Cream separaters - How well do they work?

[JWK]

I'm really wondering if I can replace cow milk with goat, but I really want to get that cream/butter thing out of it.

How well do they work? Are there good ones and bad? Anyone here make their own butter from this?

Thanks.

John

[Alice In TX/MO]

We have replaced store bought cow milk with goat milk. If you have clean goats, clean food, strain and chill the milk quickly, you will not notice any difference, except that it is better!

For clarification, are you wanting to reduce the butterfat content of the milk for dietary reasons? or are you wanting to have cream and butter for other uses?

[JWK]

Yeah, I think goat milk is a lot better. I don't want to reduce any butterfat, I just want some actual cream and be able to make some butter. I don't want to have to buy these items anymore, either. If I'm going to have dairy animals I certainly don't want to have to go to the store to get cream and butter.

So I'm just wondering how the cream separaters work. How well, what to buy, etc.

You have replaced your store bought cow milk with goat milk. What do you do for cream and butter?

Thanks for the reply.

John

[dezeeuwgoats]

I have a cream separator and it works well. It is a pain in the butt to clean though, and it did take awhile for us to develope a 'working relationship', lol.

I decided to get a cow for the cream aspect. I raise pigs and chickens so the skim milk will go to good use. I want to make my own butter, and just don't feel like goat's milk butter is worth the effort, in the amounts my family uses.

At this point, while the cow is a heifer, I save up 5-10 gallons of goat's milk before separating, to make it worth my while for the clean up, etc. I don't make butter - , but we do use the cream for whipping, and coffee, ice cream, etc.

niki

[Alice In TX/MO]

I buy organic cream from Promised Land and imported Irish butter for special things.

I use regular store bought butter for baking.

[goatsareus]

as an above post mentioned, they are a pain in the butt to clean. You really do need to save up a lot of gallons of goats milk to make it worth the effort.

Myself, I buy butter at the grocery. I do without cream.

[Use Less]

Cream separators were designed for cows' milk, which has a different size fat molecule than goats' milk. So they really don't work as well on goats' milk. The fat in goats' milk is much more digestible than that from cows, though, so unless you really need to reduce the calories, why don't you just use your goats' milk straight? Sue

[JWK]

Originally Posted by Use Less

Cream separators were designed for cows' milk, which has a different size fat molecule than goats' milk. So they really don't work as well on goats' milk. The fat in goats' milk is much more digestible than that from cows, though, so unless you really need to reduce the calories, why don't you just use your goats' milk straight? Sue

Ah, thank you! Now that's the info I need. It doesn't sound like it would work for me (with goats, that is).

I will use my goat milk straight. Sometimes I want cream for whipping. Sometimes I want butter. Not enough to buy a cow, though.

My wife and I agree that it would be more than great for our tea.

I'm thinking at this point that even a Dexter would take a lot more feed than 3 dairy goats (especially if they're Nigerian Dwarf). Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, one cow or three goats I'm gonna have a lot more milk than I can use.

Thanks for all the responses, everyone. This place sure is helpful.

John

[pookshollow]

We get cream off of our goats' milk without a separator. Not a lot, but enough for our daily coffee for the two of us. I make cheese once or twice a week, and skim off the cream that rises to the top before I pour the milk into the cheese pot. Mmmm, it's good!

Rarely use butter.

[hisenthlay]

I have a cream separator from Hoeggers Goat Supply (can't remember the brand--sorry--but it's the hand crank one with the blue base), and I think it works fine, but does take some tinkering to get the right speed/setting to get the consistency of cream you want. The people at Hoeggers are very helpful on the phone--they know what they're talking about, and they'll help you figure it out. I tend to crank too fast, and get thin cream. That said, it's good in coffee, and I've been able to use it to make some decent whipped cream. I never made butter on purpose, but I did over-whip my whipped cream a few times, and get a bit of "butter" that way. I don't know how many gallons of milk it would take to make cream for a lb of butter, but I'm guessing A LOT.

The separator is a pain to clean, though, that's for sure, with all those millions of metal pieces for the centrifuge, etc. When we've done it, we do 4-6 gallons of milk at a time, and freeze the cream.

[LMonty]

John,

just a comment on the dexter- I have dairy goats, and two Dexters. Neither one of mine is the personality to be a milker, but I hope to get a heifer that will be soon. Until then, they are straight calf producers. But due to my own (dmittedly limited at this time!) experience, I'm wondering if the dexter milkers would cost as much to feed as you think.

I dont really feed either one much of anything, they have free choice hay out since the pasture went dormant- and go thru a round bale in about a month (thats both of them) on top of what they do glean from the field. We give them about two handfuls each of cattle cubes twice a day, just to keep them coming up to the top so we can eyeball them twice a day. I use the 20% cubes, figuring that adds a little protein during preganancy, since they both were in with the bull in August. Using two bags of pellets a month, that comes to about 12 dollars a month plus the round bale for feed costs.

If I was milking them, they might need a bit more feed, but these girls are super easy keepers- my cattleman neighbor just commented on that, because he saw them last weekend and told me I should cut back on how much I was graining them, as they shoudnt get too fat before they deliver. He was really quite surprised when I showed him how little they ate and what good condition they stayed in, and that i wasnt feeding any grain at all. So feeding a dexter milker may not be that much more expensive then feeding two milk goats. I pay MUCH more for the goat feed and use a lot more than I do for the dexters. YMMV, depending on your pasture, and situation, and I havent fed a Dexter milker myself yet to share that info from experience. But if you post the question on the cattle board, there are people there with Dexters who might be able to give you a better idea of how they do it and what the feed costs run.

Just a thought!