Milk Question

[JDog1222]

How long should you wait before drinking the milk after kidding?
How long after kidding will the milk have an off flavor, or should it even have an off flavor to begin with?
Thanks
Jill

[Alice In TX/MO]

It's the colostrum. Thick and a slightly different flavor.

Some goats clear out colostrum in just a couple of days. Some take a week or more. You'll just have to try it and see.

Also, be SURE to deworm your goat right after she kids. The changing hormones cause the worm population to increase dramatically.

[JDog1222]

I wormed them all yesterday!
This milk isn't just different flavored, it is nasty!
Straight from the teat, warm, you put it in your mouth and at first tastes like milk then BAM the nastyist after taste I have ever tasted, and STRONG!
She is a nubian, kidded ten days ago today, is this normal for the milk to taste this bad?

[Alice In TX/MO]

After ten days, it should be getting better.

What is she eating?

Do you discard the first few squirts from each teat?

Are there lumps, clumps, anything else weird in the first squirts from each side?

[JDog1222]

One cup corn, one cup oats, and 1/4cup calf mana AM & PM and all the alfalfa she wants. Milk looks good, not lumps, clumps or anything else weird. Last year we drank her milk and it was good. She is giving LOTS of milk though, more than I expected her to.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Personally, I think Calf Manna is nasty, but I don't like licorice. Did you feed that to her last year?

Is she getting out to browse? Do you have wild onions?

[JDog1222]

No, I don't think so. I think it was corn, oats, kelp, and DE last year. In fact I almost think I am 100% positive. I think I started adding after I dried them off and when they got PG. Thought they might need the extra to grow babies.

[JDog1222]

She does go out to browse but not onions here that I know of.

[Alice In TX/MO]

If it's not better by Wednesday, I'd test for mastitis anyway.

There's a sticky about the process at the top of the first page on this board.

[mekasmom]

I waited to use the milk for two or three weeks after my goats kidded.

[JDog1222]

Well, I tasted one of the other goats milk that just kidded recently and hers tasted the same, so hopefully it's a time issue. Actually this AM it was 9 full days after kidding, AFTER today it will be 10 full days prior to kidding!

[walkswithgoats]

i would search the pasture for possible suspects. if they eat wild onion or garlic you will definitely know it was garlic or onion! believe me on that one!
i know nothing of calf manna so i cant help you there.
we always take the kids off mom and start bottle feeding at day 5 after kidding.
our milk always tasted fine.
i would also test for mastitis. just to make sure.
hope you figure it out!

[francismilker]

Originally Posted by Alice In TX/MO

Personally, I think Calf Manna is nasty, but I don't like licorice. Did you feed that to her last year?

Is she getting out to browse? Do you have wild onions?

I'm with Alice on this one.......

Around here, the onions and garlic haven't appeared yet. We're just too dry for much of anything to pop up yet. But, believe me, milk cows and milk goats will find it when it comes.

I'm relatively new to milk goats but have been dabbling with milk cows for years so I've tried to use that knowledge to get me going. What I've experienced with milk coming in is to keep them milked out twice a day for a couple of weeks in order for the supply and demand issue to come into play. Feed them well and put a tablespoon of baking soda in their feed daily.

Sodium bicarbonate is an ingredient in a lot of dairy feed mixes and should help to stabilize their rumen and well as help in the prevention of ketosis. (This trick was taught to me recently by an elderly lady I bought a Saanan doe from after I told her I hated goat's milk because of it's "goaty" flavor.)

[JDog1222]

Thanks Francismilker, I'll try that. Does anyone else add the sodium bicarbonate to the feed?

[southerngurl]

That small amount of grain shouldn't be causing acidosis, though the baking soda won't hurt.

What kind of bad taste? Is it kind of a nutty funky taste? Or a goaty taste?

[JDog1222]

Like you haven't brushed your teeth in a year taste! NOT nutty, more like sour, rotten taste. Not even really goaty but it is awful! I tasted the others and they all kinda taste like that too so hope it's just going to take time to clear up the bad flavor.

[francismilker]

I'm not sure what kind of housing and pasture you have your goats in, but I've run in to this situation a few years ago with my milk cows and here's what I done: I locked them all up in the lot and controlled what they ate for 72 hours. I gave them good hay free choice, clean water, and grain twice a day. It turned out that there must've been some kind of weed in the pasture or algae in the pond water that was tainting their milk because the off taste cleared up. As soon as I turned them back out, their next milking had off taste again.

This problem about drove me batty for a couple of weeks until it cleared up. I figured it to be something with the weather or growing season for whatever it was that was causing the problem.

[julieq]

I agree here that it's most likely something your does are eating. The only time we had off flavor in our milk was when we tried feeding kelp years ago. We stopped that real quick and the milk cleared up immediately. Our does live in the barn and get alfalfa hay and three way grain only on a daily basis. We start drinking milk as soon as it comes in and don't have a problem with bad taste at all.

[JDog1222]

OK, that two things I'm feeding now that might make the milk taste bad. We feed Kelp too! =o)

[southerngurl]

I have just never had milk have a taste from what a goats eat. I know it can happen, but I've never seen it. I've fed kelp, and I feed garlic. I do generally feed garlic at milking or right after though which is supposed to keep it out of the milk.

What kind of mineral are you using? I know mineral deficiency can affect taste and that could be a herdwide thing.