Excess milk,

I don't really know about using frozen milk for yogurt and cheese. Because of the way it separates after thawing, I would think it can't be done. I use frozen milk for soap making and feeding bottle-kids.

 

I only use frozen milk for cheese making...lol, fresh is used up in cooking and drinking....excess goes in the freezer til I have the time to make cheese.

 

I might be weird but we drink our frozen milk. it doesnt taste any different and doesnt seperate or anything :shrug:

I also feed it to poddies

 

poddie = bottle lamb/kid

I give Whiss back her excess milk - she drinks it and then sneezes milk droplets all over me :ROFL:

 

thanks weevil, yep poddy is a bottle fed anything.

I've heard about feeding milk back to the does ... is this a common practice? Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

I freeze all my extra milk and thaw it for pudding or cooking or for my coffee - I just shake it really well.

 

what do you do to your milk before you freeze it? I strain it, bag it freeze it, i threw it in the freezer warm last year I am thinking that is why it seperates while thawing I was going to try cooling it first this year. as for the stuff I still have frozen from last year, well I use it in pudding and coffee, I plan on using it to feed back to the kids once they are a few weeks old.

 

I run it through a tea strainer (though there's usually not much stuff to get out) and just put it straight into plastic 'pop' bottles and it goes straight in the freezer. I've never had a problem with it separating. By putting it in the pop bottles, makes it easier when I'm feeding poddies cos I have teats that just screw onto the top, so all I do is thaw the milk and screw the teat on, and I'm good to go!

 

I have found that the longer it is frozen, the more it separates, and it is always strained and chilled before it goes into the freezer.

I use a stick blender to mix it back together, and through experience, if it is set to thaw at room temp it comes back together very easily. Frozen tastes as good as fresh and we do drink it as well as use it for cheesemaking, yogurt, icecream, fudge and hubbys favorite...chocolate milkshakes and chocolate milk.

 

my nephews were a little shy of drinking goats milk, what we did was fill up an empty cow's milk bottle with goats milk and put it in the fridge. They never noticed!

 

Well it has lots of calcium in it, and nutrients, etc. so IMHO it definitely can't do them any harm. I have heard that if you have a doe with mastitis, feeding her a little of the milk can help her body fight the infection... although I personally think that's gross but I tried it with Will, cause at that stage I was willing to try anything!!! (it didnt work, she still died - but mastitis wasn't her only issue at that stage)

Sometimes if I have a doe soon after kidding and I want to milk her right out to see how much milk she has... I will give her back a good bit of the milk (drinking) to avoid hypocalcaemia.

LW

 

thanks weevil

I'd heard that about mastitis and hypocalcaemia too

 

I used to shy away from our goat milk. One of my problems was the fat content, too. I think it tastes so good, though, that I am willing to give up other treats to eat yogurt. I think I actually am saving myself calories.