QuietH3art
Active Member
At the end of my first week of owning goats, I have learned a lot. One Myotonic gives plenty of milk for one person at just about a pint a day. It takes me only about 10-15 minutes to milk Diana and we have a wonderful schedule going on now that I've started giving her goat sweet feed during milking. She really looks forward to that morning and evening. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take about 2 weeks worth of milk to gather enough cream to make butter. It takes about 4 days worth of milk to make 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese, which I intend to make tomorrow after I skim the cream off the top of the fourth pint I got this week. I am really looking forward to Dixie having her kid(s) so I'll have more milk each day.
I've researched pasteurization vs raw and have decided to stick with raw while maintaining strict hygienic practices during milking. A lot of the nutritional value is lost in pasteurization. However, if you have infant, elderly or immune comprised people in the household, you are better to pasteurize for them.
For those of you who want more milk for less work, I do recommend that you get dairy goats. Saanens and Nubians are excellent and produce about a gallon of milk per day. They are also easier to milk, with their udders and teats more like a cow's. The Myotonics really require a small hand and a careful technique which involves rolling the entire udder in your hand to bring the milk down. Perhaps I'll do a video of it one day. Diana and I are still learning though and I couldn't have asked for a more patient and understanding goat to learn from.
I've researched pasteurization vs raw and have decided to stick with raw while maintaining strict hygienic practices during milking. A lot of the nutritional value is lost in pasteurization. However, if you have infant, elderly or immune comprised people in the household, you are better to pasteurize for them.
For those of you who want more milk for less work, I do recommend that you get dairy goats. Saanens and Nubians are excellent and produce about a gallon of milk per day. They are also easier to milk, with their udders and teats more like a cow's. The Myotonics really require a small hand and a careful technique which involves rolling the entire udder in your hand to bring the milk down. Perhaps I'll do a video of it one day. Diana and I are still learning though and I couldn't have asked for a more patient and understanding goat to learn from.