Hi all! I just got a mostly-Nubian doe with 3-day old twins. She had never been handled much and never milked. My FIL kept her staked out on a chain to eat brush. These are her first babies, and she's not rejecting them but moves away when they try to nurse. Dh built me a milk stand, and I just milked her for the first time (first time I'd ever milked a goat too)! She is amazingly easy to handle, and stood still to be milked despite being nervous and stressed out. I helped the kids latch on and nurse also. But I'm thinking of putting them on bottles, as I've read in the archives that many of you all do, and milk her for my family. If I bottlefeed them, can they still stay with the dam? They haven't learned how to get milk from her yet without my help. I've long wanted a dairy goat but was afraid of the commitment of twice daily milking. But here she is, just dropped in my lap, and I really want to make a go of it. So, finally to my question: I think I have everything I need, except whatever it is one should strain goat's milk through. I'm pretty sure I can't just use cheesecloth, can I? This is dairycow country; is there anything I could get at a bovine supply place that would work? Or from where can I mail order a strainer? I have a close friend with dairy goats (hi Carol:o))but she's not home now for me to ask. Sorry this got so long; I'm excited about this. I have just fallen in love with this sweet goat, even though I've always thought I didn't care much for goats. Thanks in advance, Elizabeth

-- Elizabeth Price (kimprice@peoplescom.net), February 05, 2001

Answers

Congratulation,Elizabeth! I use a mini-strainer and mini-strainer filters I buy from CaprineSupply. The strainer is about $7, you get 300 hundred mini filters for $7. Great for one goat or a few.Look them up at www.caprinesupply.com. I know everyone else will disagree with me on this, but I like to leave the kids on. It's so much easier, and they still tame up really well if you keep them close to the barn and handle them after weaning(and before if you can) After the first few weeks, I separate them off at night and take the morning milk for self. I wean at two to two and a half months.

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), February 05, 2001.

I use coffee filters. A little slow, but I always have plenty around. I buy the unbleached type.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

As Melina says,coffee filters are usable but slow.The Goat supply people have filters but they are miles away.You can use unbleached muslin or new tee shirt material from the fabric store.Wash it first of course.I have used paper towels in a pinch.Some brands work faster than others.Basically,anything that is clean.doesn't have an odor and will catch the ocassional hair will work.

-- JT in Florida (gone2seed@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

I have a friend that uses old sheer kitchen curtains for her filter. Does the job quite well.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 05, 2001.

When I sold all my goats years ago I sold all my equipment too, so had to start from scratch again a few years ago when I got back into dairy goats. I intended to buy a "good" (expensive) milk strainer, but to get by in the meantime I bought a pkg. of the 6 1/2 inch non-gauze milk filters (100 per pkg. for under $5 at any feed/farm store) and used a wide mouth canning funnel. I just make a tuck in the filter so it makes a cone shape and fits in the funnel, and clip it to the funnel with a clean clothes pin. This fits on top of a gallon glass jar nicely. This worked so well for me I forgot all about buying a good strainer. The funnel is small and goes in the dishwasher. I wash & bleach the clothespin along with my milkpail and jars. Actually, any funnel would work, but the milk pours through faster with the wide mouth one.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), February 06, 2001.

Elizabeth:

A coffee filter would no in pinch, but I strongly recommend getting a proper milk filter system. We have a stainless steel bowl with a hole just small enough to sit on a wide mouth mason jar. We use paper disks that fit between the bowel and a perforated plate. There are other styles. You should be able to find something in caprine supply listed earlier or in Lehman's.

Congratulations on your babies. We have been raising Nubians for several years and would be happy to help with any questions. We bottle feed all our kids. They are so much more tame as adults and the does' udders are saved for showing.

Please visit us at www.sundaycreek.com

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 06, 2001.

Elizabeth, Congrats on the nice doe and with kids to boot! She sounds like a very nice little doe too. I let the kids nurse the doe too, esp. since I get so many buck kids which I sell for meat. My does have been with me for years and are still healthy, with no signs of any of the serious diseases like Cae or Johnnes or abcesses. I use the busy liz strainer bought from Caprine Supply. I bought the filters too as they fit so well, but for years bought the packages of Handi-Wipes and cut them up for filters(poor people have poor ways). My dream is to get the stainless steel strainer but so far it is still a dream. Don't forget to worm your doe as parasites multiply rapidly just after kidding, it must be the hormone changes. Good luck and enjoy. Oh a ps I like to test my girls for TB and bangs since I also drink the milk unpasturized. karen

-- karen (kansasgoats@iwon.com), February 07, 2001.

Thank you all so much for the information!! I'm using coffee filters right now, since reading the answers, and may buy a "real" strainer later if all goes well. I have some questions about worming her but will search the archives first. How wonderful to have this place to come to for answers!! Thanks, Elizabeth

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), February 08, 2001.

I am so happy for you! It is indeed a lovely experience to have your own milk supply. I have done just fine with cheesecloth. I fold it several times, so it is about twenty thicknesses, and I always boil it before each use, and wash it well and let it dry after each use. I use this for cow milk, too. The milk goes through right through in just a few seconds, compared to probably the twenty minutes I spent when I used coffee filters (which I did use for a year and a half. Add that up for how many hours I spent straining milk!). Also I found that putting the milk in quart jars in the back of the fridge chilled it quickly enough to prevent "off" tastes.

I have two Jersey cows now, and my family prefers cow milk, but we have an Alpine cross doe that just kidded, and so she has a very tiny soft sweet doeling that we love the cuddle. We are milking mama some until her milk supply gets adjusted to just one kid.

While we were drinking goat milk, though, my method for feeding kids and getting milk for us was like this: until the kids were two weeks old I let them have mama to themselves; at two weeks old I started shutting up the kids at night, away from mama, beside her, but with a wire between them so they couldn't suck. The next morning I milked the doe of all I wanted, and then let the babies have at her for the rest of the day. They grew just fine, and I only had to milk once a day, and we had plenty.

With this goat that has kidded now, I hope to find a young lamb to help share the milk. I raised a lamb once before on goat milk, and although the doe never accepted the lamb as her own, I would put the doe on the milking stand, and she had to choice but to let the lamb suck.

-- Lela R. Picking (stllwtrs55@aol.com), February 09, 2001.

I use hemp coffee filters. I clothespin it into a big funnel & pour the milk into my bottles that I freeze. Works great! Cheap, too! Then, I just wash it w/ the rest of the milking equipment & hang it to dry so it's ready for the next use.

-- Sarah/MI (colonel@frontiernet.net), April 07, 2001.

Well, I want to (belatedly) thank all of you for your input. Milking is going well and I've been using coffee filters for the past six months, which is a pain, because they filter so slowly. I'm going to buy a stainless funnel and use real milk filters. My question is, have any of you used the 4 9/16" filters from Jeffers? they are $2.45 for 100, and there's no shipping charge if I order over $50 from them (which I will 'cause I need a bunch of supplies). Thanks:o)

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), August 13, 2001.

I use the ones from hoeggers. Same thing. i got 250 or so and they last a long time. When i run out i use old pantyhose.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 13, 2001.