strong milk

chewie · #1 07/02/12, 09:52 PM

haven't noticed this til recently but one of my does milk seems to be really strong tasting. like its going bad. this is fresh milk, kept cool. onyx mineral, alf hay and noble pellets. lots of water.

its a little strong fresh out of her, and within a few days, its REALLY strong. the other doe has lovely sweet milk still. also, they do have a colbalt block, but think I might take that away to see if that make any diff.

I had been putting some sweetfeed with the pellets but took those away several days ago. they do get a sprinkling of sbm on their pellets.

like most, we're in a horribly hot situation here too, no rain, miserable most days. the does lay int he barn, on the cement floor, keeping cool as they can. floor is cleaned several times per week.
any ideas??

Alice In TX/MO · #2 07/02/12, 10:18 PM

Check the temp in your fridge. Are you storing in glass?

SBM?

Ranger · #3 07/03/12, 04:42 AM

What breed of goats? Some naturally have a stronger flavor milk than others do.

Alice In TX/MO · #4 07/03/12, 06:20 AM

I *think* these are goats that she's had for a while. Could be wrong.

Ranger · #5 07/03/12, 06:53 AM

Ah. Maybe something that she has decided tastes really good?! Early stages of mastitis?

Cliff · #6 07/03/12, 07:27 AM

Is this a goat you've milked thru other freshenings or it this the first one? What breed?

Alice In TX/MO · #7 07/03/12, 07:40 AM

Mastitis usually makes the milk taste salty.

andabigmac · #8 07/03/12, 07:52 AM

Is she going into heat?

chewie · #9 07/03/12, 12:56 PM

this is a saanen i've had since her birth here on my farm. its not exactly salty, but sort of. just strong. I milk into ss pails with an ice pack, then filtered into glass half gallon jars, by then its not hardly even warm yet. into the fridge which is kept just for milk, so its so cold the top shelf freezes.

i've never noticed this taste from any of my goats before, it could be a weed in the pen. in any case, I'm only milking 2 now, and its pretty obvious which is her milk. the other goat's milk is sweet and wonderful yet.

sbm--soybean meal, just a small bit to bump the protein in their feed for more production.

southernmom86 · #10 07/03/12, 02:33 PM

My mom has saanen's and she has had this problem before. One goat had good milk, the other tasted...well, nasty. The first time was because the male goat was nearby. The milk tasted just like he smelled. The second time she had gotten a hold of some weeds, don't know what they were. She had to pin her and just kept milking till it was out of her system and then her milk returned to normal.

chewie · #11 07/03/12, 06:24 PM

got myself some cmt solution--use just like the jar says? since its for cows, didn't know if there's some other 'rules' using it for goats' milk.

and, if a goat does eat something, how long does it take to work it thru and get good milk again?? I had read that too much sweet feed could make milk funky, and she had been getting a little. i've stopped it, and instead of doing chores before taking the milk in, even with the ice pack cooling it, i've rushed to the house, filter and fridge, THEN finish chores. hoping these changes work

**mygoat** · #12 07/03/12, 06:38 PM

CMT isn't good except to tell you when a change occurs.

You have an ice pack IN the milk bucket? Tell me, how do you go about sanitizing the ice pack? You probably can't - I don't let anything but glass and SS touch my milk.

Do me a favor - milk her out separate and pasteurize her milk. 160* for 15 seconds, heated in a double broiler. Chill quickly. Once milk is cold, taste her milk. Then hold on to it for a few days and taste it again. My guess is lipase enzyme, which mostly activates upon chilling. It breaks down milk fats into capric and capranoic acid (they taste/smell goaty or 'strong'), and gives raw milk a bad flavor. I have to pasteurize the milk from our two alpines.

Likely lipase enzyme was a a selected-for trait because it's desired in cheesemaking. But today, MOST raisers want raw drinking milk from their goats, and so the selection has been in the complete opposite direction. They're not common today except in some lines.

chewie · #13 07/03/12, 11:34 PM

ok, pasturized a coupla cups--oh GAG me. its horrid. I tasted some in the kitchen fridge, and ewww, bad, and its only a few days old. then I tasted some in the other fridge, much better.

can still tell one from the other's milk, nora has stronger milk, but not really bad. nilla's is better tho. BUT, in the mudroom fridge all the jars were at least useable. hmmm, is my fridge going out??

its about 15 years old, the other one, is one year old. not to mention, the milk in the newer one is super cold, the one in the kitchen just cold. hmmm, could it be this easy??? all the cmt and 'home' tests are saying nora is not mastitis'y.

will get a fridge thermo asap!

does copper do anything to milk? i see they are due.

eta...old fridge milk was 34*, new fridge milk is barely 31*

Alice In TX/MO · #14 07/04/12, 06:09 AM

Also.... keep the milk jars on the lowest shelf, to the back. That's the coolest part of the fridge. Don't keep them on top shelves or door shelves. Don't keep the jars that are going to wait a couple of days to be used in the fridge in the kitchen that gets opened all the time.

Yes I'd try copper bolusing, too.

Alice

chewie · #15 07/07/12, 11:52 AM

update....I did do the copper bolus 2 days ago. 3 days ago I removed the colbalt block as I noticed they would lick that for their salt and hadn't been using their minerals (onyx).

this is on top of the changing of the watering vessel as per my other thread.

yeah, something worked! her milk is now sweet again. that fast. not sure if it was teh water or the bolus, but I believe one or both of those. ahhhh.