Making BUTTER BIG TIME NEED HELP

[myersfarm]

I saw butter was $4 a pound and to save money thinking of making big time butter .
I raise dairy heifers with the milk last year I was milking 12 cows..and it seemed like I always had way to much milk as in 30 gallons a day to much , untill I got in full swing..
I was thinking of using a 20 gallon barrel and a 12 volt trolling motor to churn it do you think that would work. I have a 2 gallon butter churn but that would have to run 24 hours a day

OR IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER IDEAS WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM

[myersfarm]

or a old wringer washing machine


btw yes I know you only churn cream

[haypoint]

Leamans Hardware in Ohio has a 3 in 1 Maytag. It washes clothes and wrings them out. But when you replace the rollers with a meat grinder attachment, you can process hamburger. The agitator can be removed and a butter ladle put in to churn butter. You'd have a huge clean up getting the butter out of the washer, up under the agitator, IMHO.

I think a trolling motor would need to be moved all around during churning. When the butter starts to set up, the prop would just spin in the buttermilk.

Getting the water out of a huge gob of butter would be hard, too.
You think you have 20 gal of CREAM?

Try a 5 gal pail and a paint mixer. Only takes a few minutes to make butter.

[myersfarm]

when I first start calfing before I go buy calfs I have poured out 45 gallons a milk one week...so at 1 / 5 cream in two days and I would have 18 gallons of cream...I also feed the calfs milk longer than need if I have a problem going for new calfs


18 gallons of cream should make 30 lbs of butter so would not take long to fill a freezer

see why I was wanting to use the milk instead of pouring it out when I first start calfing


plus the 8 week old calfs could still have the skimmed milk with no problem

[myersfarm]

Paint mixer sounds like a good idea....about else got a idea ?

I also had the idea of one of those real cheap plastic CONCRETE MIXERS....it dumps and could wash out with hot water hose

[cathleenc]

what the heck are you going to do with all that butter? and how are you going to wash the butter to express all the lingering buttermilk out? It will go rancid asap if you don't wash it after churning - and its the washing that takes more time, imo. Wouldn't it be easier to just sell the milk to someone? How are you going to skim the cream and what are you going to store it in?

making butter, washing butter, weighing and packaging butter, cleaning all the equipment - it's a ton of work, imo. A ton of work. Around here, in Wisconsin, you need a butter makers license to make/sell butter - 2 years of college level coursework and an apprenticeship. Yikes.

[NorCalChicks]

I have no helpful advice - but wish I could get some of that butter! Good luck!

[myersfarm]

use the butter just for family I also have 3 freezers 25 or 30 lbs. should last us 6 to 7 months.. then start over again.
.I think I can wash the butter by pouring out the milk adding water CHURNING MORE and repeat a few times till water is clear ...
....I will never SELL MILK...as I stated I will have milk ONLY when the calf's do not need it...would be hard to get started selling milk then when I have a full calf count have none for sell..
skim milk will be easy pour in a 20 gallon barrel and dip off the top after it rises..or drain from the bottom like the old fashion separators did..so what if I do not get all the cream off they will be more the next day....
...store the cream I have a full size SHOP refrigerator so that's no problem take out the shelf's and set the whole 20 gallon barrel in there with a locking lid

I have most of this stuff

just need the idea on churning..

and if it doesn't work what do I lose...nothing but my time


I have poured out 45 gallons a milk one week ....should have said I have poured out 45 gallons OF MILK A DAY for a week...I have to go when wife can milk and she is on call as a nurse a week at a time when to sale and bought 39 calfs at one time..and stillhad to much milk

[myersfarm]

I had 90 dairy heifers on milk at a time......I try to do 30 new ones at a time..so I am weaning 30 buying 30 after I get started...but when you have 6 cows have calfs in the same week it is hard to get started why I have so much extra milk then when I buy calfs I have no extra even have to feed milk replacer some times waiting on a cow to freshin

[myersfarm]

Originally Posted by NorCalChicks

I have no helpful advice - but wish I could get some of that butter! Good luck!

what my wife said I milked 12 cows last year getting 90 gallons of milk plus I have 8 jersey's and 3 crossed with Holstien and one full holstien so the cream should be all over the place I know since i drink the raw milk when milking the 6 months of the year I milk

[shagerman]

food proccesor. it takes a few minutes. to run and make butter. the easiest way i have found so far.

[topside1]

Listen I know the 3 in 1 Maytag is the best choice, however consider one of those paint can shakers that you see in the hardware stores...Just a thought...Topside

[linn]

Myersfarm, I saw one that looked like a portable cement mixer. I don't know how well it would work, but you can get a portable cement mixer cheaper than a new ringer washing machine. Of course a cement mixer doesn't have a lid, so that would be a problem. Making butter is an awful lot of work. I usually make butter when I have a 1/2 gallon of cream. Washing the butter and kneading out of the water takes the most manual labor. What are you going to do with the skim milk, I missed that if you said? Pigs will drink up a lot of excess skim milk and buttermilk.

http://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/butter-churns.html

[myersfarm]

skimmed milk I can pour out first part of year and later when I have calfs... feed it to the large ones in a feed bunk they just suck it up

[myersfarm]

I have a old wringer washing machine.....what I used to mix up milk replacer..it works great for that

[linn]

Well, if you can convert your old ringer washer to a butter churn , then looks like you are on the road to a commercial-type butter churn. Best wishes for your success. Let us know how this turns out.

[matt_man]

You can only do 6 - maybe 7 - quarts of cream at a time in the big 2 1/2 gallon churns. That is what I use and sometimes I am making butter every day in that thing. I yield around 5lbs of butter per batch. A hand held mortar mixer could work if you drilled a hole in the lid of a 5 gallon plastic bucket to run it through so it isn't splashing everywhere.

To wash it, I put it into a collander lined with cheesecloth and I just let cold water run over it until it runs clear and put it in the kitchenaide with the paddle to press out all the extra water. It keeps great.

[myersfarm]

thanks Matt Man I knew you made lots of butter...thanks for the in put
THANKS EVERYONE will be September before I try this will let you know how and ehat works

[thequeensblessing]

Please remember though, if you aren't aware of it, real butter does NOT freeze well for very long. The flavor and quality goes downhill fast in the freezer.

[matt_man]

I just used the last of our butter from last summer and it was still very good. I didn't make any all winter and this was all the good yellow spring stuff that I made and froze ahead.