# Testing milk



## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

Does anyone who makes cheese at home for friends and family and gets milk from their own herd do any sort of testing the milk? I've been reading blogs in hopes of learning how to make aged semi-soft/semi-hard cheese from my raw goat milk and came across some info on this. I don't want to attempt toxic cheese but I also don't want to waste milk on cheese that won't age right. There is a lot more to this than I ever expected !!!


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

I have an automatic home pasteurizer and I use pasteurized milk for my cheeses.


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

I make cheddar, Colby, Havarti and Gouda cheeses from my raw Jersey cow milk. As long as your goats are healthy, the milk is clean and your cheesemaking utensils are clean/sanitized your cheese will turn out fine. I use bleach to sanitize my milking machine and my cheesemaking pot/spoons, etc..

You will know if you have a bad batch of cheese. It smells bad, tastes bad and sometimes develops bad mold. That can happen a few days or several weeks after you make it. 

Go ahead and make some. If it turns out bad, the chickens and dogs will love it anyway. When I started I was getting a bad batch here and there. I learned what not to do and what to do. It was all a necessary part of the learning curve.

I test my milk at least three times a year for high SCC, coliforms, standard plate count and incubated count and, oh gosh, can't remember the others, but I take it to a lab for that.

Go ahead, make some cheese. :rock:


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## rancher1913 (Dec 5, 2008)

where do you send it to get tested, what are the important ones for personal milk.


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