i know how to get the milk out of the cow.what do i do now?

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hi we've decided to wean our calf and i would like to start milking our cow. soooo i have lots of questions.i know how to get the milk out.( my questions are) what do i clean the teats with before milking?also the milk pail?how do i pasturise? how about if someone just tells me what to do so the milk is safe for my family? also what to do with the stuff i get from the milk?we would like milk without a real high fat content. my family is use to 2% store bought. the way i see it we have the cow and i have the time so why not try it!does fresh milk taste alot different than store baught? thanks for all your help in advance. cindy

-- cindy young (cin_sue63@webtv.net), October 23, 2000

Answers

Cindy, wow you have a lot of questions :o). Butterfat content varies from cow to cow but if you are used to drinking 2% milk you will need to skim a lot of the cream off (if you don't skim the cream lets just say I hope you have more than one bathroom in your house :o). The easiest way is after the milk has set in the refrigerator for about 12 hours most of the cream has risen. Take a turkey baster and suck the cream out of the jug. I've tried a lot of different ways and this is the easiest I've found. To clean the teats before milking I would carry a bucket of warm water with some bleach in it to the milking shed and wash the udder really well and then dry with a paper towel. They sell udder wash and I have used it but I got to where I just used bleach (make sure it is clorox and not a cheapy bleach). For keeping the milk pail sanitary I did buy special detergent. I bought it through caprine supply (goat supply) and I'm sure they have a web site that will tell you all you need to know on what to use. When I first started milking I used a pasturizer because I was terrified my family would get sick. Now I know a bit more and I take my cow in and have her checked out by the vet every year to make sure she is healthy and I no longer pasturize. Now I do keep my cow to herself and she has very little contact with other cows (not as likely to pick up things that way). If you want to pasturize the easiest way is to buy a pasturizing machine (I still have mine if you are interested in it..lol). It will do the job for you automatically. Fresh milk does taste different from store bought milk, the difference is it is fresh! Tastes better but is different. Your family might bawk a bit because it isn't homogenized (cream constantly rises to the top). I always use the day befores milk so it is good and fresh for drinking. I use 2 day old milk for cheese. 4 day old milk gets clabbered and fed to the chickens or pigs. Before I started drinking the milk from any cow I would make sure she in good health and disease free. I don't know if you know how to check for mastitis or not so I'll give you a breif discription. You may have heard of using strip cups to check for mastitis. To me that is one more thing littering up the barn. When I worked on a small family dairy they taught me to check for mastitis by squirting the first few streams carefully across my flat palm. Look for solid specks or strings. To me it shows up just as well in your palm as in a strip cup....better actually. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), October 24, 2000.

We wash our cow's teats with a little soapy water. Give a squirt or two into a cup and look at the milk for stringy, translucent lumps. That could indicate a problem, you shouldn't get nervous about a few lumps, only when they're kind of stringy. Milk into a clean stainless steel pail; you can get a cleansing solution like "klenzade" or you can scub the pail with dish detergent and rinse with scalding hot water.

When you bring the milk in the house, you are going to want to filter it before you chill it. Before I got more specialized equipment, I simply lined a collander with BOUNTY (they are the only brand I've found that the milk will pour through) paper towels and put it over a pot and poured the milk through it. I'd empty the pot into clean glass gallon jars and repeat the process until it the milk was all poured. If I didn't have paper towels, I used cloth baby diapers (never used by baby of course) to pour through.

I put the jars in the refrigerator (during winter I chill them in a snow bank) and ladle the cream out the next day before using. I don't bother to pasturize my milk and my family of seven, including two babies, are all doing well on it.

As far as what to do with all the other "stuff" there's plenty you can do, whipped cream, butter, cheese, feed pigs, chickens, trade and barter, or make paint out of all those leftover gallons you may discover are taking over your refrigerator.

Hope this helps, or you can email me if you have any other questions.

-- Anne Tower (bbill@wtvl.net), October 26, 2000.


Cindy, just wondering -- if your cow has been nursing her calf all this time, has she ever been hand-milked? You may find that initially she won't want to let her milk down for you, if she's been only having to let it down for the calf. Hope this works out -- let us know!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 27, 2000.

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