzler
Ain-ash-shams
Nubian Dairy Goats

please visit us at
http://www.ain-ash-shams.net

Just because your girls give great milk doesn't automatically mean every Alpine gives great milk. Milk taste can be very individual between goats within the same breed.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insinuate my goats might be average Alpines. Apparently they are superior!

Ruth

Any chance you have "wild onions" in the field they are grazing on? They make the milk taste ungodly awful but the goats seemed to love them.

I'll try switching thier grain, but I dont' think it's really that... why would one doe's milk taste good and the other's be bad? And why did thier milk BECOME bad, not be bad from the beginning if I've always fed the same grain? And the hay has been changed since the milk has been bad tasting (different suppliers, went from square to round bales) with no change in milk taste. There is literally NOTHING growing within reach of my does, they've eaten it all down and that's the reason why they're getting pretty much free choice hay, lol. But I'm willing to try pretty much anything. I'll probably go to calf grower feed. I'd like to get calf manna but if only it wasn't 23.00 per bag... Eek!

If mastitic milk tastes salty, then I don't think that's what this is... it's really BITTER. STrong tasting.

I'm gonna do another tasting tonight, hopefully we'll know if anything has changed since the last test.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

Good point. There are some interesting weeds that goats will eat that can off flavor milk. Especially those danged Alpines!

Ruth

I'll look again, but I really DON'T think there's any grass longer than an inch and no leaves on any branches till about 5' up, and no brush, lol. Maybe they're lightly munching on something that they don't like all THAT much, so it's always there but they keep going back to it because it's all they've got... I'll look at the next milking.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

As clarification, it says NOT to feed to lactating goats because..... (drum roll)

WE aren't supposed to drink the coccistat-tainted milk!!!

It's ok for goat BABIES and such? Just not us. Liver problems, etc.

She may be getting into a specific weed, BUT. You said she had spots on her udder? Could be a staph infection. Lysigin works. Ask Vick McGaugh (I have to ask her every time I can never remember how much to give). I've had to treat over the years for that. Makes "blisters" on the udder that open and make sores like cigarette burns.

Also, spots on the udder could be udder pox. Looks like whiteheads on people? Icky but not damaging to the milk as far as I know.

Definitely test for mastitis. And check to see that she's not enjoying some particular weed that the other doesn't like as well...

Some weeds make the milk taste like GREEN BITTER WEED that's abhorrent. And you can't do ANYTHING to hide the taste. Ever. Good luck!

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Radically conservatively un-biased liberal.

http://whitepinesoapworks.com/

The grain I feed isn't medicated, so that's not it. I'm still changing it, though. Been planning on doing that, but had to figure out what to feed, lol.

Checked the pasture again. I'm not lying when I say NOTHING grows over 2" on the ground and under 5'! there is NOTHING out there, besides on the trees that they can't reach. Oh, there's also nothing on the other side of the fence for like 2" either, hehe, because the babies stick thier heads through and STREACH as far as possible to reach the grass over there. They're even starting to eat the bark off trees, lol.

In the hay I find tons of alfalfa, some grass, and some queen ann's lace... nothing else. So it's not that...

Other than that, all they're getting is alfalfa pellets around 3:00 and after being milked...

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

There has to be an explanable reason for the off taste. With all due respect, I refuse to believe it's because she's Alpine. I realize people have a breed preference, but I won't bad mouth another breed just because I prefer Alpines.

I found an article that might be helpful. http://www.saanendoah.com/milkqf.html

I do give my girls alfalfa pellets, but not a huge amount and it's mixed with their normal ration. I don't have a flavor problem, but I have had one in the past. I adjusted the alfalfa until I got it right. And still...every now and then...when the right weed appears, or one or two of the girls manage to open the gate and have a party...

Ruth

It only says on the small always beeing torn off tag that is sewn on the bag. DO NOT FEED IF MILK BEING CONSUMED BY HUMANS. Its in small letters under the analisis and who it is to be fed to. I just found the small area that said medicated. Needless to say im FUMING MAD!!!!!! I did not know this was medicated. So much for getting to town late and missing getting to the co-op
It say no where on the bag that its medicated and not to feed if milk is being consumed by humans. Im complaining to the company.

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I'm so done here.