The Milking Process

Sancta Grotto does are great milkers with long lactations. They have nice, well attached udders and their teats are sized for hand milking. We bring does to the milk stand after she freshens so that she will take quickly to being hand milked. We believe that a doe will have a stronger will to milk, with a longer lactation, and be harder to dry off when treated with gentle hands. When it comes to kidding time, all births are attended in the kidding stable. We pull and bottle feed the babies when necessary, and allow the mamma to dam raise them happy and healthy. We give them hands-on loving care as they grow up, and they adjust to being hand-milked when they freshen. We don’t want our herd to ever lose their mothering abilities. We want those doelings to grow up to be good moms who can and will raise their own babies. Our priorities are to raise healthy and happy kids. 

As the kids get older, we hand-milk once a day. We let the kids nurse off their mom during the day, and put them in a separate area nearby for the night. Having more than one doe in milk provides us with all we need to drink and for making cheese. The whey from making cheese is an excellent health tonic as a drink.

For the milking process we use home-made milking stands with a shelf for the grain bowl. We bring the does into the milking area (with more than one doe, they quickly get used to their order of milking) and have the does jump onto the milking stand. Sometimes a does utter needs massaged a bit to relax the muscles which allow more milk to be let down. We massage the utter a bit to relax the muscles so the milk will let down better. We use a warm spray of water on the goat’s teats and utter, and thoroughly wipe her off with very clean washcloths.

We give the doe her allotment of grain, and position the stainless steel milk bucket under her to begin the milking process. Depending on the doe, this can be accomplished in a few minutes. We squirt a little milk from each teat into a “strip cup” to see how it looks and to remove the first milk from the orifice, which can harbor bacteria. We hand-milk into a stainless steel container which is in an icy water bath for quick-chilling.

It is good to leave a little bit of milk in the utter, so as not to put too much strain on the mammary glands.

After milking a doe, it is important to spray the teats with warm water and wipe them off with a clean washcloth. Fight-Bac sanitizes and helps constrict the orifice which helps prevent unwanted bacteria from entering the udder. This is a good time to do a quick exam of the doe. The milk is put in a refrigerator nearby before milking the next doe.

The cooled milk is taken to the kitchen where it is strained, poured into clean mason jars, and properly refrigerated. When milking a goat is handled this way, the milk will stay fresh for several weeks without further processing. Goat milk is naturally homogenized and the cream does not readily rise to the surface as with un-homogenized cow milk. We do not pasteurize it for our personal consumption or for cheese making. 

About Goat Care Here.