# Filtering Goat Milk?



## Cloverbud

Newbie question alert!!

If I don't have a doe fresh shortly, I'll definitely have one fresh in about 5 months. I remember Gramma filtering cow's milk through one of Grampa's clean white hankies (or it may have been one just for the milk. I was only about 8. That was longer ago than I care to recall!) 

What do y'all use? Purchased milk filters, hankies, paper towels, coffee filters? What have you tried, what did &/or didn't work? Favorites, least favorites? Stuff you'd never be without or never use again in a million years?

Thanks!


----------



## steff bugielski

coffee filter work in a pinch but hoeggers makes good milk filters.


----------



## Corky

I use hoaggers filters also but when DH takes the milk pail to the barn and forgets to put the filter in it I sometimes use a piece of paper towel in an emergency.
I use the hoagger milk pail that has a filter pan that fits in the top.
I then have a small steel pail I milk each goat into and then pour it in the filter pan right there in the barn.
We have a good system where I milk the goats that the milk is going to the house first and about the time I have finished the last goat DH is finished feeding the other animals and takes the milk to the house to pour it into jars and get it in the freezer while I finish milking the other goat and feeding the doeling on the stand and anything else I want to do in the barn before leaving.(like cleaning the donkeys hooves that DH forgot to do, or mucking out the goat part of the barn.) That way the milk does not set in the barn till I am finished.

I hear that a coffee filter works well. I have not done that though.
I really miss his help when he is off on a trip somewhere.


----------



## suzyhomemaker09

I have tried several methods....IMO the coffee filter will work but it is extremely slow, if you are milking a very productive single goat it's going to be difficult.
I have a small stainless filter that I got from Hoegger supply, I use it if I'm only milking one goat as it's small and easy to deal with. I also have one of the bigger stainless jobs , that one I use when everyone's milking...when you are bringing in more than a gallon of milk at once you want to be able to get it filtered and put away fast


----------



## goatsareus

yep, you need to strain/filter the milk. I bought my equipment from Countryside General Store, back when they had a store, got the 4 quart stainless steel pail with the generous hooded pail. The one Hoeggers now sells has a really tiny hole to hit with the milk stream. I bought an aluminum strainer but wish I had a stainless steel one. Caprine Supply has a slighter better price than Hoeggers' does on the milk filters.


----------



## Cloverbud

So you all filter in the barn? Milking into one pail, then filtering into a different pail? I apologize for all the ignorant questions, but my grandparents are all gone, & there's no one else to ask. 

I'm thinking I could milk into a pail nested in a pail of slush/ice, then bring it into the kitchen & filter directly into a jar. At least while it's only one goat fresh.

I don't see anyone in favor of Gramma's hankie method.  I imagine she did that because the filters she had available were for the barn/bulk tank, and she was too frugal to use them for the house. It's a great memory, though.

Thanks!


----------



## goatsareus

No, I don't filter at the barn. I strain the all the combined milk in the kitchen. I take two pails to the barn; the hooded milk pail I milk into, and the lidded large pail to dump in all the goats' production. I'm milking three goats right now, it should be four though :Bawling: 

Milk filters are our friends


----------



## Corky

I am the one that filters in the barn and that is just because the filterpan fits right into my milk bucket so it is just as easy to do it that way and saves DH a step when he gets back to the house.
Some others strain their milk as they milk. Most probably don't.


----------



## nduetime

I buy whatever dairy filters are on sale at a good price and fit them into my canning jar funnel. After milking in the barn, I take the milk right to the kitchen to filter and put away. I just like to do it right away so I do not have to worry about it. I just bought a stainless steel one that I can use right over my bucket as I milk. 

Sounds like D is making some babies over there! I cannot wait to see them. I wonder when Bella will be due? I am betting on Oct/Nov.


----------



## Cloverbud

Funny, but one night with D, and Carly has a whole new deportment. She seems so serene and glowing!


----------



## sammyd

We also filter with the strainer pad and a jar funnel or a mesh strainer as a holder.
Can get tricky pouring a bucket into that .
We have a regular SS strainer for the pads but since we only get a half gallon a day it's easier to just use the jar funnel.
If you have a large volume of milk or intend to. Start watching for auctions and even thresherees.
I've seen SS strainer go for 45 at an auction, and I picked mine up for 10 at a thresheree flea market. I also saw what they called goat milk strainers with a built in mesh. They were smaller and I almost bought one instead of the cow milk strainer.


----------



## Spinner

When I was a kid we filtered thru a clean white dish towel held onto the rim of a 1 gallon glass jar with clothes pins. I've been doing it that way for several months. I keep thinking I'll order a filter from Caprine Supply but haven't gotten around to it yet. The towels I've been using are the old fashion 100% cotton flour sack kind. They are new, and when I wash them I don't use fabric softener. I bleach them a little, but not much, then rinse them well and hang them in the sun to dry.


----------



## MullersLaneFarm

We started by using clean white dish towels because that is what Paul's mother did. I finally convinced him to go get some regular milk filters because it was ruining my dish towels! (He wouldn't rinse them completely and soured milk on towels is not nice!)

Since we have a cow, we use a belly milker, bring it into the house, pour some of the milk into a SS pail (easier to handle). Form the milk filter into a cone, place in jar, pour from bucket into jar.


----------



## CowboyBunny

I only milk two goats. I milk in the barn and then bring the milk into the kitchen where I use birdseye cloth diapers for filters (never used for anything other than milk). I use half gallon jars, my wide mouth canning funnel and a doubled diaper cloth. I use each cloth for one milking at a time and wash with no fabric softner, line dry. I'm to cheap to buy actual filters and the diapers were given to me for free. In a pinch I've also used quality cheesecloth, double or triple folded. Just make sure it's not the craft kind, that doesn't catch anything.

Tami


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

If I was going to milk by hand I would milkand strain at the same time. You loose butterfat by straining, plus it's slow as molassas, cooled milk. Get some butter muslin, unbleached, from walmart. Put this over you milkpail and secure with big rubberbands, milk through this. I machine milk, and honestly wouldn't have goats anymore if I had to hand milk still, but if I was going to in another life , this is how I would do it. Plus with all the debrie you get from handmilking, none of it gets to soak into the milk while you finish milking, then go to the house, then filter. Vicki


----------



## Cloverbud

Vicki, is the butter muslin something I could make into squares & hem the edges? Sounds frugal  And with four ff's, it sounds sensible to cover that pail. Oooh - Brainstorm!! Elastic sewn in around the edges! No fighting with rubberbands! Woot!

Is 4 does enough to justify the work cleaning a milking machine?


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Anyone who is telling you cleaning a milking machine negates using one compared to hand milking, has never used a milking machine before  In fact most warnings about milking machine use, comes from folks who don't use them!

They are efficient, empty the udder, they actually squeeze lighter than I do, are cleaner, give you are better end product, and with easy to do cleaning everyday the weeknd running a brush inside the inflations, and soaking an airhose because it seems to pull in moisture so it gets moldy ugly specks in it, that customers would think is in contact with the milk, which it is not, so you bleach it. The nicests part of milking with a machine is that you can do other things while you milk.

Yes the buttermuslin is something you could hem, and reuse over and over, even for draining cheese. It's the old fashion pillowcase material we used to embroider for tea towels...wow I really am old  Vicki


----------



## Liese

Yes the buttermuslin is something you could hem, and reuse over and over, even for draining cheese. It's the old fashion pillowcase material we used to embroider for tea towels...wow I really am old Vicki

Ahem...as one crone to another, speak for yourself my dear , just because so much of what we did has now past doesn't make us old...just think of yourself as a really great "library" of things that people might want to know later. 

But back to the topic at hand...I take it Vicki you are using a bucket (I think that is the term) milker rather than an in line system? How many do you milk? What do you see as the advantages/ disadvantages of the system you use vs other milking machines?


----------



## MullersLaneFarm

We only milk one cow but I will never go back to handmilking.

Cleaning a milker is not any more difficult than cleaning the bucket you milk in.

Vicki - I found some of those muslin towels last weekend at WalMart. Talk about beging excited! I loved them since I was a kid!


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

I try to only milk 12....freshening 12 older does in March and 8 kids in April, so I will be milking...shoot I can't even admit that to write it down!!!  4 go up at a time so it really is only 3 or 4 or 5 groups 

I never went to a pipeline system like others because my first contract was to a candy maker who I sold her milk in frozen 3 gallon buckets, this way she could put the frozen containers in the back of her truck in the Texas heat and into the large vats starting to thaw 2 hours later, without having ice chest or refridgeration. So we just milked and poured from cans into the buckets. Now a good portion of milk goes into the freezer for soap, and the rest is bottled in 1/2 gallon plastic milk jugs for resale, also easily done by hand. A bulk tank, the cement for under it, and everything was way our of my league in the beginning. Most did it that way out here tosell their fluid milk for pennies a pound to a chessemaker, I was lucky to always have outside sales.

You can easily put yourself together a good high quality milker for under $700. Mine is even cheaper than that, but my husband is a real scrounger. Milking machines are pretty straight foward, but putting one together without haveing used one is going to be hard. 

I machine milk out colostrum from the first doe kidding, and have a milker I take to shows  Vicki


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Vicki - I found some of those muslin towels last weekend at WalMart. Talk about beging excited! I loved them since I was a kid!
.................

Yep Cyndi and they simply are better than all the terry type towles. Vicki


----------



## Cloverbud

At around $700 for a machine, I guess I'll be hand milking. I'm saving for a spinning wheel, and that's more important I think I'll be finding my way to Goodwill to look for some towels and a SS pail.

I guess I forgot to divide my memory by 6. Seemed like a lot of work for Gramma to clean the milkers and transfer pails. I remember tons of suds and hot water, two sinks, and Gramma in her blue babushka, worn Aunt Jemimah style. I still love that milkhouse smell!


----------



## cathleenc

anyone know what the mmHG/cycles are for milking goats or cows? Curious. I sell breast pumps currently (am a breastfeeding consultant). Can't help but wonder what whether one of these nice pumps could be converted into a milking pump for goats. MMMM.


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Gotta pull 12 pounds of pressure, and find bottles to fit the machine that come in 1/2 gallon size  Vicki


----------



## Alice In TX/MO

I got a nice breast pump with the intention of making it into a milker for our (currently) one milk goat project. Haven't gotten around to it yet, as the Maggidan's style milker is working fine.


----------



## sammyd

> Gotta pull 12 pounds of pressure,


No, it has to pull 12 inches of vacuum.


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Sorry....I knew that it wasn't right somehow when I typed it, just couldn't think of it. Vicki


----------



## Cloverbud

Guess what...I am now the guardian of a Surge belly milker and compressor!!! We found it in my dad's basement, of all places. It's my brother's, and he said I can use it and he'll help me get it set up! :bouncy: How cool is that?!?


----------



## sammyd

I think the old vacuum pumps are pretty reliable if maintained properly. I would rather have one of those any day. Found a nice old Universal 3 HP one for 100 bucks this summer and a DeLaval floor bucket with pulsator and claw for another 100.


----------



## Liese

sammyd said:


> I think the old vacuum pumps are pretty reliable if maintained properly. I would rather have one of those any day.


Sammy could you elaborate on what you mean here? 

I'm trying to educate myself about milking machines, styles & types but folks write about them in snippets and it's hard to put it all together. Is there a internet site that really goes through all the different aspects? I'm familar with an inline system from the dairy but that's not going to be an option for us on our farm - it will have to be portable (and less expensive).
Thanks


----------



## smwon

cathleenc said:


> anyone know what the mmHG/cycles are for milking goats or cows? Curious. I sell breast pumps currently (am a breastfeeding consultant). Can't help but wonder what whether one of these nice pumps could be converted into a milking pump for goats. MMMM.


There is a milker that I think is similar to a human brest pump... it is called Udderly EZâ¢ Milker.

Or there are others also... http://www.dunnmilkingfarm.com/milker_under__10.htm


----------



## Charleen

Our machine is an old (1940's) Gast vein pump, once operated a cow dairy of my FIL's. It's sat idle since the late 60's. We spit shined it, put on a new motor, bought a new pulsator, tubing, goat inflations, regulator and bucket. This thing is as quiet as can be. Secret is to use ATF not hydraulic fluid, especially during the freezing temps we get here in the winter. We were lucky enough to find an identical machine at a barn sale this summer. We grabbed it for $50 just in case we need parts.

Milking by machine frees me to do water buckets, hay racks, etc while still milking. I have 3 milk stands, and by the time the 3rd doe is done milking, all 3 have finished eating their grain. Then the next 3 come out.

I buy milk filters from Jeffer's. We use maybe 15 boxes (4 9/16" size) each year. http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/product.asp?CID=2&mscssid=UDVELC6X7QGR8LFAGC6EB1HC41L46240


----------



## Alice In TX/MO

The human breast pump I got is electric, not a hand pump.


----------



## Jillis

I hand milk through a white cotton men's handkercheif in the barn. I don't use a milk pail, because the @#!{% one's I bought from Hoeggers had poor welding done on the handle and they broke off. I exchanged the first one, and by the time I needed to use the replacement, months had gone by, so I am stuck with a handleless milk pail. 
I use a cooking pot, and I lay the hankie over the top of this. Then I carefull peel it back halfway, and pour it into a gallon pickle jar in the barn. I really hate to have any debris, hay bits or stray hairs sitting in the milk until I bring it in the house. In the house I strain it again through a milk filter set in a funnel into a fresh jar, which I set in a sink of ice water. 
When I run out of milk filters I intend to just use the hankies. I get them in 12 packs, and they are easy to keep clean. 
My milk stays sweet for up to 2 weeks! Mine never lasts that long, but I gave some to a friend to make cheese with and she didnt get to it for a week and a half. She told me it was just as sweet as the day she got it.


----------



## smwon

I always thought, but never did, using cloth would be a good idea. But today you hear so much about you have to do this and that or you will taint your milk or that it will be unsafe to drink. And to use anything but manufactured filters is asking for disaster. Ok, but it seems to me that cloth could be easily cleaned. It all goes back to that Great God Hygiene. It is important, but not to the point it is taken today. If a person wanted to sterilize their cloth it could be done in a pressure cooker/canner very easily. Personally, I think washing it well and rinsing it well would be good enough. I would also think making sure the filter was soaked in something, maybe a natural grease cutter like vinegar and warm water, after using it would be necessary because eventually the fat from the milk will clog the pores. Bleach would work to sterilize it as long as the water was lukewarm. Hot water kills the sterilizing property of bleach. I like the idea of using cotton menâs handkerchiefs. Anywayâ¦ there is my thoughts on that idea.


----------



## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

I have a vacume pump (medical) motor, balast tank setup that we put together that I milk with...do I recommend stuff like this, old rigged cow machines etc...? yes if you are mechainically inclined and when you have 13 mikers needing to be milked twice a day and something happens you can fix it and have spare parts

What do I recommend? Chris Martin his contact info is up on goatkeeping101 of dairygoatinfo.com his vacume/motor/balast is all one unit, about the size of a loaf of bread, rated for thousands of hours, my friends use them for milking their whole herd and others just for shows. They are actually for whole commerical shop filtration systems and lipsuction. Plus they come in colors  Idon't know one bad story period about them. Buy your delaval or surge can off ebay, or ask mike at partsdepartmentonline.com r Paul Hamby (google) about scratch and dent, also go through Mike for your lid, gasket, interpulse pulsator, lines, in the milkline shut offs, inflations and shells. Between those 3 sources you can have brand new, and new cans are not as nice as old ones, don't go about the 5 gallon can and the 3 and 1/2 gallon is better if kids or women who aren't as strong milk......you can get all this around $600. The price of 1 or two kids sold.

You can go cheaper with a surge can and surge lid and surge pulsator then upgrade from there in a few years, but those surge pulsators take alot of tinkering, and full surge cans are ackward for kids to pour, or women with breasts 

Milking twice a day for 10 months, having a machine that works is a luxury. Vicki


----------



## Liese

Thanks Vicki, that is very helpful both info and contact - wise.


----------

