Milk Goat - crash course needed!

[Wildsky]

What is it about kids who don't grow up around animals? I think that's just one more reason to raise a family on a farm. Children who are exposed to animals are just... more caring, respectful and ..... better balanced. I have had boy scouts, friends and neighbors over. Never fail they chase the chickens, swing sticks at them and think it's ok.

Most of the time my kids are indifferent to the birds. They are just part of the landscape. But yet appreciate and help tend them.

It's interesting.

g

I think it is so important for a child to learn to take care of some other living thing, it makes them less selfish and more able to understand how other animals and people feel, it makes them more compasionate in my opinion.


That said, many folks around here are on farms, but the animals are not treated as pets or living beings, they're more a "thing" - the kids that were here yesterday compete in rodeo's and things like that, they can handle animals fine, I just don't think they do so with compasion and understanding.


On the plus side, we got a little bit more milk this morning than last nights milking. I had my son lead Molly on the rope to the garage to be milked and back to the pasture, she pulled him all the way he'll get used to controlling her, she's very pushy but not mean.

 

[Wildsky]

The feed store had no beet pulp, I don't remember ever seeing it there myself.

However my hubby spent a small fortune on some chopped premium alfalfa, and sweet feed.
I put two handfuls of the hay, a cup of sweet feed and a handful of scratch and mixed it altogether.

It kept Molly busy for a while, cause she was trying to pick through the hay to get the scratch!

We got a total of a pint of milk today!

 

[Wildsky]

How long does goats milk stay fresh in the fridge?

 

[Henrietta23]

DS surprised us tonight after a long busy day. He came in from playing the backyard to tell us he had cleaned the goat poos out of the barn. Without being asked. Kids+animals=good thing!
Yes, when you can, get the book. I made chevre this weekend and I think DH almost passed out he liked it so much!

 

[freemotion]

How long does goats milk stay fresh in the fridge?

For a loooooong time if everything is clean and no one takes a sip right from the bottle! If you want to keep it a longer amount of time, put the bottle in the back of the fridge and leave it undisturbed...don't move it around to get to other things, etc. Don't skim the cream. It will form a seal and keep the milk usable for quite a while. I regularly make cheese from ten day old milk when all the books say use that day's milk only...yeah, right, with one goat lactating I'm gonna spend hours making tiny cheeses daily! I also drank milk that was six weeks old once...a bit goaty, but not sour or bad.

H23, the way to a man's heart is truly through his stomach!

 

[Henrietta23]

That's the truth!!

 

[Wildsky]

DS surprised us tonight after a long busy day. He came in from playing the backyard to tell us he had cleaned the goat poos out of the barn. Without being asked. Kids+animals=good thing!
Yes, when you can, get the book. I made chevre this weekend and I think DH almost passed out he liked it so much!

You're making me hungry! I love cheese, I swear I could live on cheese alone!

 

[Blackbird]

Wait! Hold up! What is the title of the book??? Simply '300 Cheese Recipes'?

I've been completely slacking in making ANYTHING. No yogurt, no cheese, no soap, no nothing :/
We've been pasteurizing all the milk and bottle feeding the kids. I barely even get any to drink!

 

[freemotion]

Wait! Hold up! What is the title of the book??? Simply '300 Cheese Recipes'?

I've been completely slacking in making ANYTHING. No yogurt, no cheese, no soap, no nothing :/
We've been pasteurizing all the milk and bottle feeding the kids. I barely even get any to drink!

Get your butt over to my intermediate cheesemaking thread!!!!

 

[Wildsky]

For a loooooong time if everything is clean and no one takes a sip right from the bottle!

How many times don't I catch someone drinking out the dang bottle! I will hide it at the back of the fridge, thats a good idea.

I joined both morning and evening milk into one little jar (full to the brim) and wrote the date on it.

I am not a huge milk drinker, and perhaps was a little weirded out on tasting the milk the first time, and it tasted a little bit tinny if that makes sense. I'll have to try it again, and close my eyes!

(LOL I was the same way when eating the first egg my girls gave us!)