Udders, teats and orifices - and milk tastings

 

Above is a picture of Zinnia's udder. Udders, teats and orifices vary in size and shape, and some traits are clearly more desirable than others. Entering our fourth season in milking, I'm beginning to have a clearer idea of my ideal udder. We are also getting to see how udders and teats change over time. Zinnia is a first timer. She is producing about four pounds of milk (1/2 gallon) for morning milking, and then her two rapidly growing doelings are keeping her pretty drained throughout the day. Her udder is a pleasant shape, high and wide. The teat placement is great, they point down, for the most part. The size is good, not too big, not too small. The shape of her teats make for easy milking. And the orifice at the tip of each teat is good size, so the milk comes out easy. Zinnia is an ideal first freshener. She has one teat which is larger than the other because when her kids were just a few days old, she had a teat get chapped and raw. I didn't catch it right away and she didn't let her doelings nurse off that side, so one side became engorged and then I had to milk her out for a week on that side, because her entire teat was a scabby wound - as a result I'm guessing one teat will always be a bit bigger.

 Below is a picture of Zuri's udder, also a first timer. This picture of Zuri is not as impressive as Zinnia's. She has been averaging about 3 lbs. Her udder shows some promise. For one it is not droopy or pendulous. She does have good teat placement. The best part is the shape of her teats, They are not too narrow or too wide, nor are they too big - they are my favorite teat shape. They also point straight down. And, to top it off she has the biggest orifices. As a result, milking Zuri is a dream. She is my favorite goat to milk. Combined with her personality and willing and patient behavior for a first time milker, she is my absolute favorite goat. I expect that she will produce a significant amount more next freshening.

 Above is Xanadu. This is her third freshening. Xanadu has been our favorite goat to milk because of her teat shape, since our first year milking. However, this year, they are just too big for my hands! They have gotten bigger every year, which they tend to do. She has a nice udder. Fine but never phenomenal yield, this year she is averaging about five lb. She doesn't put everything in to milk, which is a good thing sometimes. I don't have to worry about her body condition, she is an easy keeper. We have always loved the shape of her teats, wider at the top, (but not too wide) narrow at the bottom. They are very comfortable and easy to milk - but they have gotten big enough that my hands have to work to hard to get the milk out. This is a personal preference. If Dustin was milking, or another man, or someone with big hands, they would probably love milking her. She has good teat placement. They angle in a bit - which is better than out. And, I think, overall her udder would hold up just fine in the show ring.

Below is Xoe's udder. Xoe has the weakest udder of all our milkers. It hangs lower down, somewhat pendulous. Her teats are huge, too big for me - it makes milking more of a work out - maybe fine if you are just milking a couple goats, but I tend to leave Xoe for last and then my hands just can't get the job done all the way. (Today I milked her earlier in the lineup and that helped). Not only are Xoe's teats different sizes, they also angle out, and they are too wide at the top, which makes getting the milk down, more work for hands. So, when I milk Xoe, I have to angle her teats in towards the pail, which is just one more thing to thinkk about when squeezing. To top all this off her orifices are smaller than anyone elses, so while they are not super small and tiny, they are smaller, which means it takes longer to get the milk out.

All this complaining and I still think Xoe is a decent milking doe. She has a great body. She is a willing milker, who can be very sweet. She is a decent mom. She is putting out between five and six pounds of milk in the morning and then feeding her sons all day. If she was someone's only milker, they may not mind these faults. I am selling Xoe this year. I do plan on asking a fair price for her, and I'm waiting for the right family.

So, here is Rose, totally lopsided, which happens, especially when she has a doeling who prefers one side over the other. Her son left for his new home this past week, and ever since, Rose has been lopsided - so apparently the left side must have been his. Rose is our highest producer and strongest milker. She has been bred every year, milked through the first three months of each gestation, because she just keeps producing. She does tend to put everything in to making milk, so I do have to watch her weight. Her udder shape is my favorite, high, wide and round (not so much round in this pic). Her teats have great placement, size and shape. Her orifice size is also fine. If I were to change one thing about Rose, I would change the shape of her teats just a bit to be a little wider at the top. I think Rose has a strong and lovely mammary system. She has produced up to eight pounds in one milking (that's a gallon folks). This year she has been in the five to six pound range. We've had some diet adjustments that we are finally catching up from, so I expect to see Rose improve over the season.

And now for milk tasting. We've been milking everyone and keeping their milk separate, once a week so we can do taste tests. We had a couple does with mild ketosis symptoms and one with mastitis, and their milk was off tasting for a while so we were tasting it daily and deciding whether it went to the chickens or into the milk tote. Thankfully, everyone's milk is tasting as it should. I think milk should taste clean, creamy, smooth and subtle. There should be no strong sweetness, or other perceptible flavors, including the aftertaste. It has been interesting to see how everyone's milk tastes and how it changes from week to week. Zuri and Rose have had the best tasting milk, creamier and smoother than the rest. Avery is our milk drinker. She loves to drink milk, but she is not very discerning about subtle taste differences.

Well, the kids are in bed. It is another phenomenal Fairbanks night. Sunny and clear, blue skies at ten p.m. The lure to head up to the garden is strong, if only the mosquitoes were not so ferocious. I'm at least heading out to say goodnight to the goats, and shut their door so they can escape the majority of mosquitoes. Goodnight.

Udderlicious

So here are two udders that are about to explode. I finally started putting the kids in pens at night so I can milk the does in the morning. I had been leaving the kids in full time with their moms and that way didn't have to get up to milk them as early. I'd been milking them around noon and getting a gallon or so but the last couple days hardly got any. So I felt triumphant as I walked down to the house with almost two gallons of milk. I still didn't even milk them out completely, partly because I couldn't get all the milk out by the time they'd finished their grain, didn't feel like struggling with them, and some of the kids are just a few weeks old and nursing a lot still. Even if I'd milked them out all the way the does still hold some back for their kids. Plus their kids are with their dams all day and have plenty of opportunities to get their share. Once we dry the kids off we will have to milk the does out completely or risk infections like mastitis. You can see in the above photo that Rose's two kids prefer her left side and she is often lopsided as a result.
So I'm no expert but I have seen some goat udders and I believe that Maggie (black and tan) and Rose (white doe) have lovely udders. They are high and round with nice teat placement. Maggie's teats are on the small side and her orifices are also smaller than the other does, but not extremely so. I brought up a scale recently and hung it near my milking area and just need to keep a notebook and pen handy as I'd like to start weighing their milk daily. I milked both of these does until February (OUTSIDE!) and they both did really well. I can't even say who is the better milker as far as quantity, they both seem to have their days. We wethered Zen, Xoe's son and our first buck kid of the year. Maggie's son (below) and Rose's son are both for sale as bucks at the moment. However, if I have no serious interest in them within the next few weeks I will probably wether them both. As nice as they are we have no need for any more bucks, especially ones related to half our herd.

I just started the first batch of chevre of the season. I cultured a gallon of fresh warm raw milk after today's milking and it is sitting in a gallon jar. In the morning I will pour it into two cheesecloths and hang it for the day before taking it down and adding a little salt. Over the last couple years I've made a few batches of cheddar and gouda (without much success), mozzarella, ricotta, ricotta salatta, cottage cheese, cultured buttermilk, yogurt, kefir and panir but mostly fromage blanc and some molded moldy chevre. Last summer I turned one to two gallons of milk into a couple pounds of chevre or rather fromage blanc daily. Fromage blanc is what we know as chevre. It is fresh soft goat cheese that is poured into cheese cloth and then scooped into containers whereas chevre is poured into molds and drained in individual containers. Most people only know of chevre and think that it is the name for all or the only type of goat cheese but I think that most of the little logs of goat cheese labeled as chevre are really fromage blanc. It is versatile and mild. I don't pasteurize any of our milk or dairy products so mine doesn't keep as long as the supermarket product.

This summer I plan on making chevre a few times a week but not as often or as much as last year...I still have a bunch in the freezer! That is why I am so glad to have a cream separator. Once or twice a week I am going to separate cream from ideally six to eight gallons of milk and then turn it into cultured sour cream, cultured cream cheese and ice cream. I have been drinking my tea and coffee with the most luscious scoopable cream for the last couple weeks. I gave my dad all my cream to make ice-cream with this weekend and then didn't get any milk for a few days so I have sorely missed my cream the last few mornings. The ice-cream was good, but it will be much improved the next time we make it. I couldn't quite provide my dad with the four cups of cream he needed as I haven't been milking enough nor have I fine tuned the separator yet. My cream is extra thick so I was hoping that less cream with higher fat content would work, but it was lacking in creaminess.

I must disclose that fortunately I grew up in a home where real dairy products and butter were appreciated and imitations were disdained. There was only ever real butter in our fridge and never, god forbid any dairy products that were fat free unless by accident. I thank my father for this and perhaps his mother (rebels in their time) as well for my love- (without a drop of guilt or remorse) for pure dairy products, no fat removed.