“Oooh, who are the best little golden goaties EVER?” I croon to Honey, Freya, Fat Pumpkin, and Figgy Pudding as they jump onto their milking stands.

I milk two Nigerian Dwarf goats, each smaller than a Labrador retriever dog.  These particular goats give little milk—a quart apiece at the height of their lactation—but the milk has almost 8% fat.  Whole cow milk hovers around 4%.  On my homestead, I’m hungry for fat.  Fat makes butter, and butter is good.  We are eating only what we can grow and harvest by hand, so animals that convert blackberry brambles into cream are worth their keep.  The Nigerians stay in vibrant good condition eating just what we can grow and gather around the farm, no grain required.

I also have two high-producing LaMancha goats.  Their milk is pleasantly rich but doesn’t develop as thick a layer of cream on it.  My two LaManchas, bless their bucket-filling ways, do better if I feed them grain during the peak of their lactations.  Grain is a convenient high-calorie supplement for them during the winter and spring before the garden kicks into high gear.  For the summer and into the fall, milk production increases when each goat gets a giant overgrown zucchini from the garden.  It’s cheaper and easier to grow zucchini than to grow or buy grain.  If I had to raise goats without the benefit of an awesome feed store just down the road from me, I would keep the Nigerians and rethink the LaManchas.  It would be a full-time job keeping those big girls fed through the winter without a handy bale of alfalfa hay.

In case you were wondering, feeding grain does not necessarily increase the fat content of milk.  Digesting fiber is what puts fat in the milk, and there is plenty of fiber in the weeds and grasses of our farm.  During our growing season, from April to October, the goats eat essentially only what we grow here on our few acres.  The goats’ appetite for brambles and weeds inspires us to keep the homestead groomed.  My uncle stopped by with a bucket of weeds from his garden patch, shaking his head.

“I meant to weed these beds last week,” he said, “but I waited until the weeds got big enough for the goats to eat!”

Now that you know how to produce high-fat milk from your goats, what about butter? During our year-long hand-harvested food challenge, butter would be a real treat.  Chicken fat is fantastic, but it’s a little weird to spread on a piece of cornbread.  I had heard that butter comes only from cow milk.  Would it make sense for me to get my own cow?

“Butter on your popcorn,” said our farm-mate T-bone.

“Whipped cream!” enthused my friend Saskia.

So I went out and bought a Guernsey cow.  Eight-feet long and weighing half a ton, she ate a lot more than my goats.  She didn’t give a lot more milk, though.  It took her about two weeks to eat the pasture that sustains my goats all summer.  Did I really have to do all this work (and buy a lot more feed, and wash the milking machine this cow required) just to get a bit of butter?

Then I got a tip from Gianaclis Caldwell, dairywoman extraordinaire, in her excellent book The Small-Scale Dairy.  This tip changed my life since it let me sell my butter-making cow, and stick with small, easy-to-feed goats.  Don’t get me wrong, I would gladly have a cow again someday, but it’s nice to be able to get at least a small amount of butter without having a huge cow.

Yes, I said “a small amount of butter.” It’s true that the fat in goat milk does not rise as quickly or completely as the fat in cow milk.  Given the same amounts of cow and goat milk, I can make less butter from the goat milk even if the goat milk has a higher total fat content.  Oh well.  The upside is that goat milk, even skimmed of its cream, has enough fat left in it to make creamy yogurt or a hard cheese that does not rely on a lot of fat for its texture.  Parmesan, for example, is made with partly skimmed milk.  I make a mean hard cheese from skimmed goat milk.  It’s loaded with flavor after being aged for six months.  Making butter from goat milk, then, yields both short-term and long-term satisfaction.

Here are the steps to making goat milk butter.

1)    Strain warm, fresh milk immediately into wide-mouth jars.  Or track down a local source of rich milk.

My four goats, as of this writing, give me about 12 gallons of milk a week.  I skim off a quart and a half of cream from that amount.  This cream yields about a pound of butter.  If we had more than a pound of butter a week, I am sure our household of butter-lovers would eat it!  Having one pound is better than none, though.  Many cream-skimming instructions urge you to let the milk sit in shallow containers.  I use half-gallon jars, which concentrate the cream in a smaller surface area.  I find it easier to skim this way.  The fat content from goats varies, both between goats and during the course of their lactations.  By the time my Nigerians are nine months into their milking period, I’m practically squirting pure light cream right out of them.  Another fat-saving hint—during each milking session, the first milk from each animal has less fat than the last milk I get out of her udder.  If the barn cats are going to get any milk, it’s the first stuff I squirt, not the creamy last pint.

2)    Refrigerate the milk for four days.

Time is not always kind to goat dairy, so I want to get the fat off the milk as soon as practicable.  Some people are more sensitive to the goaty flavors of old milk than others.  For some people that tang is part of goat milk’s allure!

Letting the milk sit in the fridge longer than four days means thicker cream, but less than two days means there will hardly be any cream worth skimming.  Four days is a happy medium.  I used to chill the milk in a cooler with ice water but found that I could get away with simply putting the jars directly in the fridge.  My ladies have never had a goaty taste in their milk, but this can vary significantly between animals.  If your milk tastes unpleasant, try chilling it quickly after milking, in an ice-water bath.  If you buy milk, it may already have sat for this long and be ready to skim.

3)    When you skim the cream from four-day-old milk, put it in the freezer in a quart-or-larger container.

I use a big peanut butter jar, about a quart and a half, because that is as much cream as will fit in the kitchen mixer I use to churn butter.  I get about a quarter cup of cream from each half-gallon jar.  Yes, it seems like a tiny bit of cream in a big jar, but just let it build up over time!  I have one precious ladle that is just the right size to fit inside the wide-mouth jar and lift out that thick cream.  Skim all the jars before you lick the ladle, of course.  While cow milk forms a distinct “cream line” between the cream and the skim milk, it’s less distinct with goat milk.  You will notice a visual change in texture between the thicker cream and the watery milk.  As I said, I rarely get more than a quarter of a cup of cream per half-gallon of milk.  Those goats are tiny but mighty when it comes to producing fat.

4)    Add cream to your freezer container as you can skim it from milk in the fridge.

As you gather and save cream over the course of a week, a little glacier of cream will build up in your freezer jar.  I like to add only really thick cream, which means a higher yield of butter from the cream I have saved.  Plus, then enough creaminess is left behind in the milk that rest of the household milk-drinkers don’t complain that I have stolen all their fat.

5)    When your jar in the freezer is full, thaw and make butter.

I like my goat butter uncultured, or sweet, but you could add kefir or another culture and let the cream ripen before churning.  The main trouble with churning goat cream, cultured or not, is that it is so delicious I have been known to halt the butter-making process and just eat the bowl full of whipped cream before it turned to butter.  All my goat butter has had a mild and delicious nuttiness, like a temperate-zone equivalent of coconut oil.  Goat butter is white.  You could camouflage it in a Crisco jar.

For those who haven’t made butter before, my technique is to use my ancient KitchenAid mixer. Into the bowl goes the cream I thawed the night before.  I use the whisk attachment on a medium-high speed.  I learned to drape a kitchen towel over the mixer because when the cream turns suddenly to butter, there can be a lot of splashing buttermilk.  The cream usually takes just a few minutes of churning to turn to butter.  Don’t step too far away from the kitchen during this time.  Once the butter starts separating, I turn the mixer down to its lowest setting to gently consolidate the butter crumbs instead of splashing them all over the kitchen counter.  For whatever reason, goat butter has consistently churned faster for me than my cow butter did.  Maybe it’s because of the freezing, which gives a grainy texture that may help the fat globules stick together.

Once the cream has separated into butter and buttermilk, I rinse the butter in cold water, massage in a pinch of fine sea salt to the pound of butter, and press it into a pint jar.  That’s our butter for the week!  I drink the buttermilk myself or give it to the chickens.

A big crusty loaf of cornbread from corn grown in the backyard, and a gleaming spoonful of goat butter—this is bliss.  See what kind of blackberry-transforming alchemy your goats can do.  It helps, of course, to baby talk to them.

The post How to Make Goat Milk Butter appeared first on Homestead.org.

When milk is $4.50+ per gallon at the supermarket, keeping a dairy animal starts to look really economical, especially when you drink a lot of milk.  For us, with 5 children, we will use 1-1.5 gallons of milk each day.  At today’s prices in our area, that adds up to about $130.00-$135.00 a month.  We were resigned to high milk prices, as we didn’t know anyone to trade milk with, and we couldn’t afford a cow.  We also did not have proper shelter for a cow, nor anywhere suitable for milking.  Many families like us, are spending quite a lot of milk each month, just because of these problems with owning a cow.

We met a local family through our church, and imagine our surprise when they had a dairy goat.  We actually kept their goat for them while they went on vacation, and she was so terrible in temperament and attitude, that, although we thought we might enjoy the milk, we couldn’t stand the thought of owning and caring for such an obnoxious animal.  We didn’t know the number one rule of goats!  One goat wants out, but two goats want out less.

To say the least, our sheep tight fencing was not acceptable for a goat.  Since the goat was alone, without a buddy, she was cranky, mean, and always trying to escape.  When her owner came back from vacation, we shipped her off and said “GOOD RIDDANCE!”  However, the idea of the goat stuck with us and after a long enough time, I found myself reading up on dairy goats, despite my unpleasant encounter with that particular goat.

With lots of reading and research I found out about that number one rule of goats, and according to the books and websites, most dairy goats are entirely different than that goat.  They are known to be gentle, friendly and are reputed to be excellent children’s companions and pets.  We found some milk, tried it, and found it to taste wonderfully sweet and good.  It has a milk flavor, with a nice creamy texture, very much like that from a Jersey cow.  It is rich and creamy, and does not taste “goaty” at all.  Some breeds can have a stronger flavor, namely the Toggenburg which was bred for cheese-making.  The milk we drank was delicious and we all liked it.  So we found ourselves looking for a breeder from which to purchase a couple of goats.

From the reading, there were a few criteria that I wanted to meet, without exception.  First of all, we had a price to find, one we could afford, and some of the dairy goats are very expensive show-type animals.  We also wanted a goat that had been dis-budded, and therefore would have no horns.  We knew for SURE we wanted two goats and not one.  Since we had never milked before, we also wanted a seasoned milker that was very easy to milk.  We needed an older goat that could teach us what to do.  Since it was also for a 4H project, the goat needed to be of good quality as well so that it, or its kids could be shown for the fair.  With the low price we needed to find, it was not looking very good for us getting any goats, but luck was with us, and we found two.

Often the good breeders will have a doe or two, that is perhaps a little older, has a limp from injury, or some other defect.  These can often be purchased for a very reasonable price, and they met all our other criteria as well.  One had a bum leg, and the other was just very small and therefore not show-material.  We bought these goats, and after a hard and fast learning curve on goat care, we have become successful goat herds.  We milk the goats, and they save us about $75 or more each month with their milk.  We can always find someone who is happy to take extra milk, and often make cheese and soap.  Best of all, they were both bred to show-quality sires, and both of them were of show-quality breeding, just not show-quality themselves due to environmental factors.  We ended up with three beautiful kids for the fair, and plenty of milk to drink.

The story has a happy ending, with the family having lots of milk, ice cream, cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, and other dairy products to eat and enjoy.  We can sell (or make for ourselves) wonderful soaps, as well drinking our goats’ milk.  The does are personable, pleasant and easy to handle.  The children play with them, and they are ideal pets and companions, even for very small children.  The lack of horns and pleasant disposition of these two animals have completely erased our negative impression of these now well-loved individuals.

So, looking back I think that a person considering a dairy animal is very well served to consider a dairy goat.  They do require some special care and also have some needs that must be met for optimum output.  A very happy goat is wonderful, and a very unhappy goat is horrid.  Compared to a cow, a good dairy goat is much cheaper, with a pair of does costing about $200 – $500 for a good pair.  A cow would cost at least twice as much, and often more.  The price of the cow notwithstanding, they also have a much higher maintenance cost, as well as a higher breeding fee.  A dairy goat is so much more economical and gives you so many benefits that every small farm should look closely at the possibility of keeping some dairy goats.

Goats are small and can be easily transported in regular vehicles.  You can put them in the backs of trucks with camper shells for example, or even in the back of a van or station wagon.  If you are careful to protect the surfaces from soiling, then a goat will happily go, even in the back seat of a regular car.  Goats are easy to transport and take to the vet, or to be bred.  A cow, on the other hand, requires a trailer, and a big vehicle to tow it.  Transporting a goat is much easier than a cow if you do not already own a trailer and truck or towing vehicle.

Goats also have a much lower feed cost in comparison to a cow.  One cow will eat as much as 3 to 6 goats, depending on the breed and needs of the individual goat.  Pygmy goats are the miniature milkers of the goat world, and they are extremely economical to keep, and yet put out plenty of milk for the average family.  Even larger breed goats will only need about 7 pounds of hay a day, whereas a cow can need as much as 25 or more pounds each day just to maintain her condition.  Add lactation needs on top of that, and the savings on milk are gone into the expense of hay unless you have the equipment to cut your own.  Goats will happily eat “weedy” hay that cows and horses will not, so hay is often very cheap and perfect for goats as long as it is not moldy.  Grain, mineral and other expenses also come into play, and the goats win every time with a lower cost of upkeep.  Two goats are much cheaper to raise and keep than even one cow, and with two goats, you can keep one fresh almost all year.

Goats are also easier on the land and graze very well with other livestock such as cattle or horses.  Because they prefer to browse, or bushes, instead of grass, you can use your goats to keep the brush down, and fence rows clean.  They will go along behind horses or cows and eat down what was left behind, cleaning up brush and weeds.  Provided they are getting good mineral and grain, they will still fill your pail with wholesome and delicious milk, all the while helping to keep the place looking great and the pasture nice.  They do not share worms with cattle or horses and they get along well with both.  Goats can keep a wooded area completely clean and park-like in suitable numbers, without a chainsaw or rake in sight.  Fence rows are clean and brush free, with no brambles or thorny bushes to clear away for repairs.  Goats have a real positive effect on the appearance of their home and can save their owners much back-breaking labor.  They are easy on the land and will prefer to eat food that is left behind by other livestock.

Shots, medicine, and general care of the goats are also easier and especially better if you plan on having children to help with milking and caring for the animals.  Keeping dairy goats is a great way for children as young as 4 or 5 to contribute and produce a product for the family to consume.  Children get a big benefit from learning how to care for an animal and they also get a good sense of accomplishment from being in charge of providing milk for the whole family.  Goats are generally much easier to milk, as they have a softer udder and their small size and wonderful disposition make it easy for a child of 7 or 8 to learn to milk the goat.  Younger children can help bottle feed the babies, put out hay or help with other parts of the goats’ upkeep.  Children can also learn how to make money with an agricultural project as they care for the goats, which makes them perfect for 4H or FFA.  The will be able to sell the milk to Mom, and also market the kids that are produced from the breeding of the does.  Children can really benefit from the responsibility of raising and caring for a pair of dairy goats and their kids.

Dairy goats are also easier to keep as they do not have the need for a large barn like a cow does.  A simple shelter that is draft free in winter and dry will suffice.  It can be as simple as a small shed, and the goats will thrive and be happy.  Each goat needs about 25 square feet of space to move about, and they will do well if they have a place to walk and exercise that is protected from the weather as they do not like to get very wet.  If your shed doesn’t have a floor, then you can put down pallets and bed them deeply with straw with great success.  They also do not require a large area for milking, you can easily bring them into the garage, on the porch or another small area for milking and have no problems what so ever.  A goat will not soil the milk stand under normal circumstances so waste and urine are not an issue to clean up if the goat is brought inside a garage to milk.  A simple milk stand is easy to build and very low in cost.  The goat stands on the stand to be milked then is whisked away back to its pen afterward, with hardly any mess to clean up.  So a small part of a garage, shop or even a porch is just fine for milking a goat.  Goats have a very minimal requirement for shelter and milking facilities which again makes them a smart choice for the small farm.

Goats are obviously more economical than a cow, but what about the milk?  Goat milk is also more healthy, easy to digest, and tastes wonderful if the goat is well treated, healthy, and kept properly.  You must keep bucks away from the does at all times except during breeding season, at which time the does are dry.  Exposure to bucks can cause the milk to taste goaty and disgusting.  You will also need to handle your milk in a sanitary way.  Any bacteria, or unsanitary conditions, can also cause your milk to taste bad.  You can drink the milk raw, or you can pasteurize it.  It will keep longer if it is pasteurized and you will not need to worry about problems with bacteria.  Once you are familiar with milking, then you can drink your milk raw if you choose.  You will also need to make sure that the goat has a proper diet, good minerals, and watch out for mastitis and other illnesses that are related to dairy animals.  There are tests available, and lots of resources and after a bit of learning, the new goat owner will soon feel confident and be able to care for their goats, and maintain good milk production with ease.  The milk is not only healthier, but it tastes sweet and delicious with a wonderful creamy texture that is great for many dairy products.

Goat milk is also excellent for soap making, with many of the handmade goat milk soaps selling for impressive prices at farmers’ markets and festivals.  A person keeping goats can easily begin to learn to make soaps, and there is a real potential for a side hustle income from a mail order or booth type business.  The soaps can contain natural botanicals, be organic, and contain oils and fragrances that are beneficial and healthy, which makes it perfect for the niche markets.  The soaps are rich in conditioners, and once you use one, you will want more.  Getting started doesn’t have to cost too much, and you can grow and add to your soap making business as you make profits.  The money you save with the goats, could, in fact, start a business that had good potential to supplement your farm and household income.

There are many dairy products that are very good made with goat’s milk and you can learn to make many of these at home with your own high-quality milk.  Yogurt, soft cheese, pressed cheese and cultured products like buttermilk become economical and easy to come by, as you can easily make them for yourself with surplus milk.  Ice cream and other treats such as homemade pudding become even better made with fresh goats’ milk.  Gravy, cream sauces, and other milk-based foods are also improved with goat milk because of the creamy texture, and light flavor of the milk.  Goat milk is not only wonderful for drinking, but also for making cheeses and cooking as well.  The rich flavor and creamy texture make a lower-fat alternative to cream but with a comparable texture and flavor.

Goats are fun, personable, and pleasant animals that require very little in the way of fancy housing, fancy food, and fancy surroundings.  They need lots of love, a good buddy, proper diet, and good fencing to be healthy, happy, and productive.  They will eat on weeds and brush, and as long as they are supplemented properly still give you over a gallon of milk in the pail a day.  You can clear your brush out, and feed the family at the same time.  You can make your own cheese and dairy products, which will save a ton of cash in the long run.  You can even make your own soap and market this for resale if you want.  You can get all of this, and save money with a pair of good dairy goats.  The dairy goat is truly the small farmer’s dream come true.

The post The Economics of Dairy Goats appeared first on Homestead.org.

Then, something happened 7,000 years ago that changed all that.  We’re so used to drinking milk in North America that we think it’s commonplace.  Although many cultures world-wide consume forms of fermented milk, such as kefir and cheese, only 35% of the world’s population can actually drink fresh milk.  That’s because fermentation removes most of the lactose people can’t digest.  So what happened?  Why can some of us, mostly Europeans, Middle Easterners, and some Africans drink milk and others cannot?

Historians generally agree that dairying began soon after animal domestication about 10,000 years ago.  At first, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs supplied meat, hides, and hair.  We can imagine an opportunistic Neolithic shepherd or shepherdess watching young animals nursing from their mothers and thinking, “Hey, I want some of that”.  Their attempts at drinking “some of that” would have had the disastrous effects on the gut already mentioned.

Luckily for our Neolithic innovators, fermented foods had been around for some time.  People well understood that fermentation transformed difficult to digest foods into something more palatable and long lasting (not to mention, occasionally, alcoholic).  Fermentation hugely expanded our larders and dairy lent itself well to this process—in the warmer areas of the Middle East, where agriculture began, milk taken from an animal in the morning would be yogurt by noon.

So in the early years of dairying, cheese, yogurt, and other fermented products were the only milk we ever consumed.  Then something happened: a genetic mutation appeared that enabled the body to continue producing lactase into adulthood.  In a population that ate a lot of dairy this was a distinct advantage.  Raw milk is nutritious, and calorie dense.  Milk stored “on the hoof” can be accessed as needed; it provides some protection against famine caused by crop failure.  Plus, dairying permitted the continuous exploitation of a valuable animal rather than killing it for meat.

People with the mutated gene would have had a better chance at survival and producing children with the same ability.  Soon, 80% of early dairying cultures in the Middle East and Europe carried this gene.  Dairying became a cultural and dietary mainstay.

For those of us who are able to drink milk, the benefits are many.  It’s considered a “complete” food, which means we could live on it exclusively if we had to.  It’s loaded with protein, vitamins, digestive enzymes, 8 essential amino acids, and many important minerals including calcium.  80% of the proteins are easy to digest and raw milk is alive with beneficial bacteria to help digestion and protect against disease.

Despite all the benefits our ancestors received by dairying and drinking raw milk, there were some detractors over time.  As with all animal husbandry, people and animals come into close contact, and many new diseases transferred to people.  Influenza, smallpox, tuberculosis, and measles were once unknown to human beings.  Over time, populations developed tolerances and the benefits of dairying outweighed the risks.

The History of Milk

The first dairy animal to be domesticated was the sheep around 9,000 years ago.  This was followed by goats and cattle in the next thousand years, then donkeys, water buffalo, and horses.  In fact, donkeys provide milk that is closest to human mother’s milk and was used for sick or orphaned infants.  Subsequently, camels, llamas, reindeer, and yaks were domesticated.  All of these species were milked by early farmers.

In North America we rarely come across a carton of yak milk in the diary section (at least in my neighborhood!).  According to an article “Milk From Cows and Other Animals” published by the Washington Dairy Products Commission, nine out of every ten glasses of milk we consume in Canada and the U.S. comes from cows.  However, the rest of the world obtains their milk from many other sources.  Water buffalo produce half the milk consumed in India, and ghee, the oil most commonly used for cooking is made from it.  Laplanders in northern Scandinavia drink reindeer milk as they are the only dairy animal that can survive such a brutally cold environment.

Yak-butter tea is a salty, creamy soup whipped up and drunk by people living in the cold Tibetan mountains.  700 years ago, Mongolians dried horse milk into a paste which they carried with them and reconstituted with water when they were on the march.  To this day, Russians use mare’s milk to make kumiss, a fermented, slightly alcoholic beverage similar to kefir.  People living in hot desert climates find camel milk beneficial, in part because it can last for seven days at 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

In North America, goat milk is much more common these days.  The fat globules in goat’s milk are smaller than in cow’s milk, making it easier to digest.  Roquefort, Romanian, and chevre cheeses are all made from sheep’s milk, which has twice the fat content of cow’s milk.

The Mighty Aurochs

It’s the aurochs, those large wild cattle that are illustrated on prehistoric cave paintings.  Popular as prey animals for ancient hunters, they populated the wilds of Europe and Africa for tens of thousands of years.

Aurochs began to be domesticated 8,000 years ago.  According to Dr. Ruth Bollongino of the Johannes Gutenberg University, DNA suggests that all modern cattle originated from about 80 wild female aurochs in the Near East.  From there they moved with herding peoples into Europe, largely replacing the wild populations there.  Sadly, as often happens with domestication, wild aurochs declined with the spread of their domesticated descendants.  The very last of these magnificent animals died in Poland in the 1600’s.

The children of the aurochs are legion.  Over 800 breeds of cattle exist today, with a global population of about 1.5 billion.  They continue to evolve as breeders select for higher milk volume per cow.  Consequently cow population is trending downward as milk production increases.  In the 1970’s, dairy cows produced an average of 21 pints of milk per day.  In 2012, that average was 42 pints per day.  That’s doubled production in 40 years!  A modern cow produces 7 to 10 times more than she’d need to feed her calf.

What Milk Makes

Most archaeologists believe cheese was first “discovered” when milk was stored and carried in the stomach of an animal.  When the milk mixed with the rennet present in the stomach, the milk separated into curds and whey.  The first cheese thus produced would have been soft, white, and virtually tasteless, somewhat like modern cottage cheese.  Over time people learned that aged cheese tasted better and salt helped flavor and preserve it.

Scientists exploring an ancient Neolithic site in Poland recently discovered shards of pottery that had been perforated before firing to create a sieve.  This was suspected to be the first physical evidence of cheese making.  This was confirmed when chemical analysis found milk proteins in the clay.  The age of the find was 7,000 years, in the earliest days of dairy consumption.

Since then, cheese and cheese-making has been found on wall murals in Egyptian tombs and has been described in Homer’s Odyssey.  Our experimentation with different types of processing, milks, and added ingredients has led to over 900 types of modern cheeses.  Cheddar was first created around 1500 years ago, with Parmesan following close behind.  Gouda was first made in 1697, and Camembert only appeared in 1791.

In 1815, the first cheese-making factory opened in Switzerland.  The United States took manufacturing to the next level when Jesse Williams, a dairy farmer from Rome, New York, used the assembly line system in his factory in 1851.  This created a cheese-making industry, with hundreds of factories buying local farmers milk by the wagon loads.

With mass-produced rennet and pure microbial cultures in the 1860s, standards became much more reliable, cheese became cheaper to produce and its popularity soared. Today, most North America factory-made cheeses are artificially aged with enzymes.  Naturally-aged cheeses are the norm in Europe, and are becoming more available here with artisanal cheese-makers.

Yogurt was likely the very first dairy product ever eaten.  Milk ferments quickly, and enzymes produced would have enabled a lactose-intolerant people to benefit from all the proteins and goodness of milk.  The word “yogurt” is Turkish, which is where dairying is now believed to have begun.  According to dairygoodness.ca/history the first industrialized production of yogurt is attributed to Isaac Carasso in 1919 in Barcelona—his company “Danone” was named for his son, “Little Daniel”.

Today there are three types of yogurt: Balkan, Swiss, and Greek.  Balkan is cultured and then poured into vats to set.  Swiss is cultured in vats, and when cooled it’s stirred, giving it a thinner, creamier texture.  Greek is strained of its whey until it’s almost cheese-like.  This is the yogurt used for tzatziki.  It keeps the longest and can be used wherever you’d use sour cream.

Butter, that creamy delight, was once so rare and valuable that people used it in religious ceremonies.  Ancient Romans and Greeks applied it to their hair to make it shine.  Ancient tribes in the north of India ate butter but also used it on their skin and as a lamp oil.

Butter is the fat of milk and is made from cream.  Before homogenization, milk was left for the fat to separate and float to the top of the container where it would be skimmed off.  Fat molecules are kept suspended in milk by proteins that surround them.  When cream is agitated, these proteins break up, releasing the fat which congeals into butter.  The liquid remaining is called buttermilk.

Cultured butter is made from fermented milk and has a stronger flavor.  Traditional homemade butter may only have 65% fat and 30% water and be much lighter than commercial butter which is about 80% fat and 15% water.  Ghee is an exception as it is pure butterfat with milk solids rendered out of it.  Ghee has a higher smoke point making it useful for cooking and can last unrefrigerated for three months.  Butter itself can be fermented but this practice is rare.  An exception is smen, a stinky Moroccan fermented butter made from cow, sheep or goat milk.

Buttermilk can be drunk fresh or fermented into cultured buttermilk.  It’s lower in fat and calories than milk, and high in vitamins, potassium, and calcium.  It’s soothing to the stomach and was known in the past as “Grandma’s probiotic”.  The buttermilk we drink today, however, is not the same our grandparents enjoyed as it’s rarely naturally fermented.

Icy desserts, such as sherbet, have been around for around 4,000 years, but it wasn’t until the 1600’s when it was served as a delicacy to royalty.  Over time it became more available and in the 1700’s jumped the pond to America.  Before refrigeration, however, ice cream was difficult and expensive to produce and was mostly enjoyed by the elite.  Technical innovations in the late 1800’s made it possible for nearly everyone to enjoy this treat.  Perhaps not the most nutritious form of dairy, ice cream is still one of the most delightful ways to enjoy it.

Processed Milk – What’s In That Carton Anyway?

Let’s face it—the healthy “complete food” once known to our ancestors is hard to find these days.

Homogenization simply means preventing the natural separation of fat and milk.  This is achieved by a purely mechanical process and not by chemicals or heating—it’s generally considered as having no impact on the health benefits of milk.  Pasteurization, however, is the cause of some hot debate.  It was developed not only to kill harmful bacteria, but also to increase shelf life.

There are some differences in pasteurization processes.  Home pasteurization requires milk to be heated to 63 °C (145 °F) for 30 minutes.   High Temperature Short Time (HTST) milk is heated to 72 °C (161 °F) for 15 seconds creating milk that can be stored 5 to 12 days.  Most store-bought milk follows this process.  Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processing heats milk to of 140 °C (284 °F) for 4 seconds.  This sterilizes the milk—an important difference.  This product can be held for several months without refrigeration.  Extended Shelf Life (ESL) milk is high heat processed and filtered to screen out microbes.

According to thekitchen.com, high heat processes are no safer than regular pasteurization.  It seems the benefit is in the shelf life of the product.  On the other hand, raw milk will only last 1-3 days in the refrigerator.  No wonder our ancestors commonly fermented their raw milk.

Regulations around raw milk and its products vary widely worldwide.  Only 10 states in the US can sell raw milk, and it’s been banned in Canada since 1991.  The European Union allows sales of raw milk, but in Australia it’s illegal.  The debate rages on and its best to check all resources before making a decision regarding consuming raw milk.

The Dairy Barn – How Things Have Changed

In 1879, Anna Baldwin patented a milking machine with rubber cups that were placed over cow’s teats.  These were connected to a pump lever and bucket.  Although her process had flaws, mechanical milking took off, replacing hand-milking virtually everywhere but the family farm.

Since then, dairying has become a major industry that’s affected the milk we drink, the animals we grow, and the regulations we follow.   GMOinside.org reports that the majority of dairy cows today are raised in large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).  The majority of feed these operations give their cows is GMO corn and soy.  Since GMO crops need more herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers these enter the “milk stream”, eventually ending up in our bodies.  Since cows did not evolve to eat corn and soy, they suffer terrible health problems.  New strains of E. coli develop in the fermented contents of cow stomachs, ever increasing the need for antibiotics in these operations.

As for milking, mechanization is the name of the game.  In an Automatic Milking System (AMS) it’s possible to keep a herd of animals in a barn and milk them without any human interaction.  Monitors scan animals as they move from an open stall area into an enclosed milking station.  When the cow steps on a metal platform, a laser sensor identifies the position of the teats, prompting a robotic arm to automatically apply teat cups.  Once the machine has milked the cow, she is released into an enclosed feeding area with a one way door back into the barn.

Computer monitoring of the animal’s temperature and bacteria in the milk is meant to flag the farmer as to a health issue.  A dairy farmer can check his/her cell phone for this information without ever entering the barn.  In her book, Project Animal Farm, Sonia Faruqi writes that when farmers worked with their animals in their environment, barns were cleaner and the animals healthier.  The problem with extremely automated systems is that farmers have no personal incentive to make conditions more livable for their animals.  The result is often a living hell where air and environmental quality actually make people who visit the barns physically sick.

Regulation of the dairy industry is promoted as the protection of public health, but more and more it serves the needs of the industry it regulates.  BigAg has a lot of power in Washington and they use it to protect and build systems that generate profits for themselves and control small producers.  Some would also say protecting business interests is done at the expense of the animals living with these systems and the people who consume their products.

The Good News

We create history with every decision we make.  Trends start with an individual choice.  More and more, people are becoming aware of the impact of their personal choices and the growth of small, local and organic farms is evidence of that.  As is the large distribution chains who are cow-towing to public demand by offering more organic or natural choices.

For 35% of us, milk is a nourishing and delicious food.  For the rest, fermented milk and products made from it offer the same benefits we’ve enjoyed since we first began domesticating dairy animals.  Life today without cheese, yogurt, or butter is unimaginable.

 Oh, and ice cream.  Let’s not forget ice cream.

The post A Brief History of Milk appeared first on Homestead.org.

If you regularly work with livestock, you will likely encounter an orphaned baby at some point.  At the homestead, we learn to expect the unexpected.  Sometimes, that might entail death due to birthing complications or an unfortunate accident shortly after childbirth.  Other times, a baby will become orphaned because the mother rejects it and refuses to let it nurse.  In addition, if a mother births multiples, it is likely that at least one of the babies will be underfed and undernourished.  In these cases, you might choose to graft one of the babies onto another mother.  An orphaned animal is potentially a huge liability on a farm.  The situation can become a stressful and delicate balance between ensuring the orphan’s health and minimizing expenses and unnecessary time allocation.

Last spring, while the other farmers and I were making our rounds through the pastures looking for newborn calves, we heard a new calf bleating incessantly, quite some distance away from the herd.  The mother had died sometime shortly after birthing, leaving the dogie without a source of colostrum and milk during the most impressionable and important hours of his new life.  We would have to train him to bottle feed while we sought an alternative solution.

Early the next morning, we became alarmed when we heard one of the mother cows bawling.  Our neighbor told us that she had been bawling all night, and when we walked out to see her, it became apparent why she was so distraught: her calf had been stillborn or had died shortly after birth.  I was impressed to witness that the power of a mother’s love can transcend species and cognitive prowess, and to be so heart-broken indicated that she might have made a great mother.

Suddenly, we had two unforeseen problems on our hands, and they were counterparts of the same equation.  Bottle-feeding can be costly and an inefficient use of time.  In my experience, bottle-fed babies never seem to receive the same quality nutrition afforded to naturally-fed babies.  In just about every case I can recall, their growth has been stunted, they seem to lack the social skills developed within the herd, and bloat and scours can become an issue even when transitioning to pasture.  Finding the optimal feeding regiment to complement their development poses an inherent challenge with little room for error or variation.  It can be time-consuming in an occupation/lifestyle where the notion of spare time is as fantastical as unicorns and leprechauns.  Coupled with the necessities of a mother who has lost her baby, grafting to a foster mother quickly becomes the most efficient and gratifying alternative.

A mother who lost her baby in the throes of birthing or the critical days that follow can be at risk for other complications.  Udder pressure on a new mother can begin to build, becoming painful and posing a risk for problems like mastitis.  “First-calvers”, or first-time mothers, tend to have especially prolific udders.  Milking the mother at 12-hour intervals can take valuable time away from other projects but might be necessary, especially among dairy breeds.  And if the mother is not used to being milked by hand, you could be in for a wild ride.  Posed with both of these problems, the solution seemed obvious: we decided to graft the dogie onto the new mother.  As most things go, this particular case turned out to be much easier said than done.  Below are a few steps to consider should you ever find yourself posed with a similar situation.  Even though much of the article references a cow and calf, most of these techniques can be used for all species of livestock.

Grafting an Orphan Calf to a Surrogate Mother Part One: Ensure You Have the Means to Properly Guide or Control the Animals

Grafting a calf takes time, often anywhere from 7 to 14 days.  In some cases, the mother will take to the calf immediately, but consider those instances the exception to the rule.  It is likely that at some point during the grafting process, it will be advantageous to either lead or tie the mother.  Putting a halter on her immediately will help keep your blood pressure lower when that point arises.  If she is not halter-broke yet, leave the lead-rope on so that she learns to give toward pressure.  It can also be a huge advantage to halter-train the calf early on.  If you do put a halter on the calf and begin working with him, make sure you remove the lead-rope so the mother doesn’t step on it during nursing.

Grafting an Orphan Calf to a Surrogate Mother Part Two: Isolate the Mother and Baby Together Away From the Herd

The first and easiest step is to pair the two together in a pen where they are separated from the herd and in a safe environment where they can be calm and become introduced.  It is important to keep an eye on them, especially the first times they are penned together, because the mother could become anxious or suspicious and reject the calf.  The calf might try to feed and if the mother is distraught and nervous, she could cow-kick at the calf, causing injury.  If the calf persists, this aggression can turn into head-butting and charging.  If the mother is showing signs of aggression toward the calf, it is best to introduce a barrier into the pen so that they can be separated from each other while still given the chance to become acquainted.

Grafting an Orphan Calf to a Surrogate Mother Part Three: Distract the Mother

Offer the mother some hay or grain while the calf attempts to nurse.  The hay can provide a distraction for the mother and pacify her while the calf becomes comfortable with the new surroundings and the process of nursing.  Cows are very scent-oriented and use it to recognize their own calves.  By feeding the mother, you are also keeping her nose pointed away from the stranger-calf and occupied with eating.

Grafting an Orphan Calf to a Surrogate Mother Part Four: Confuse the Olfactory

While simply penning the two together might be enough for the mother to begin nursing the calf, many mothers will require more convincing.  Because the mother smells that the new calf is not her own, you might have to fool her olfactory.  If the surrogate mother has recently given birth and you still have access to the fresh placenta, you can use it to cover the calf in the scent of her afterbirth.  Be liberal with the fluids and afterbirth and try to cover the calf as thoroughly as you can.  If the mother has just given birth, her instincts will be to begin licking her calf clean; this is the first—and perhaps most important—bonding time between the mother and her new calf.  To persuade her to mimic this action with the orphan, you can sprinkle salt or molasses along the back and head of the calf.  The intention is to persuade the mother to lick the calf clean, and in doing so, recreate the initial bonding motions and convince her that it is, in fact, her calf.

If you do not have access to the afterbirth, you can attempt to fool the mother’s olfactory by using either manure or camphor vapor rub around her snout.  There are also commercial products designed specifically for this purpose.  Using her own manure around her snout will cause her to recognize her own scent, and hopefully she attributes it to the calf in the pen with her.  Using a vapor rub serves to mask the scent entirely, and hopefully her instincts to be a good mother will be enough to let the calf start nursing.

Grafting an Orphan Calf to a Surrogate Mother Part Five: Collect the Mother’s Milk

Depending on the situation, you might need to milk the mother by hand to relieve some of the pressure on her udder.  This udder pressure can be an advantage, prompting the mother to let the calf nurse, but at a certain point it can become dangerous or cause the udder to be overly sensitive, and she will reject the calf’s attempts even more.  If the calf is still only a day or two old, and the foster mother birthed within the previous three days, it is best to try to milk the mother for colostrum immediately.  Colostrum contains antibodies and other nutritional benefits that are crucial to the newborn calf for a healthy start.  If the calf is older, or the mother is no longer producing colostrum, it is still advantageous to collect some of her milk to bottle feed to the calf.  The sooner you can get the surrogate mother’s milk through the calf, the sooner his manure will begin to carry the mother’s scent, thereby further fooling her olfactory.  The milk can also be used to cover the calf directly, soaking him in the scent of the mother’s milk.  With his coat wet, you can try the salt trick again, hopefully prompting the mother to lick the calf clean, causing her maternal instincts to supersede her hesitation toward the calf.

The old cowboy trick is to skin the dead calf and drape the pelt over the orphaned calf, convincing the mother that it is her biological baby.  This technique has been around for hundreds of years, and many sources agree that it has the highest and fastest success rate.  In many circumstances, this will not be an option, but in a situation where the calf has recently died and the coat is still fresh, I would recommend beginning the grafting with this technique.  If you are not practiced in skinning dead animals, the process could take much longer than expected, and you will have to decide whether it is worth your time.  There are a few tricks, though, and generally it should not take more than an hour or two to produce a skin, even for somebody who lacks experience.  There are a number of resources available with instructions on various skinning methods, and you should be able to find one conducive to your set-up.  While some people might find the process upsetting, keep in mind that the primary goal is to save the life of the orphaned calf and ensure he gets the best nutrition possible.

Repeat the Process

Remember that this process will take time.  Keep the pair isolated from the rest of the herd during the grafting process (and separated if the mother is aggressive).  Continue to bottle-feed the calf using as much of the mother’s milk as possible.  Ideally, the calf will develop a preference for the mother’s milk over the formula mix and continue trying to nurse.  Devote some of your time in the morning and evening to supervising the process and repeating the steps mentioned above.  Try to time your bottle-feeding sessions so that the calf is still hungry when you are working with the pair.  Hopefully within the first few days you will already see improvement.  Once the mother has accepted the new calf, you have successfully grafted and are usually free to turn the happy pair out to the rest of the herd.

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The Weston A. Price Foundation is a wealth of information.  According to their website, “The foundation is named after Dr. Weston A. Price (1870-1948), a Cleveland dentist, who has been called the ‘Isaac Newton of Nutrition.’  In his search for the causes of dental decay and physical degeneration that he observed in his dental practice, he turned from test tubes and microscopes to unstudied evidence among human beings.  Dr. Price sought the factors responsible for fine teeth among the people who had them: the isolated ‘primitives.’  The world became his laboratory.  As he traveled, his findings led him to the belief that dental caries and deformed dental arches resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected: nutritional deficiencies.

Price traveled the world over in order to study isolated human groups, including sequestered villages in Switzerland, Gaelic communities in the Outer Hebrides, Eskimos, and Indians of North America, Melanesian, and Polynesian South Sea Islanders, African tribes, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, and the Indians of South America.  Wherever he went, Dr. Price found that beautiful, straight teeth, freedom from decay, stalwart bodies, resistance to disease, and fine characters were typical of primitives on their traditional diets, rich in essential food factors.  When Dr. Price analyzed the foods used by isolated primitive peoples he found that they provided at least four times the calcium and other minerals, and at least TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish, organ meats, and raw milk.”

The Weston A. Price Foundation contends that, “raw milk contains many components that kill pathogens and strengthen the immune system.  These include lacto-peroxidase, lacto-ferrin, anti-microbial components of blood (leukocytes, B-macrophages, neutrophils, T-lymphocytes, immunoglobulins, and antibodies), special carbohydrates (polysaccharides and oligosaccharides), special fats (medium chain fatty acids, phospholipids, and spingolipids), complement enzymes, lysozyme, hormones, growth factors, mucins, fibronectin, glycomacropeptide, beneficial bacteria, bifidus factor, and B12-binding protein.  These components are largely inactivated by the heat of pasteurization and ultra-pasteurization.  This five-fold protective system destroys pathogens in the milk, stimulates the immune system, builds healthy gut wall, prevents absorption of pathogens and toxins in the gut and ensures assimilation of all the nutrients.  So powerful is the anti-microbial system in raw milk that when large quantities of pathogens are added to raw milk, their numbers diminish over time and eventually disappear.”

Furthermore, they state that, Galen, Hippocrates, Pliny, Varro, Marcellus Empiricus, Bacchis, and Anthimus, leading physicians of their day, all used raw milk in the treatment of disease.  During the 1920s, Dr. J. E. Crewe of the Mayo Foundation used a diet of raw milk to cure TB, edema, heart failure, high blood-pressure, prostate disease, urinary tract infections, diabetes, kidney disease, chronic fatigue, and obesity.  Today, in Germany, successful raw milk therapy is provided in many hospitals.

Studies show that children fed raw milk have more resistance to TB than children fed pasteurized milk (Lancet, p 1142, 5/8/37); that raw milk is very effective in preventing scurvy and protecting against flu, diphtheria, and pneumonia (Am J Dis Child, Nov 1917); that raw milk prevents tooth decay, even in children who eat a lot of sugar (Lancet, p 1142, 5/8/37); that raw milk is better than pasteurized milk in promoting growth and calcium absorption (Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 518, p 8, 1/33); that a substance present in raw cream (but not in pasteurized cream) prevents joint stiffness and the pain of arthritis (Annual Review of Biochemistry, 18:435, 1944); and that children who drink raw milk have fewer allergic skin problems and far less asthma than children who drink pasteurized milk (Lancet 2001 358(9288):1129-33).

Once I had done adequate research, it was time to find a local source of fresh milk.  I knew it was important to find a farm where the cows were raised on pasture.  I also knew that they should be fed no (or very limited) organic grains.  Last, but not least, the cows had to be very healthy, and the premises had to be clean.  After chatting with a lady at my local farmer’s market who was selling goat’s-milk soap, I learned that she was purchasing her milk from a farm the next town over, who met all of my requirements.

The farm is run by a husband and wife who are completely dedicated and passionate about raising wholesome, organic, pastured cows, goats, and pigs.  They are the real deal.  Before you purchase raw milk make sure you know what the cows are eating!  The Weston A Price Foundation emphasizes that, “Real feed for cows is green grass in Spring, Summer, and Fall; stored dry hay, silage, hay, and root vegetables in Winter.  It is not soy meal, cottonseed meal or other commercial feeds, nor is it bakery waste, chicken manure, or citrus-peel cake laced with pesticides.  Vital nutrients like vitamins A and D, and Price’s ‘Activator X’ (a fat-soluble catalyst that promotes optimum mineral assimilation, now believed to be vitamin K2) are greatest in milk from cows eating green grass, especially rapidly-growing green grass in the spring and fall.  Vitamins A and D are greatly diminished, and Activator X disappears, when milk cows are fed commercial feed.  Soy meal has the wrong protein profile for the dairy cow, resulting in a short burst of high milk-production followed by premature death. Most milk (even most milk labeled “organic”) comes from dairy cows that are kept in confinement their entire lives and never see green grass.”

Before I could purchase the milk, I had to purchase containers for the milk.  Here in Minnesota, fresh milk can be sold directly from the farm, but you must bring your own containers.  I use a combination of gallon and half-gallon jars.  The milk is whole milk.  Which does not make you fat, and is very good for you.  There is a layer of cream that rises to the top; we give the milk a shake to mix it up before we use it.  It stays good and fresh for about a week and then it begins to get a sour taste to it.  However, that sour taste doesn’t mean it can’t still be used; it is perfectly suitable to use.  At this point I use it for cooking.  Sarah Pope, “The Healthy Home Economist”, says this regarding sour milk: “Sour raw milk is quite unlike pasteurized milk that has gone past its ‘use by’ date.  Pasteurized milk goes putrid and must be thrown out at that point, but raw milk is still a highly useful item in the kitchen.  The difference is that pasteurized milk is a dead food–there are no enzymes or probiotics present. So, when store milk goes bad, it becomes a huge food-borne illness risk to consume it and it must be discarded.  Raw milk, on the other hand, is loaded with enzymes and probiotics.  When raw milk starts to sour, it simply means that beneficial bacteria called probiotics have started to use up the lactose (milk sugar) which causes the milk to no longer taste as sweet.  Raw milk that tastes sour is still very much safe to drink and is even more beneficial to health as the higher level of probiotics have initiated the fermentation, or clabbering, of the milk.”

As I mentioned earlier, whole milk does not make you fat.  In fact, skim milk is more likely to make you fat.  Sarah Pope says this: “How does drinking skim milk make kids (and adults) fatter? This apparent paradox occurs when you reduce the saturated fat in a person’s diet and he/she turns to carbs (grains and sugars primarily) to fill in the gap.  It is the grains and sugars that truly make you fat, not saturated fat.  I’ve said before on this blog that the more butter and cream I eat, the easier it is to maintain my weight.  MUCH easier.  The same goes for all of us.  If you drink skim milk, you will be missing out on the satiating, blood sugar and insulin steadying, effects of saturated fat, so your body will automatically give you sugar and carb (grains) cravings to make up for it.  The body is able to MAKE saturated fat out of sugars, hence the sugar cravings that are impossible to control when you eat a low-fat diet that includes skim milk.”

Since my family made the switch to fresh milk, there have been a lot less tummy aches and constipation issues in this house!  Fresh milk is much easier to digest then pasteurized milk.  According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, “Raw milk contains enzymes and encourages beneficial bacteria that contribute to easy digestion and ensure that all the vitamins and minerals are absorbed.  Pasteurization warps and distorts the enzymes and other proteins in milk so that the body thinks they are foreign, and has to mount an immune response.  This makes pasteurized milk very difficult to digest.  In fact, the market for fluid milk has been declining at 1 percent per year for the past thirty years.  Fewer and fewer people can digest processed milk.”

I’ve learned that pasteurized milk is not good for the body.  The Weston A. Price Foundation asserts that, “Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.  Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity.  Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification.  Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk.  Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods.  But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection.  And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease suspected of causing Crohn’s disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected.  Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life.  Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds.”

Driving out to the farm, which is about 25 minutes from my house, every week or two does take a little more time and effort than picking it up from the store in town.  It is also a little more expensive, than the conventional milk at the store, (but cheaper than the store’s pasteurized organic milk).  However, knowing, seeing, and feeling all of the benefits of fresh milk firsthand, I can tell you that it is worth it.  I’m also happy that I’ve gotten to know the people who are behind my food.  They are the nicest couple and I enjoy getting to visit with them every time I go to their farm.  They even have customer appreciation picnics in the summer featuring their meat, milk, and produce from their garden.  I look forward to it all year long!  I am happy knowing that my money is going to them and not getting sucked up by middle men, as is the case with store-bought conventional milk.  If you’ve been debating switching to fresh, raw milk, go for it!  If you don’t have farm nearby that offers fresh milk, perhaps it’s time to purchase your own dairy cow!

My Experience with Home Milking: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

https://www.homestead.org/livestock/miniature-cattle/

The post Reclaim Your Health with Raw Milk appeared first on Homestead.org.

Most homesteads require the clearing of brush and weeds.  Often this is required to be able to use the land for certain pre-planned purposes—or even just to keep this undesirable type of growth maintained.  The good news is that the goat is the perfect animal for the job!  Goats prefer weeds and brush to even the most luscious of grasses.  Given the choice between grass and weeds, the homestead goat will choose the weed every time.  Goats are so proficient at clearing undesirable vegetation that they are often used as fire prevention in many areas that are otherwise too difficult for people to clear.  Goats nibble and remove the thick undergrowth of combustible weeds and shrubs as well as low tree branches, all of which are the most used fodder of wild fires.  Goats can walk and maneuver the steepest and roughest terrains imaginable, browsing even poisonous vegetation as they go.  These are the areas in which fighting fires or landscaping are the most difficult, even with tractors, trucks, and power tools.  Thus, homestead goats are often called on to clear these areas before they can become fire-hazards.

The main challenge of using goats for weed and brush maintenance is the problem of keeping them in the area that you want to be cleared and not finding them roaming wherever they please.  Goats do not do well without some type of barrier to contain them.  The least expensive and easiest type of fencing for weed and brush control when using goats is a temporary electric fence.  Make sure the wires are spaced close enough that the goats can’t slip between wires, under the bottom wire, or over the top one.  The experience that our family has had with using goats for weed and brush control has definitely been a positive one, however, we have found it best to take the goats back to an enclosure close to the house in the evenings.  This is due to the fact that predators are more prone to attack homestead goats at night and we have found that it is safer for the goats to take this preventive measure, otherwise, there is a risk of losing a few goats to predation.

When choosing which breeds to use for brush and weed control, any breed of goat will work; but beware that if you allow a dairy goat to consume this type of diet it can flavor the taste and smell of the milk from lactating does.  This warning comes from personal experience—a few years ago one of our dairy does ate an entire patch of wild onions.  Needless to say, no one wanted to drink her milk for a few days afterward.  Also, keep in mind that hair goats have the tendency to collect certain types of briers and vegetation in their coats if the area is very overgrown.  If this happens, you will need to brush and clean the goat to preserve its quality.  This can be a tiresome and difficult job if you have to complete it very often.

The Angora, Cashmere, Pygora, and Nigora are breeds of homestead goats bred especially for their hair production.  They are often favorites of homesteaders that like to produce their own creations—frequently these fiber artists use the hair for spinning, spindling, knitting, crocheting, weaving, tapestries, and other fiber arts.  It is also commonly used in constructing articles of clothing.  The Cashmere goat produces fine, soft wool that is considered one of the finest textile fibers in the world.  Cashmere goats are usually combed to collect their wool. Combing out a Cashmere goat can take up to a week to collect all the precious fibers.  The Cashmere goat grows its fiber only once a year, yielding only about 4 ounces of material.  The Angora goat (not to be confused with Angora rabbits) is sheared to collect their fibers.  The Angora hair is known as mohair, a long, curling, glossy fiber.  Angora goats are typically shorn twice a year, yielding an average of about 10 pounds.  Both the Pygora and Nigora are smaller breeds that are crossed with Angoras; their fiber type is essentially the same as that of the Angora.

The dairy goat is one of the most common types of goat associated with homesteading today.  Goat milk is naturally homogenized, which means the cream remains suspended in the milk, instead of rising to the top, such as cow’s milk.  An average dairy goat doe provides 3-4 quarts of milk a day and will milk for approximately 10 months; however, as lactation nears that tenth month the production rates will gradually drop off.  Goat’s milk is also used for cheesemaking on many farms and homesteads.  Cheese made from goat milk is known for its rather tart flavor; a characteristic that creates many people’s penchant for the taste.  Butter is another product that can be readily made from goat’s milk. It is important to note that it requires a little more effort to make butter from goat’s milk than it does from cow’s milk.  Again this has to do with the fact that the cream in goat milk remains suspended within the milk instead of rising to the top. The use of goat’s milk for drinking and making other dairy products is a great benefit for those who are lactose intolerant, as goat’s milk does not contain lactose, unlike cow milk.  Therefore, there are many individuals that can enjoy milk products when they would otherwise have to avoid dairy entirely.

Last but not least, goat’s milk can also be used in making homemade soap.  Goat’s milk is great for soap making; its qualities are very appealing to people as it has wonderful softening and moisturizing effects on skin.  These characteristics have made it a revered cosmetic ingredient for centuries, and especially popular for use on delicate or damaged skin.

The great part about these milk products is that all of them can be made on the homestead.  There are lots of recipes and directions for making these products available for free on the Internet.  All it takes is a little effort and the willingness to experiment with milk.  A couple of good dairy goat does can provide a lot of healthy and cost-saving benefits to a working homesteader.  The financial, nutritional, and all-around natural benefits make keeping some type of dairy goat a plus for most homesteads.

There are several dairy goat breeds to choose from that are readily available today; however the most popular and easiest to obtain are Saanans, Alpines, Nubians, Toggenburgs, Nigerian Dwarf, and La Manchas.  The milk types and production rates on these breeds vary somewhat, so be sure to check with a breeder before choosing which breed or breeds might best fit your milking plans.

On our homestead, we raise Boer meat goats primarily; however, we keep one to two dairy does in the herd.  The reason we choose to do this is simple: we enjoy the milk, plus it can be handy to have the extra milk if we need it for bottle feeding weak or orphaned kids.  We breed these dairy does to the Boer buck; it doesn’t matter to the does and the kids can then be used for meat or dairy. We have noticed that other animals on the homestead also seem to appreciate a good milk goat.  At milking time, a line forms near the milk stanchion and seams to wrap around the entire barnyard.  Cats are always the first in line, followed by the dogs and poultry.

Meat goats have grown exceedingly popular here in the U.S. in recent years.  The Boer breed is now the most common and the easiest to quickly identify in the United States.  Its white body with colored head makes it a visual stand out in pastures.  However, the Kiko and Spanish breeds are also becoming more commonplace and accessible.  Meat goats have a larger frame and thicker build than other types of goats. This is due to the fact that they are bred specifically for meat production and the build demonstrates that fact.

Goat meat is low in fat and is a nice tasting alternative to chicken and fish when looking for meat with lower fat levels.  Goats do not store fat within the meat, rather, the fat is separated with the skin at the time of processing.  This is what results in lower fat levels associated with the meat.  It also means that it is not similar to mutton in taste or smell, so for those of you who don’t like lamb, do not make the mistake of thinking that goat meat is the same thing as mutton.

Meat goats are a great choice for those wanting to raise their own meat while keeping their investment costs at a minimum.  The initial costs of goats are much less than cattle and goats require much less feed as well.  They also have the benefit of producing young twice a year compared to only once a year for cattle.  Goats are also ready to butcher at approximately 80 pounds on average, which a good meat goat is able to attain at 5-7 months of age.

We have approximately twenty-five head of meat does and we are never at a loss to sell kids.  We always have more calls for sales than we have kids available to sell.  When comparing cattle to homestead goats, our personal experience has proven that we have less invested in our goats than we do in cattle and that the goat return is a much higher overall percentage.

In recent years, goats have become a popular means of pack transport and have proven themselves to be as good as, or even better than, horses or mules for carrying baggage and equipment.  They are definitely more surefooted and user-friendly than horses, donkeys, or llamas.  Packs are loaded from above on a goat, so it’s not necessary to be able to lift loads high to place packs on them.  This can be a great help for people that might be handicapped in some way from lifting heavy loads into higher positions for the larger animals.  It also makes it a great and accessible hobby for children.  Add the fact that goats can be transported much easier than horses or donkeys and you begin to see the advantage that they can offer to the backpacker seeking assistance or companionship on the trail.

Goats can also be trained to drive and pull carts.  Not only has packing and cart driving become a rather varied hobby for homestead goat owners, it just helps to give another boost to the versatility of one of nature’s most diversified species of livestock.

Goats also make great companions; no matter the breed, goats are curious, personable animals that love attention.   Goats work well as companions for both people and animals.  It is a common practice to use goats as companions for all types of livestock that do not do well alone.  There are even many racehorses whose stall buddy is a goat.  Countless people love to watch and photograph their goats just for the antics that they pull on a daily basis.  We have one doe that, as a kid, would sit on the four-wheeler and ride around the farm with us.  It was great fun and quite a show for our visitors, as well.  Even today, she will still come up to the four-wheeler while the other goats run away from it.

Currently, the word diversity is preached endlessly to both the farmer and small homesteader.  It is generally understood that diversification has definite benefits when looking at what all we can do and produce ourselves, for less cost.  While many animals work well and have a defined purpose on the homestead, goats have most definitely proven themselves to have very diversified purposes, and deserve considerable consideration when choosing what types of livestock to purchase and raise.

The post Homestead Goats: The Diversified Farm Stock appeared first on Homestead.org.

The Darwin of Nutrition

Weston A. Price, known as the “Darwin of Nutrition”, was a dentist who wanted to understand the increase in degeneration he saw in his dental practice – crowded arches, cavities, crooked teeth.  So, he took to the field (a man after our own hearts).  He traveled to isolated pockets of people, the so-called “primitives” such as the Inuits, the Maori, South American Indians, the Gaelics of the Outer Hebrides, the Aborigines, and the Swiss in the Alpine villages.

On his travels, he found people who were relatively free of degenerative diseases and tooth decay.  They had straight teeth, strong bodies, easy reproduction, and emotional stability.  While living in such diverse locations, these healthy people shared one thing in common: a traditional diet.  A diet free of refined or denatured food and full of animal protein, saturated fats, and some raw animal products.  Once a group of people abandoned the traditional diet for a Western diet, the changes evident in one or two generations were stunning – crowded teeth, narrow faces, and the onset of “Western” diseases, including emotional ones.

Benefits of Raw Milk

Milk and dairy are some of the raw animal products consumed.  Here are some of the benefits of raw milk that you can think about as you milk the cow at 5 AM.  Raw milk contains:

• All twenty standard amino acids – a complete protein.
• Anti-microbial molecules such as Lactoferrin, Lysozyme, and lactoperoxidase.
• Lactic acid, which boosts the absorption of calcium, phosphorus, and iron and makes protein more digestible.
• CLA – an Omega 6 fatty acid that stokes metabolism, helps eliminate abdominal fat, increases muscle growth, reduces insulin resistance, boosts the immune system, decreases food allergy reactions, and has anticancer properties.
• All of the vitamins, including, of course, calcium.  It also contains the proper balance of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium for best absorption.
• Cholesterol; yes, we do need cholesterol, especially for the production of hormones.
• Beneficial bacteria suppress the harmful bacteria in the milk and in our guts.

Nearly fifty percent of the calories in raw milk are from butterfat.  Yum. Butterfat contains higher amounts of vitamins A and D, which are necessary for the assimilation of calcium and protein.  The fatty acids in butterfat also help to stimulate the immune system and contain lipids that prevent intestinal distress.

Raw milk doesn’t contain additives, unlike the coloring in typical butter, the bioengineered enzymes in mass cheese production, and the neurotoxic amino acids in skim milk.

The Problems with Commercial Milk

So what’s the big problem with typical commercial milk?  Here are the facts you can share with your well-meaning relatives who are appalled by the idea of drinking milk straight from the cow.  It’s a long list, so hold on.  Pasteurization kills enzymes, diminishes vitamins, denatures milk protein, destroys vitamins C, B12, and B6, kills good bacteria, promotes pathogens, leads to growth problems in children, and increases the likelihood of allergies, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.  Many calves that are fed pasteurized milk die before maturity.  Whew.  No wonder milk has been getting such a bad rap lately.  However, it’s the pasteurization and the homogenization that’s the real problem.

Homogenization has been linked to heart disease.  When fat globules are broken up mechanically, an enzyme known as xanthine oxidase is released and penetrates the intestinal walls.  Once xanthine oxidase reaches the bloodstream, it is capable of creating scar damage in the heart and arteries.  This, in turn, causes the body to release cholesterol into the blood in an attempt to cover the scar with fatty material.  Thus, the likelihood of arteriosclerosis developing.

Raw Milk Safety

The big issue the opponents of raw milk bring up is one of safety.  However, pasteurized milk is actually linked to higher numbers of illnesses than other regulated raw milk products.  There are four factors to look at when it comes to food safety: the health of the cows, feed, confinement, and collection.

Collection is an easy one to consider.  Some workers in commercial plants figure that the milk’s going to be pasteurized anyway and so they don’t have to be as stringent about sanitary rules.  Also, they’re not drinking it, so who cares?  Most small farmers and homesteaders know the importance of washing hands, washing udders, keeping the collection area and equipment clean, and refrigerating the milk soon after collection.

The care of the cows is a more complex issue in terms of safety and milk quality.  Cows fed mostly grains have higher levels of pathogenic bacteria in their milk.  It has been noted that pasture-raised, grass-fed cows live about 15 years and can birth 12 calves in that lifetime; however, cows fed soy meal live about six years and birth three calves.  Commercial cows are fed not only soy and grains but bakery waste, citrus peels laced with pesticides, and pellets with chicken manure in them.

Pesticides, estrogens, antibiotics, trans fats, and other toxins can all make their way into the milk.  The milk is only as healthy as the cow it came from.  On the other hand, cows fed a healthy diet of green grass supplemented with hay, silage, and root vegetables in the winter months, have milk with higher levels of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus, which in turn keep the bad bacteria, like E. Coli, in check.  For instance, the Swedes pasture-raise their cows and have no incidences of Salmonella in their milk.

Types of Cows, Types of Milk

So you’re convinced that raw milk is good for you (thank goodness, since you have that cow lowing in the field out there).  But it’s never as easy as you would think because not all milk, even raw milk, is considered equal.

Many people find that their milk allergies and intolerance vanish once they start drinking raw milk.  However, this isn’t always the case and some of this has to do with the breed of cows that are most common in the U.S.: the Holstein.  This is discussed in Dr. Keith Woodford’s book, The Devil’s in the Milk.

Milk is comprised of three parts: the fat, the whey, and the milk solids.  The milk solids contain different proteins, one of which is casein, and it’s the beta-casein that may cause problems.  Milk from old breed cows such as Jerseys and Asian and African cows (known as A2 cows) have the “original” form of beta-casein but new breeds (known as A1 cows), such as Holsteins, have a mutated version.

The “A1 milk” doesn’t bond as well with a small protein called BCM 7.  The problem with BCM 7 is that it is an opiate-like substance that may cause neurological problems, most notably, autistic and schizophrenic changes.  BCM 7 also interferes with the immune response and may increase the likelihood of Type 1 diabetes.  Dr. Woodford has shown a direct correlation between widespread consumption of A1 milk and the rise in type 1 diabetes, autism, schizophrenia, auto-immune disease, and heart disease.

It is interesting that the French have never accepted these A1 cows due to the belief that these cows produce inferior milk.

The good news is that the absorption of BCM 7 is lower in people with healthy digestive systems.  Also, BCM 7 is not found in goat’s or sheep’s milk.

There are some other arguments for choosing Jersey milk.  According to High Lawn Farm, Jersey milk is comprised of 18 percent more protein and 29 percent more milk fat when compared to the average of the other breeds.  Jersey milk also contains over 20 percent more calcium than other milks, more vitamins A and B1, and a higher percentage of riboflavin.  The nutrition found in a 9.64-ounce helping of Holstein milk can be obtained in an eight-ounce helping of Jersey milk.

The Alternative: Goat’s Milk

Goat’s milk has the advantage of being easier to digest; this is in part because the protein curds that are formed in the stomach are softer than that of cow’s milk.  This, in turn, makes digestion faster and easier.  Almost half the people who are lactose intolerant can drink goat’s milk.  In addition, goat’s milk contains only trace amounts of an allergenic casein protein, alpha-S1, which is found in cow’s milk.  Scientific research has not discovered a lower incidence of milk allergy with goat milk; however, many mothers would disagree and this may be another case where a mother’s wisdom and attention overrides the evidence of a laboratory.

Another advantage is that the medium-chain fatty acids in goat’s milk are believed to help with several diseases such as cystic fibrosis, gallstones, heart disease, and digestive problems.  Goat’s milk is comprised of 35 percent of these medium-chain fatty acids as compared to cow milk’s 17 percent.

The mineral content of goat’s milk and cow’s milk is generally similar; however, goat’s milk contains 13 percent more calcium, 25 percent more vitamin B-6, 47 percent more vitamin A (and the vitamin A is pre-formed, unlike cow’s milk which must be partially converted from carotenoids), 134 percent more potassium, and three times more niacin.  It is also four times higher in copper and contains 27 percent more of the antioxidant selenium than cow’s milk.  An eight-ounce serving of goat’s milk contains nine grams of protein as compared to eight ounces of protein in cow’s milk.  Cow’s milk contains five times as much vitamin B-12 as goat’s milk and ten times as much folic acid.  Since goat’s milk is lower in folic acid, it is usually fortified with folic acid when used in formula or as a milk substitute for children.

In the goat world, the Saanen is comparable to the Holstein in that it produces a high quantity of milk with a lower fat content.  On the other hand, the Jersey of the goat world is the Nubian, which produces less milk but with a higher fat content.  The LaMancha, Toggenburg, Alpine, and Oberhasli fall in between the two extremes.

Law Regarding Raw Milk

Sales of raw milk are allowed in twenty-eight of the fifty states.  In another five states, raw milk may be sold for “pet consumption”.  In some of these states, there are laws under consideration that would require all “pet milk” to be treated with a charcoal dye so that humans will be sure not to drink it.

In some of the remaining states, such as Colorado, Wisconsin, and Virginia, raw milk is available by “cow sharing”.  Cow sharing or “herd sharing” is when a group pays a farmer fees for maintaining and milking a cow and then picks up the milk from the “shared cow” but does not pay for the milk itself.  If cow sharing is not allowed, some people have organized “farm sharing” in which a group of people buy non-voting shares in a farm and can obtain milk from the farm in which they own shares.

Obviously, there are other benefits to be had from consuming raw milk.  Raw milk bequeaths a myriad of health benefits but it also makes greater economic and environmental sense.  Drinking raw milk may be your best economic option because you already have the animal; however, even if you have to purchase your raw milk, you support a small farmer and help him or her maintain their lifestyle.  Raw milk is also the best environmental choice because a small dairy production allows for a “mixed-use” farm, which is the most in sync with nature.  So, if you already have your dairy animal(s), congratulate yourself on (yet another) wise decision.  If not, consider supporting a local farmer and buying raw milk and raw milk products.  And if you are banned from buying raw milk, fight for your Constitutional right.

You can find more at: realmilk.com and raw-milk-facts.com.

The post Got (Raw) Milk? appeared first on Homestead.org.

In fact, it’s the most natural thing in the world to take it another step, fence in that yard, put up a shed, and go shopping for The Dairy Goat.

The first thing to consider is that goats are herd animals and if you get one, it WILL get out of the pen trying to find company.  I recommend a minimum of two goats.

Your fence will need to be goat-proof, and unfortunately, they haven’t invented one of those yet.  Wood fences are sturdy, but baby goats can slip out and coyotes can slip in.  Wire fences can/will be bent over by your goats standing up on them reaching for whatever tiny leaf may be on the other side that looks more appealing than the million leaves on the inside.  Barbed wire is just a nightmare waiting to happen.  Electric will be bumped into systematically (accompanied by goat curses) till it breaks.  The most effective fence I’ve found is the 16′ cattle panels with the graduated spacing, narrower on the bottom than the top.  These are non-bendable, quick to go up, and the only drawback is that if your goats have horns, they can get their heads stuck in the upper spaces if they are not careful/smart, so plan on your goats getting stuck now and again.

Goats must have shelter.  The worst fate in the world to a goat is to be wet.  If it’s raining and the food is outside, they won’t eat.  A three-sided shed with the open end facing south is perfect for them.

Now just add goats.

This can involve months of research into different breeds and bloodlines, contacting a breeder, waiting for a baby, taking delivery of said baby, raising that baby to adulthood, and doing MORE research to find the right Billy for your precious nanny, sometimes carrying her far afield for the perfect match.

Or, you can answer the ad in the Thrifty Nickel that reads “Free Goat, heavy bred”.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies.  If you are interested in breeding show goats and getting top dollar for babies, go with the first scenario.  If you just want yard goats for personal use and pleasure, the second route is fine.  After years of being in the world of “pedigreed” animals, I’ve come to the conclusion that a good crossbred anything is just as serviceable as the purebreds, and though my goat herd is currently all purebred Nubians, they are not registered, and when I find a buck to cross back to my buck’s daughters, it most likely will not be a Nubian.

Of utmost importance, for the small-scale homesteader is the health history of your goats.  Have they been tested for Tuberculosis (TB) or do they come from a TB-free herd?

Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis (CAE)  is common in some areas and although the milk is fine for human consumption, you must pasteurize it before feeding to any goat babies or they may die.  Any carriers of CAE can develop life-threatening arthritis.

All that said, you have your pen, your shelter, your goats, and their brand new kids.

Now what?

You need to decide if you will bottle-raise those babies, or let Mom do it.  Again, it’s purely personal—there is no right or wrong answer.

Bottle raising will give you goats so tame they will follow you through fire (just don’t ask them to follow you through water).  It is time-intensive as those babies are just that, babies, who will need a bottle every six hours for the first few weeks.  Add to that milking twice daily to get those bottles and you have a very busy schedule for a while.  Of course there is NOTHING in the world cuter than a baby goat, so to most folks it’s a small price to pay.  This is also the way to go if you are planning on a larger-scale milk usage (commercial soap making for example) where you need your girls producing at full capacity for an extended period of time.  (nine to ten months).

Letting your mother goat raise her babies is much less time consuming, with a corresponding lower production.  For my first years as a goat-keeper, I would leave the babies with their mothers and milk twice a day.  Sometimes I’d get a lot of milk, sometimes not a drop, depending on when the babies last ate.  I’d wean the babies at three months, and continue milking twice daily.  My goats would produce milk for about six months.

In my old age and slothfulness, now I totally ignore mother and babies for three months, then wean the babies and start to milk in the mornings only.  A lot of this has to do with being in Texas as opposed to Wisconsin.  Down here it’s just too dang hot to be up under a goat in the heat of the day at 5 or 6 pm.  My girls produce milk for about three months.  Since they are bred randomly year-round, I usually have someone in milk, and since they are pregnant for five months, that gives them a few months rest before more babies hit the ground.

There are people who will tell you that if you let the mothers raise the babies you will have a whole herd of goats wild as deer.  This is partly true.  My goats who are not bottle-fed are curious, but not pushy.  They are harder to catch, but once caught generally give up and stand there instead of trying to run you down.  As a rule, I like them better to work around on a daily basis.  I have noticed very distinct differences in my bloodlines: Alice was bottle-fed and so is tame, but all her non-bottle-fed babies are wild.  Wilma was bottle-fed and so is tame, but her non-bottle-fed babies are almost as tame as she is.  I am concentrating on keeping more of Wilma’s babies and less of Alice’s (duh).

Feeding your goats properly is also of paramount importance if you will be drinking the milk.  Anything that goes into your goat will flavor the milk.  Period.  Therefore, the blander a diet your goat receives, the less of a “tang” the milk will have.  Bland does NOT mean low nutrition.  Your goat needs enough protein and fat to produce milk on an ongoing basis.  A good NON medicated (unless you require daily worming) goat food (I feed an All purpose Livestock pellet) along with some sweet feed (9%) along with really high-quality hay twice daily is a must.

Man, all that research and hard work to get your goats and their babies here has made you thirsty.

Got milk?

In the movies and the pictures in homesteading books, the Goat-herder strolls into the milk-house early in the morning; birds singing, sun just peeking over the horizon.  She is carrying her milk stool and her milking bucket.  At the quaint Dutch door of the immaculate barn, she calls her goat, who comes daintily dancing into the barn to the sound of distant bells ringing.  A rosy glow infuses the milk-house as the Goat-herder gently places her stool next to the goat, who stands still as carved granite with a little goat smile on her face.  The milk-house is filled with the sound of warm fresh milk hissing rhythmically into the bucket.  After a few peaceful minutes, the Goat-herder lifts the bucket and pats the goat on the side.  The goat gives an affectionate little “mmmaaa”, and dances back out the door, which is quietly shut by clean little mice who wear tiny t-shirts (like on Cinderella).

This is an accurate portrayal, with the exception of the birds, sun, bells, glow, peace, and smiling well-behaved goat.  The little mice really exist, or at least you will be positive that you see them as you careen out of the barn, covered in sweat and mosquito bites, hay in your hair, hair in your milk, milk most everywhere but the bucket, and the sound of laughter (the goat’s) ringing in your ears.

Actually, these are both correct, depending on the day.

The first thing to learn is that goats are particular.  They only like ONE person milking them, always and forever.  I don’t care if your son/daughter/husband feeds the goats every day, if you are the one milking, anyone else will be in for a Goat Rodeo lasting much more than 8 seconds, and resulting in at least as much bruising on the part of the human.  This is something you need to be prepared for too, until you and your goat have an “understanding”.

This understanding must be reached every year when you start to milk.  Since we are humans, equipped with large brains and opposable thumbs, we have the power of superior thought processes and leverage tools on our side.  Thus the playing field is made somewhat more even.

To milk a goat, you need somewhere secure and clean to do the actual milking.  This can be as elaborate as a separate “milk house” with little stanchions that hold the goat’s head secure while you milk, to just tying the goat into a corner and kneeling next to her (what I do).

You need something to wash the udder with (all-natural “wet ones” are fine, or you can buy Udder Wipes from a milk supply place), and something to milk into (a large pot is fine.  I splurged 2 years ago and got a lovely stainless steel bucket)

You will need your equipment set up for straining the milk (a metal colander lined with a Bounty paper towel—it MUST be Bounty, everything else will not drain fast enough and you will have a big mess—or a milk strainer from the afore-mentioned goat supply place) a metal or glass bowl big enough to hold your strainer, container for milk, and pasteurizer, if you will be pasteurizing.

You will need a feed bucket and roughly 50 pounds of sweet feed, for currency.

Until you and your goat have an “understanding”, you will need the help of the biggest and most patient family member you have.

Have all your equipment clean and in place, including washing your hands well, gird your loins (not kidding) and proceed with your backup muscle and a bucket of sweet feed to the goat pen.

Since most goats are chowhounds, getting the goat to the tie-up is not a problem.  Fighting your way through ALL the goats eager for a snack of sweet feed and getting only one goat is your first chore.  Your clean hands are now dirty.

Once your goat is tied and eating happily, wash her udder.  This may or may not be problematic.  Most goats don’t care.  Some will be offended by the invasion of personal space and handily kick the wipe from your hands, never missing a beat in chewing the grain.  Repeat till the goat’s udder is at least as clean as your hands.

Here’s where your muscle comes in.

With one hand on the bucket (for quickly yanking out from under the goat), place the bucket under the goat and start milking.

Several things can happen here.

a) your goat will continue to eat, making no never-mind to you.  If this is the case, say a silent prayer of thanks, try to keep the tears of joy from getting into the milk, but milk one-handed for the first few times to make sure the goat is not lulling you into a false sense of security, only to neatly stomp her foot into your almost-full bucket (again, not missing any food).

b) your goat will kick slightly, but settle down after a stern word or two.  I still milk one-handed for a bit, just to make sure.

c) your goat responds by wildly jerking her head up with a look of horrified indignance, rolls her eyeballs, sends the bucket flying across the barn with a swift kick, and swing smartly around, knocking you to the ground.

MOST of the time, you will be looking at “b”, and the mere presence of an extra person is enough to convince a wise goat that she is indeed outnumbered and eating the sweet feed is payment enough for your stealing her milk.

If you are faced with a “c” situation, this just takes a little longer to resolve.  Shorten the lead rope, and have your helper hold the goat’s hindquarters against the wall while you milk.  In some cases, I have had goats so wildly opposed to being milked, that they fight both of us.  The important thing with goats (as with horses and children) is that you end all encounters on a good note.  I have even cringed and milked really wild goats onto the ground, avoiding the bucket till they settle down some, just so they know that they WILL be milked, and it will NOT kill them (or me).  Food is always there, and I always tell them how good they are and thank them when finished, but they ARE milked.  I’ve not had one go longer than a week before settling down to eating as soon as I tie them, and ignoring me while milking.

Milking technique is important.  The number one mistake I see people make is PULLING on the teats.  You do NOT pull on the teats.  You gently squeeze the teats just enough to get the milk, keeping your hand snug against the udder.  Watch your wrists.  They should not move.  Rough milking causes mastitis, flakes in the milk, blood in the milk, and makes for a very crabby goat (understandably, think about it).  Once the milk flow lessens, gently rub the whole udder, then milk again, until you are getting hardly any.  You will not get ALL the milk, but you can get most of it.  Milk is produced in a “supply and demand” fashion, so the more milk you take, the more she will make (assuming her diet is what it should be).

Once you and your goat have a routine, the entire milking process—from tying the goat to straining the milk—should take about fifteen minutes.  Actual milking time will be about five minutes per goat.

Your milk should be strained and refrigerated (or pasturized and then refrigerated) immediately upon finishing milking and washing your hands.  All equipment should be washed and dried and put up for the next milking.  Leaving wash-up for later will cause milk “residue” to form on your equipment (yicky).

I once described the processes involved in milking to my banker at his request.  He looked at me quizzically for a moment, then said, “You know they SELL milk at the grocery store”.

You either Get It, or you don’t.

We who are doing “all this mess” are NOT crazy.  We are feeding our families (at least partly) with good healthy food that we ourselves have produced.

We have veggie gardens for veggies.

We have chickens for eggs, meat, garden fertilizer, and bug control.

We have dairy goats for milk, cheese, ice-cream, yogurt, soap, lotion, meat, and fertilizer.

It’s all a Circle of Life thing, and we are a part of it, not mere consumers or spectators.

On a steamy summer morning, with the flies already biting, the sweat pouring down your nose, your goat clearly not amused, and visions of row upon row of chilled milk gallons at the air-conditioned Wal-Mart, it can be hard.

But on a brisk pre-dawn winter morning, with your goat happily munching and your ear resting against her warm furry side, it’s so quiet you can hear her tummy gurgling.  You glance up at your home, one light on in the kitchen.  Your family is inside, still sleeping or just waking up.  You can smell the coffee over the good smell of clean, healthy livestock and hay.

And the little mice in t-shirts smile and wink.

Starting a Micro-Creamery on the Homestead

Goat Kidding Season — It’s No Joke

The post Raising Dairy Goats: Personality and Ice Cream on the Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

There are many reasons a lamb may become a bottle lamb.  Its mother may have died giving birth, or the lamb may have been rejected at birth by a mother drawn more to the other siblings.  Some lambs become bottle lambs after the first few days of their life simply because their mothers are unable to produce enough milk, perhaps because she has given birth to two or more lambs, perhaps because half of her udder is non-productive.  Then there are the young ewe lambs giving birth for the first time, who may simply have no idea about motherhood and walk away from their young.  The bottle lambs that have never suckled at the nipple have not received colostrum from the mother and, during the first 24 hours of their lives, they have special needs beyond just milk.  Colostrum is the thin yellowish fluid secreted by the mammary glands at the time of parturition that is rich in antibodies and minerals, preceding the production of true milk.  Newborn lambs, even those destined for bottles, must have colostrum to survive and flourish.

Whatever the reason for the lamb needing to be bottle-fed to survive, most shepherds have a strong motivation to keep these young lambs alive.  We keep sheep in order, we hope, to make money each year.  We raise meat lambs.  Everything born here is destined for the meat market, except our breeding stock and any ewe lambs that we consider good enough to include in our herd.  In order to get them to market, they first have to survive.

There is no certainty in sheep, other than the fact that we will sell all saleable lambs at a certain age and/or weight.  There are no guarantees with sheep either, no guarantee that each year will be profitable, no guarantee that each ewe will produce two healthy lambs.  In fact, it sometimes seems as if sheep need no excuse to just lay down and die.  No sane person would invest their time, energy, and money into something as unpredictable as sheep without accepting the uncertainties involved.  Well, I suppose there is one certainty: no one will ever get rich by raising just a few sheep.

Each year we hope that our 35 ewes will produce seventy lambs fit for market, and each year we are happy if there are more than 35 lambs.  We aim at 200% production, but reality is sometimes closer to 100%.  These figures are based on the expectation that each ewe will produce at least two lambs.  One of the things we do to help the ewes fulfill this expectation is to increase the protein content of their diet for approximately two weeks before exposing them to the buck.  Depending on the summer grazing conditions, this can be done by moving them to a new lush pasture, or by supplementing their graze with grain.  This is called “flushing” and encourages the ewe to release more eggs during estrus.

Lambing is a busy time and there comes a point in any flock where the size of the flock determines whether the shepherd has the resources to invest in keeping bottle lambs.  For us, with a small flock, every lamb that we can keep alive is worth it.  We have the time and energy to invest in individual lambs, a shepherd with a much larger flock of ewes may not.  From birth to weaning, a bottle lamb uses approximately one 25 lb. bag of milk replacer, which costs $30.00 at our local grain elevator.  Even if we had a dairy goat to eliminate the need for bagged milk replacer, the cost of feeding a goat would have to be balanced against the price a lamb brings at market.  Financially, while it is prudent to keep bottle lambs, time and energy are usually what prevent the shepherd of a larger flock from raising them.  They are often able to sell or give bottle lambs to people wanting one for their children to raise, or to people like us, who can just include them with our own bottle lambs.

Many people in this area like to lamb as early as possible in the year, many plan to start lambing as early as Christmas.  Their reason is the price of feeder lambs at market.  This price fluctuates between March and August, with the highest prices seemingly in early March when there is a shortage of lambs.  I say “seemingly” because there are just no guarantees with sheep.  Everyone seems to try to be first to market and have their feeder lambs sold before the price drops, as it usually does.  We have found that prices also seem to go up again when there is a shortage of lambs at the end of this early season.  This is far more interesting to us because lambing in January brings extra hidden, but very real, costs.  Heating lamps are essential to the lambs born in January in these northern climates.  After weaning, lambs will need a longer period on hay and grain, as grass does not grow as early as March in South Dakota.  These hidden costs have persuaded us that the few extra cents on the pound in March do not compensate for the losses or extra costs, and that the gamble on prices rising in August is one worth taking.  The biggest concern is that ewes giving birth to two or more lambs in the middle of winter are more likely to need assistance with raising their lambs.  Winter conditions seem to produce more bottle lambs and this cost eats into any profits.

We try not to interfere too soon, preferring that the ewe has every chance of raising her own offspring.  When it does become obvious that the lamb is going to need help to survive, we bring the lambs into the kitchen, where we have a specially prepared pen made of hog panel cut-offs, measuring approximately 4ftx4ft. Usually, on being brought into the house they are in a sad state.  They are already suffering from hypothermia and often dehydration, as well.  Our black lab will lick them, simulating the ewe’s own method of encouraging the lambs to become active, and as she does this we will prepare warm milk replacer.  The quickest way to raise its core temperature is to get some warm food into the lamb.  Many authorities will state that, as newborn lambs have no body fat, it is recommended that 8oz of milk be fed as soon as possible.  We have found that with seriously traumatized lambs, feeding any more than 2oz at that point risks the lamb going into shock, so we tube-feed 2oz once (a newborn lamb will have colostrum replacement mixed into this 2oz measure).  We then concentrate on warming the lamb up in other ways.  A warm bath, a vigorous rubbing with a bath towel, even a warm finger in its mouth till it starts sucking and will take more warm milk by the normal method, are all methods we will employ to bring a lamb to a more conscious state.  Many of our lambs have even joined us for a nap on the couch so that they can benefit from our own body heat.  You know when they are warmed up sufficiently when you wake to a lamb nibbling on your chin trying to suckle!

We try to intubate as few lambs as possible, preferring to take the time to teach them to suck from a bottle.  We use pop bottles which easily take a nipple specifically sized for a lamb’s mouth.  Lambs that have been nursing on the ewe for several days usually have issues with suddenly sucking from a rubber nipple, but we do try to teach them, even if we have to intubate to ensure sufficient nourishment.  Once the lambs are used to the rubber nipples, we progress to a bucket which has nipples around the bottom.  These nipples are a special type of unit that includes a ballcock so that there are no leaks.   We try to do this as soon as possible so that they can feed themselves, a far more natural process, but also one that decreases the labor required and brings them closer to the day they can return to the barn.  Here I have to mention another disadvantage to lambing in January, milking buckets in the barn will result in the milk in the nipples freezing.  Lambs that have already suffered from hypothermia are more likely to succumb again, and it is prudent to wait until the lambs have a healthy fat layer to protect them.  This means January lambs will live in our kitchen at least a couple of weeks longer than those born in April.

There are obvious disadvantages to raising livestock, especially very young livestock, in your kitchen!  While the indoor pen is in use, a permanent feature in our kitchen is a mop and bucket.  Though we use absorbent mats in the pen, the mats need changing and laundering frequently.  I have seen no other animal that, for its size, produces so much urine!  There is also an added incentive to reading the directions on the milk replacer bag, no one wants a lamb with loose bowels because of having ingested a mixture too rich for his system.  Enough said on this topic, I’m sure.

We name each of our bottle lambs, as it makes it more convenient to keep track of what each has received and how each is doing.  The first male bottle lamb is traditionally named Fred, and, so far, the Freds always seem to do well.  Fred usually gets spoiled, too.  As they are herd animals, they benefit from social interaction, so, until Fred gets company, he will join us to watch TV on the couch and run freely around the kitchen when we are in there to supervise.  Once he gets company, this stops!  It is not amusing to watch six bottle lambs scamper over the couch, each stopping only to leave a mess while your attention is diverted by another.

As early as one week old, a lamb will show interest in nibbling at hay and corn, given the opportunity.  This natural progression is important in any lamb’s development, whether it be a bottle lamb or one being raised by its mother.  We make small amounts of both available in the kitchen using dog feeders.  A ewe will start weaning her offspring between a month and six weeks of age, with a bottle lamb we will try to aim at that same goal.  During this process, we will keep a keen eye on the bottle lambs to ensure no further setbacks in the lamb’s growth and development.  Milk replacer for lambs is more expensive than grain or hay, but losing a bottle lamb as a result of early weaning is a complete waste of effort and money.  Bottle lambs have usually returned to the barn by the age of two weeks (regardless of the state of our sanity!) and their weaning is accomplished by gradually reducing the number of milk feedings.

Each year we build a creep pen in the barn.  This is a small pen to which only lambs have access.  In this pen, they have free access to both corn and hay without competition from the mature sheep.  We also feed our bottle lambs their milk in this pen so that they gradually become part of the flock. We hang heat lamps in the creep pen to encourage all lambs to use it.  In a remarkably short time, the only way to recognize the bottle lambs is by their response to a milk bucket.  Reaching this point is our goal and marks our success in raising bottle lambs.

Apart from time and effort, the only real investment in a bottle lamb is that one bag of milk replacer, which costs approximately $30.  Each bottle lamb will proproduce much urine!  There is also an added incentive to reading the directions on the milk replacer bag, no one wants a lamb with loose bowels because of having ingested a mixture too rich for his system.  Enough said on this topic, I’m sure.

We name each of our bottle lambs, as it makes it more convenient to keep track of what each has received and how each is doing.  The first male bottle lamb is traditionally named Fred, and, so far, the Freds always seem to do well.  Fred usually gets spoiled, too.  As they are herd animals, they benefit from social interaction, so, until Fred gets company, he will join us to watch TV on the couch and run freely around the kitchen when we are in there to supervise.  Once he gets company, this stops!  It is not amusing to watch six bottle lambs scamper over the couch, each stopping only to leave a mess while your attention is diverted by another.

As early as one week old, a lamb will show interest in nibbling at hay and corn, given the opportunity.  This natural progression is important in any lamb’s development, whether it be a bottle lamb or one being raised by its mother.  We make small amounts of both available in the kitchen using dog feeders.  A ewe will start weaning her offspring between a month and six weeks of age, with a bottle lamb we will try to aim at that same goal.  During this process, we will keep a keen eye on the bottle lambs to ensure no further setbacks in the lamb’s growth and development.  Milk replacer for lambs is more expensive than grain or hay, but losing a bottle lamb as a result of early weaning is a complete waste of effort and money.  Bottle lambs have usually returned to the barn by the age of two weeks (regardless of the state of our sanity!) and their weaning is accomplished by gradually reducing the number of milk feedings.

Each year we build a creep pen in the barn.  This is a small pen to which only lambs have access.  In this pen, they have free access to both corn and hay without competition from the mature sheep.  We also feed our bottle lambs their milk in this pen so that they gradually become part of the flock. We hang heat lamps in the creep pen to encourage all lambs to use it.  In a remarkably short time, the only way to recognize the bottle lambs is by their response to a milk bucket.  Reaching this point is our goal and marks our success in raising bottle lambs.

Apart from time and effort, the only real investment in a bottle lamb is that one bag of milk replacer, which costs approximately $30.  Each bottle lamb will require one bag to reach weaning age.  If we had a dairy goat (which we will next year), only one goat would be needed to feed all our bottle lambs.  The expense of feeding that one goat would be far less than the cost of just two bags of milk replacer.  It is perhaps a thought for those who keep dairy goats, but not sheep, to relieve local shepherds of their bottle lambs and raise those lambs for market with no extra financial investment.  A feeder lamb at market weight (70-90 lbs) can bring more than $1.25 per pound, if marketed at the right time.  It can also be a wonderful opportunity for a child to not only learn responsibility but also to reap the financial rewards of raising their own livestock without the burden of a flock of sheep.  It is worth considering.

The post Bottle Lambs: Reality vs. the Cute Factor appeared first on Homestead.org.

In fact, your creamery can utilize a small herd of cows, sheep, goats, water buffalo or even camels.  For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on goats.  Water buffalo and camels are not very practical for the average homestead in North America.  Because goats require less space and care than cattle, and produce double the amount of milk as sheep, they are the focus of this article.  However, much of the information can be applied to other dairy animals.

Before you build, market, or milk, you need to decide what your creamery is going to offer.  The best way to do this is with a homestead business plan.  Start with your desired end result and work your way backward to figure out where you need to begin, and the logical steps you will need to take to grow.  Once you decide what your end result will look like, you can research the legal requirements you will have to meet.

Know the Laws for Dairy in Your State

It is important to understand the legal requirements regarding dairy and dairy products are not merely suggestions.  It is imperative that you adhere to the laws of your state. Because each state is different, it is difficult to find all you need to know online.  The best way to make sure you are in compliance is to make an appointment at your local USDA office or farm bureau.  The people who work in those offices are there to support small producers and are always very excited when they are able to help a small farm succeed in a new farming venture.

Have in mind a list of questions to ask your ag department at your appointment.  First, ask if your state allows the sale of raw milk.  Currently, thirty-two states allow raw milk sales, but they differ in the way in which you can sell the milk.  That is your second question: How can you sell your milk?  Some states allow you to sell raw milk directly from the farm, at farmers markets and through a CSA or by delivery.  Some farmers offer a goat-share program, where customers purchase a “share” of the herd and receive raw milk in return.

You also need to find out what type of container you are permitted to sell the milk in and what the labeling requirements are.

Getting Licensed as a Grade A Dairy

If your end goal is to sell dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, kefir, and ice cream, or pasteurized milk, your facility needs to be licensed as a Grade A dairy.

Getting licensed as a Grade A dairy requires even stricter adherence to state and federal legal requirements.  There are building codes and equipment standards, as well as paperwork and fees that must be filed correctly and paid in a timely manner.  Inspectors will need access to your facility for both scheduled and unannounced inspections.  Your local Department of Agriculture is an invaluable resource when you are navigating the licensing regulations.  Before meeting with them to discuss the steps you need to take become familiar with the minimum standards and regulations by downloading a copy of Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance.

Bringing Home Your Dairy Goats

Once you believe you can adhere to your legal obligations, it is time to think about purchasing your dairy animals.  Goats are friendly creatures to have on the homestead and are a good choice for homesteaders with children.  As long as they are handled regularly, they remain gentle and relatively easy to train to come when you call.  Contrary to popular belief, they will not eat tin cans, yard art, or clothes hanging on the line, but they are curious and they do need an enclosed area.  The best fencing for goats is a portable, electrified woven-wire.  Because the fencing is portable, you are able to save time and money with rotational grazing on pasture.

Other than adequate fencing, goats—like every other grazing animal—need fresh air, sunlight, adequate forage, fresh water and shelter from the elements.  Goats are a herd animal, so you need more than one.  One person can manage, milk, and make cheese from ten goats, leaving enough time for all of the other responsibilities of running a homestead.

There are four things to consider when you are contemplating the type of shelter you will provide your herd.  First, the shelter needs to be adequately ventilated.  Proper ventilation will decrease the smell, flies, and illnesses that occur in a tightly closed area.  Goats are not fussy about their housing.  They mainly need a structure that will allow them a place to come in out of the rain or snow.

The second thing their shelter should provide is a bedded area that is dry and clean.  The deep-bedding system works well and is easily composted when you muck the bedded area.  If you smell ammonia when you walk into their shelter, you need to add more bedding.  A dry, clean area also cuts down on certain illnesses, including mastitis for lactating does.

Third, make sure your feeders and waterers are located in an area that is easy for you to service and does not allow for the possibility of contamination from animal wastes.

Finally, the shelter should be arranged with your needs in mind.  An efficient arrangement will minimize the amount of labor and time you will expend caring for your herd and keeping the facility clean.

Your milking area should be separate from the stable area.  You can milk the goats at ground level, but it is much more efficient and easier on you if you build a milking platform that is 15-18” higher than the ground.

Ensuring High-Quality Milk Production

Of course, does do not lactate until they have had kids.  That makes your breeding program an integral part of developing a successful micro-creamery.  Although does are able to breed as early as five months of age, it is best for the health of the doe and the lifelong milk- and meat-production of the herd, if you manage young does, to breed around seven months of age.  Goats have a gestation period of approximately five months, so you should stagger pregnancies over as wide a time span as possible in order to have a year-round supply of milk.

The success of kidding greatly affects the amount and quality of the milk produced.  To learn more about preparing for kidding season, see Goat Kidding Season — It’s No Joke.

Allow the does to nurse their kids on demand for three weeks.  After the third week, milk the does in the morning and allow the kids to nurse the remaining of the day.  At six weeks, milk the does twice a day.  Kids should be completely weaned at eight weeks and the does will continue to produce milk as long as you maintain a milking schedule.  To maintain high milk-production does need quality forages and supplemental grain at a rate of one pound feed per 3 pounds of milk.   The dietary energy provided by supplemental grains positively affects the yield, while the protein and fiber found in forages positively affect the quality of the milk.

Milking Your Goats

Thoroughly clean your hands, the milking area, and milking equipment before milking.  Prepare your goats before each milking with the dip, strip, and wipe technique to prevent high bacteria counts in your milk.  This begins with a teat dip, followed by squirting the initial stream of milk into a strip cup, and then wiping the udder to make sure it is clean.  Check the strip cup for any clumping, curdling, or off-smelling milk.

The milk must be chilled to 50 degrees Fahrenheit immediately upon milking.  The best way to do this is to pour the milk in a sterile container and place that container into a container of ice-water in the refrigerator.  Bacteria present in the milk multiplies rapidly unless chilled, so this step is extremely important for your creamery.

Not Ready to Start a Micro-Creamery?

If you are interested in working with dairy goats, but are not sure you want to start a full-fledged creamery at this point, there are other products you can make with goat milk that are under no legal vendor requirements.  These include soaps, lotions, caramel preserves, and candies. (Learn how to make milk soap here.)

If you are searching for ways to diversify your homestead and add to your bottom line, all while contributing to your local, sustainable food system, a micro-creamery might be for you.

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