What in the world do you do with all this milk?

Angie · #1 05/14/07, 07:17 PM

I only have 3 milkers and I have so milk I don't know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

RedTartan · #2 05/14/07, 07:25 PM

I don't know. I just got my first milker. She gives about a gallon a day and it's already piling up...

Three would bury me

RedTartan

Ken in Maine · #3 05/14/07, 07:30 PM

Cheese... soap....pigs... chickens... neighbors... friends

MayLOC · #4 05/14/07, 07:33 PM

Cheese, ice cream

, soup, soap, ect...

If the does are going to be milking for a while, then why not a pig, bottle calf, ect...

Depends on how much of a surplus you have each day and for how long you will have this much before you can decide what you can do with it.

Our family goes through a little over a gal each day and when I can save up a gal or two I make cheese or ice cream and we feed any orphan calves we end up with each year also.

topside1 · #5 05/14/07, 07:52 PM

Calves love goats milk....

What in the world do you do with all this milk? - Goats

CountryHaven · #6 05/14/07, 08:41 PM

I'm getting almost 2 gallons a day and still have trouble keeping aside enough to make things like cheese and yogurt and stuff. Hubby and I love milk when we don't have to go to the store and pay 4 dollars a gallon to get it, plus the goats milk is so much better anyway. Cheese takes a LOT of milk. One gallon only makes one pound of cheese, so try making different kinds of cheeses. The soft chevre is delicious on crackers and I LOVE making mozzerella. I never had any luck with the hard cheeses but my friend makes it all the time with goats milk.

nehimama · #7 05/14/07, 09:23 PM

Bottle calves, bottle lambs, bottle kids, chickens (soak old bread in milk and give it to 'em - they go nuts on it), pigs (mine are spoiled rotten now, and turn up their noses at their feed if there isn't any goats' milk included!), freeze some for an upcoming dry spell . . . . LOTSA critters love goats' milk!

NeHi

Angie · #8 05/14/07, 09:40 PM

what about a sign out front advertising it? All my critters have their mothers for milk right now. I a getting about 4 gallons a day. I will try to make cheese. My fridge is so full I have no room for anything else. I feel bad throwing it out but have had to do that. The cats are even full of milk.

ozark_jewels · #9 05/14/07, 10:08 PM

I'm with Topside on this one...for us, extra milk grows wonderful bottle calves. We pick them up at local dairies. We are feeding 18 now.

What in the world do you do with all this milk? - Goats

Freeholder · #10 05/14/07, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angie

what about a sign out front advertising it? All my critters have their mothers for milk right now. I a getting about 4 gallons a day. I will try to make cheese. My fridge is so full I have no room for anything else. I feel bad throwing it out but have had to do that. The cats are even full of milk.

Angie, better check your state laws before you advertise your milk for sale. Only a few states allow you to advertise your milk. Some of the states that allow you to sell milk won't allow you to advertise. Word of mouth usually works, though.

Kathleen

prairiecomforts · #11 05/14/07, 10:31 PM

Would you consider soap making? I love it and it is realtively inexpensive to get started plus it is a great way to make extra money.

Gailann Schrader · #12 05/15/07, 07:25 AM

Although goat cheese is very delicate and will absorb flavors in the freezer if you are not very careful?

I make mozzarella cheese curds with herbs and UBER wrap it and make it into 1/2# "balls" that I freeze. I then overwrap the balls of curds, and then put them into ziploc gallon freezer bags. Thaw on gentle in microwave or just in the fridge.

Besides that? Folks with puppies will buy the milk. Drink it, trade it, use it.

You can also freeze milk in clean water containers or in gallon ziploc freezer bags. Just make sure you thaw the bags IN a bowl (the bags like to get banged around in the freezer and get holes in them).

About November when you no longer have milk on hand? Wonderful to go to the freezer and get some Goat Sunshine...

I would think you could make ice cream base (with all the extra eggs as well) and freeze it for September/November - Kidding season use.

Take off the cream (if you can let it set that long) and freeze that for butter/creme fraiche use...

JUST MAKE SURE YOU OVERWRAP AND REMOVE AS MUCH AIR AS POSSIBLE. Goats milk is very fragile taste-wise.

Think chocolate next to Bounce fabric softener sheets. Bleh. Have fun!

Also raise some feeder pigs for late summer slaughter. You don't HAVE to butcher at 225# - 250#. It's more feed efficient? But not necessary. Whole roast piggie on Labor Day is pretty amazing...

BlueHeronFarm · #13 05/15/07, 08:32 AM

I am so jealous. Our babies are drinking the 4 gallons a day the mamas give.

Feral Nature · #14 05/15/07, 10:08 AM

Drowning is goat milk is really a wonderful feeling. Think ahead and try to freeze as much as possible for those winter months when those does are heavy bred and not in milk. Try to have enough on hand to squeeze through that dry spell. There is nothing so aweful as standing at the dairy section of the grocery store and reaching in to buy a gallon of cows milk after you have been pouring milk out to chickens and other critters all year. Nothing as horrible. Try to plan it where you will have saved enough. We need a bigger deep freeze or another one. We ended up having to buy 3 gallons of cows milk when the girls were dry after we ran out of goats milk, it was demoralizing. Well, we still had some goat milk frozen but it was for "emergency use" in case a momma goat died and we needed to feed kids the next year. They could drink the frozen goat milk, after their frozen colostrum and then transition to cows milk or then milk from another doe. Didn't need to do that. Then there is always the idea that a grandchild may be here and we would need those last few gallons of frozen goats milk in a dire situation for a child.

Goats milk, the stuff of life.

southerngurl · #15 05/15/07, 10:42 AM

Kefir and cheese

nduetime · #16 05/15/07, 11:18 AM

I have a couple of friends who breed corgi's and they love any extra milk for the nursing moms. You could check out your local shelter and see if they are bottle feeding any babies. It is a lot cheaper for them to have someone donate goats milk than buy all that replacer. Healthier too.
I also do the usual, give to grandkids, soap, cheeses, yogurt, butter, sour cream, I make a mean lemon cream cheesecake that freezes very well if wrapped tightly.

dosthouhavemilk · #17 05/15/07, 01:14 PM

Since you are in Ohio, feeding it to your own animals and making soap and lotion is about the extent of what you can legally do with it.
We are not allowed to sell for pet consumption in Ohio since it is not an "approved" pet food.
There are a couple of laws being considered currently that will open the doors for raw milk sales through herd shares and for Grade A dairies (cows in this case, since there aren't any Grade A goat dairies).

I just leave a kid to nurse each doe and milk her until she adjusts. I've started making soap as well and we fed a bull calf until I found him a new home.

rich2748 · #18 05/15/07, 02:47 PM

Kefir, cheese, butter, soap, feed other livestock, but best of all DRINK IT!!!
It is the healthiest milk available and you have plenty. Raw milk has been proven to cure many digestive and other health problems. Plus milk produced on your property will give you immunities to many germs common to your property. So DRINK IT!!!

gccrook · #19 05/15/07, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dosthouhavemilk

Since you are in Ohio, feeding it to your own animals and making soap and lotion is about the extent of what you can legally do with it.
We are not allowed to sell for pet consumption in Ohio since it is not an "approved" pet food.
There are a couple of laws being considered currently that will open the doors for raw milk sales through herd shares and for Grade A dairies (cows in this case, since there aren't any Grade A goat dairies).

I just leave a kid to nurse each doe and milk her until she adjusts. I've started making soap as well and we fed a bull calf until I found him a new home.

http://www.newfarm.org/features/2007...milk/cox.shtml

dosthouhavemilk · #20 05/15/07, 05:16 PM

It was ruled in their favor because the ODA had gone about the removal of their liscence without going through the proper motions.
I wouldn't risk our Grade A dairy liscence on this one ruling by this one judge...because the other rulings haven't been as favorable.
The law being proposed will address herd shares in its writing. It won't be something in the gray area.
As it is, it is questionable with whomever their contract is with anyways. When a dairy signs a contract it generally stipulates that all saleable milk goes to that milk producer. Unless they are holding out milk from individual cows, they are in a risky area with DFA (at least I assume they ship to DFA).
I had a herd share set up. I had my contract almost ready, even had a group of people in a near-by town ready to sign on, but the legalities were too much of a risk.
If you don't have a dairy inspector coming around every 6 months and you trust others you can consider bartering or selling your milk, but they are cracking down on that in Ohio right now. Our inspector just about blew his lid when he saw the goat milk stand in our barn...He thought for sure we were putting it in the tank...lol.

Though now that Ted Strickland is in office, the hope is things will turn in our favor.
With as many goats as we have, I'd love to have an outlet so it would make sense to milk them all.