skim milk cow

[mamagoose]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1845223.ece

I don't what to think other than - interesting...

[ozark_jewels]

Heck...I gotta Hostien that gives skim milk already.....we all notice when her milk is put on the table.

[ladycat]

Why on earth do they want to breed a skimmilk cow when they use the butter in so many ways?

[linn]

I just skimmed through the article, so I could have easily missed the answer to this; but the article stated that butter made from this milk was easily spreadable from the refrigerator. If this is skim milk, how do they get butter? I make butter from the cream off my cow's milk. If these people would only use common sense they would realize that a cow's diet affects the milk. Pasteurization also affects nutritional content. They are trying to reinvent something that God has already perfected, (nutritional milk).

[Paso]

I am new to this whole milk issue. I want to drink the milk from our cow but Im afraid to. Do I need to pasturise it? I would love to learn about making butter too. Thanks for the help.

[JulieLou42]

No need to pasteurize, just get some grapefruit SEED extract and put 16 drops of that in each gallon. It's a citracidal that is triple antibiotic in nature.

I do hope you're straining it through a good filter first, and using near-sterile jars or bottles for your milk. I put the correct amount of the GSE right into the cleaned containers, then the milk after straining it. Using a stainless steel bucket for milking and straining funnel?

Butter's pretty easy...fill a half-gallon tight-lidded jar 2/3rds full with skimmed cream [that's after at least a day of refrigeration], let it sit at room temperature for about 24 hours, and shake for up to 40 minutes, and you'll see the butter take shape/clump up. Best temp for it to come is around 66 degrees. Gather it up, pressing out as much buttermilk as possible while still in the jar, and put on a plate, shape into a mound and start kneading it with cold water running over it in/with your hands till the water runs clear. You'll have about 3/8-5/8ths pound from that. Mix in about 1/2 t. salt if you like salted butter. Store in a covered container in the fridge if using soon. I freeze all mine. It's good more than a year later.

[ozark_jewels]

No need to pasturize. The best thing about owning your own cow is drinking the milk raw as it is meant to be drunk. Just milk in a clean area, with clean techniques, strain it into a clean jug and refrigerate.

To make butter, skim the cream of the top of the milk(we use a plastic measuring cup for this), put the cream in a glass jar or jug(leaving it at least 1/3 empty for sloshing room), let it warm to about room temp, and shake it methodically till you see it separate and form butter. We put a blastic baggie between the lid and the jug to keep cream from leaking as we shake. Have made butter that way for 17 years now. No need for fancy equipment.

[Freeholder]

Have to add (since someone new to milking might not know) that if you want to skim the cream off the top of the milk, you have to let it rise first. A day or so in the refrigerator should be all you need if you are milking a cow; it usually takes longer for the cream to rise on goat milk.

Kathleen

[matt_man]

I've noticed that if I want really "heavy cream" for whipping and such, I let the milk sit for 2 days and it will be nice and thick on top. I put the heavy stuff in a separate jar when I skim.

[suburbanite]

It seems to me that a skim milk cow wouldn't be good if you had to actually have the cow raise a calf.

I thought any excess milk-fat was still marketable because you could use it in ice cream and pig slop and such.

[ozark_jewels]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

It seems to me that a skim milk cow wouldn't be good if you had to actually have the cow raise a calf.

I thought any excess milk-fat was still marketable because you could use it in ice cream and pig slop and such.

It is......but you know the human race....always trying to "improve" on the real thing and trying to convince themselves its healthier!

[Jennifer L.]

I've got a skim milk cow right now! She'll fill a five gallon pail and the next milking you look at it and there's just a skin of cream on the surface. I figure she has to be way below 2% to be like this.

Jennifer

[MaineFarmMom]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

It seems to me that a skim milk cow wouldn't be good if you had to actually have the cow raise a calf.

I know someone who skims the milk before bottle feeding it back to the calves. The herd is so screwed up by making it "better" rather than what it's supposed to be that the calves born in that herd can't even nurse for their own mothers without developing diarhea and dying. The milk is too rich for the calves.

[ozark_jewels]

I'll bet she couldn't grow a two month old heifer that looks like this on that "skim milk".

[mamagoose]

Yeah, not sure what the "butter" might be like from the skim milk cow, but the article claims it is done. ???