Milking supplies..

[darbyfamily]

where do you buy your stainless steel milk pails and such things?

Tell me what you REALLY need to get started milking...

Obviously a cow would be helpful but what supplies... do you have to have a SS pail? is a lid necessary? do you filter your milk? what do you store it in in the fridge? Glass jars? bottles?

I found a pail with lid at Lehmans online for $35 with a lid... a 16qt, so about 4 gallons...

[ozark_jewels]

We have milked for 17 years with just a ss pail(no lid), a milk crate for a stool, a couple glass gallon jugs, and straining stuff. For the first 10 years or so we strained through clean cheesecloth tucked into the top of the clean jug. Worked fine. The last 7 years we have graduated to an aluminum strainer and paper filters. Works even better. We just milk, strain, and chill.
If we want to save the cream, you wait till the milk is cold(cream will separate totally from cold milk), and use a 1/2 cup plastic measuring cup to skim off most of the cream.
Its very simple. Not a lot of equipment needed.

[65284]

I use an plastic 4 gallon bucket when I'm milking to use as animal food. When I'm saving milk for household use I use the SS bucket from an old DeLaval milker I bought off eBay.

I bought a strainer at a farm sale and I gbet my filters from a Amish store. I keep my milk in the clear plastic Rubbermaid 2 gallon stackable refrigerator water storage containers. They have a large screw on lid on top and a spigot right at the bottom that comes off for easy cleaning. They easily fit right on the refrigerator shelf, easy to fill a glass without removing it from the fridge.

That also is how I skim my milk, let the cream rise and drain the milk off off the bottom into another Rubbermaid container. Much easier, and cleaner, no dripping cream/milk, and more sanitary, no more fingers in the milk.

[sammyd]

We used a plastic bucket for milking.
Put a strainer pad in a wire mesh strainer on top of a pitcher and strained it that way.
Into the fridge in smaller containers so it would chill faster.
I think that is most important. Putting 4 gals in the fridge in one container isn't a good idea. It needs to all chill quickly to prevent the bacteria from multiplying quickly and causing early spoilage or bad taste.

[francismilker]

I use a stainless steel 2-1/2 gallon pail I got from Tractor Supply. (If they don't have one in stock, they can order it out of their catalog for you.) The only thing I do different is use a rubber band to hold a straining cloth over the bucket while I'm milking to keep foreign debris out of the product while milking in the barn.

[JHinCA]

I milk into a ss bucket I got from Jeffer's listed under pet equipment--much cheaper than those listed for dairy.

It is really helpful though not essential to have something with a lid to pour milk into nearby. If she is restless and starts stomping around, you can pour what you have in the bucket in the lidded container so you don't lose everything if she kicks the bucket. A kitchen pot will work.

I got a strainer that takes a paper filter, but I know a lot of people use a (very, very clean) dish cloth or piece of flannel.

Wide mouth two-quart canning jars are good for storing it in the fridge. They chill a little faster than a gallon jar, are easier to handle and easier to find replacements if you break one.

Any cup or ladle you have around that fits into the mouth of the jars will work for skimming.

[jerzeygurl]

i use a stainless steel pail that the lid from the nesting set of stainless pans( wal mart) i use for storage just happens to fit on

i use the paper strainer fit into a regular wire mesh strainer i got from walmart

i skim off with a stainless laddle after milk has chilled for 24 hours

I pasurise in the stainless steel pan imersed in a canner full of boiling water then chill in sink( i know not all pasturise just if you were wanting to know)

after wards i store in the gallon rubber maid pitchers

i store the cream in half gallon canning jars with the plastic lids

i make yogurt and sour cream in canning jars

i use either a cooler of warm water, the stove on low or out side summer temps to incubate it,

i make cheese in a large heavy bottomed stainless steel pot imersed in the canner.

[JulieLou42]

I use a S/S 2.5 gal bucket and a S/S strainer bought from Lehman's online...pricey, but I was new at this stuff four years ago! I get the fiber milk filters at the feed store for $6.25 per 100. She's not a kicker, but does move around a lot while milking in order to eat her grain-alfalfa ration, so I follow her teats with the bucket, so to speak, so that I squirt it into the middle of it. Her milk is pretty clean, with an occasional fly or piece of grass in it. I milk her on heavy rubber mats that you might find in a restaurant kitchen, and she's learned not to pee or poop while milking because she knows that I'll turn the hose onto whatever she does to clean it out immediately, and she absolutely detests water on her! I do hose down her feet and legs before bringing her into her stanchion that's in the furtherest corner of the garage, to get off any surface mud or manure that I can see.

I put the strainer into the one gallon Tupperware pitcher that I've had for 30 years, then into half or one gallon jars, then into the 34 degree fridge, where it gets very cold quite fast. There's not much else BUT milk in that fridge. I use 16 drops of grapefruit seed extract in each gallon before the milk goes into it, and do not pasteurize.

I use the nearly square white terry shop towels available at Costco--and probably at Sam's Club--to wash her bag, and that doesn't usually take more than one per day. But I keep several handy. I use a plastic bucket for my bag washing water, and put a little bleach and hand-washing soap in with the half-filled bucket. I fold the soapy water towels in quarters, and then use one side to begin washing her bag, then open and use another quarter, then fully open and refold the dirty sides to the inside and use two other quarters of the towel...finis! Wipe dry and apply a bit of Bag Balm to the tops of her teats to make her slippery because hers are short, and off we go!

While growing up I hand milked a angus cow. Now almost 30 years later I'm kind of interested in getting me a milk cow but this time I want a automatic milker so all I have to do is just clean the tit and stick the milker on and let it do all the milking. Anyone know where I can get such a set up at a fairly reasonable price? I saw one on the internet but it held up to 75 pounds of milk. I was hoping to find something smaller.

[darbyfamily]

I saw somethin like that when I was shopping for ss pails the other night, I'll go lookin thru my history pages and see if I can find it again for you RH and let you know!

[darbyfamily]

www.hambydairysupply.com was one of them...

[Up North]

darbyfamily- One possible source of supplies that may work for you is:
Midwest Farm & Dairy
6503 W. Morgan Ave.
Hutchinson, KS 67501
I would check with them and see if they have a used SS Pail or Strainer before buying new. They have a wide inventory of Dairy( Paper, cleaning, and animal health )supplies.
They also sell good ole Wisconsin cheese & butter

[darbyfamily]

Thanks for that I got the pm too... I did find that Tractor Supply has SS seamless pails in the dogfood section...real pails with handles, for only about $15-20 each... I think the 16 quart pail was $20.95 or something like that...and 16 qts seems plenty big, doesnt it?

I was thinking those bowl cover thingys that have the elasticized saran wrap type stuff, that would work to cover the pail for carrying it up to the house... and then I'd have strain it and pour it into containers... wondering about those old sun tea gallon jars...with the spigot on them. Then you'd just use the milk from the bottom and the cream would be there in the jar... you could put the top on and shake it til you got butter after you were sure you'd used all the milk.. think that'd work?

[linn]

You can make small batches of butter with your blender. When I have a couple of quarts of cream, I use my Kitchen-aid mixer to make butter. I use the splash shield that came with the mixer to keep the cream from splashing out. Both methods work great.

[darbyfamily]

True...and my bosch mixer would make even MORE... and fast...but, my kids love to shake...for now :P I would love to have an old fashioned dasher churn that is in working condition... or just a new jar for my dads old dazey churn

[jerzeygurl]

i use the sun tea jars, but with out the spigot because to be sanitary it would have to come out and be washed and would wear out quickly, also its very rought glass arround the spigot.

shaking works fine esp if at the correct temp.

i used a blender for a long time untill i found a churn motor on ebay that fit the jar i had from one the motor didnt work on, so i have about 15 bucks in a unit that would ebay for $70...

Thanks Darbyfamily, they have exactly the setup I am thinking about. I'm glad you posted the site, I have it bookmarked. It wasn't the reasonable price I was hoping for but I haven't seen anything cheaper. However, I figured with todays price of milk and cheese at the store it would only take me a couple of years to get my money back on it. Well worth it if you ask me.

[JulieLou42]

I tried using those suntea jars, but the spigots invariably wouldn't hold milk...or tea for more than one year! They began leaking in the fridge, and I didn't like the mess they made. Just couldn't get them screwed on tight enough, either DH or I. What I did save from the jars was the handled lids, and those fit well on some of the glass gallon jars I use, the ones from Canada with many threads to them and the nice plastic gasket built right into the lids? BTW, those will make a vacuum seal on the jar as it cools, and be pretty darn hard to get open later!!! I often have to call on DH for that job.

I like the idea of using the suntea jars to shake/make the butter in after the skimmed milk is gone. Alas, I was able to get an electric gallon butter churn at the local consignment shop for $40, and in these parts, that's doing quite well, thank you, so won't need to be doing that. Now if DH and grandson would actually eat the butter and not complain... they prefer the storebought tasteless product over my cow's.