[Beeducked]

With the arrival of my goats imminently been thinking a bit about what to do with the milk. Really like goat milk butter so am planning on making some of that. Looking at all the (expensive) stuff for separating the cream I saw one of those gravy / fat separating jugs today and wondered if that would work? Has any one used one? Any thoughts?

[Lesley Silvester]

Goats' milk is more homogenised than cow's so it just doesn't separate much. Have a look at this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cream-Separator-80L-220V-UK-plug-Milk-Cream-Separator-Electric-/130855682670?pt=UK_BOI_FarmingEquipment_RL&var=430121996961&hash=item1e779b426e

[Anke]

We bought a Ukrainian cream separator (roughly 100 quid all delivered) and it has been really good - but we run through about 10ltrs max in a single run, it then needs washing out. We have found it needs a few goats to milk before it makes (economic) sense, and you get most cream in autumn/winter - as the milk yield as such decreases the cream % (butterfats) increase.

You also need to consider what to do with the skimmed milk - ours goes to pigs (and this is legal), and they love it, especially if it is still warm in the winter.

I have made butter, but found it does get a bit of a goaty taste, so now we make mainly icecream....

[Dogwalker]

I've got one too and homemade  icecream is delicious.   must make more sometime today.

[smithycraft]

I too have a Ukranian separator and it is excellent.  I make goat's butter regularly, but it does turn cheesy, quite quickly so it's best to make small batches.  If I do have a lot of it, I make ruff puff pastry and freeze it.

The skimmed milk goes straight down the sink as we really don't have a use for it.

[jinglejoys]

Ever tried syphoning it out from the bottom of a glass jug using a dairy tube?

[Lesley Silvester]

I thought about getting one as well but we don't like skimmed milk. Would it work to mix skimmed with full cream to get semi-skimmed? OH prefers the semi-skimmed and simply won't have the goat's milk in his tea while it's full cream.

[SallyintNorth]

Would it work to mix skimmed with full cream to get semi-skimmed?

Talking cows' milk, that's how they make commercial semi-skimmed, so I would have thought yes!   

At least that's how it was made in the organic dairy I worked in - all the cream was separated off, then 2% added back for semi-skimmed, 4% for full cream.  So people buying full cream milk thinking it was 'unadulterated' (apart from pasteurising) were sadly misguided. 

That particular dairy did not homogenise, so the cream rose to the top, but a lot of dairies now homogenise.  (Which process incidentally renders the milk indigestible by the young of many species  )

Goats' milk being naturally homogenised, I wouldn't know whether when you add cream back it would float or mix in...

[Dogwalker]

The cream seperator has an adjustment screw so you can take off thin or thick cream so you should be able to get the remainder as semi-skimmed with a bit of experimentation.

The cream does rise after a few days in the fridge, if you put it in a wide jug you could spoon skim it off.

[Lesley Silvester]

The cream does rise after a few days in the fridge, if you put it in a wide jug you could spoon skim it off.

I did try that when Pom was first lactating and managed to get a small amount but the cream content decreased as the time went on until it wasn't worth trying. It wasn't worth the effort either as I just ate it as fast as I skimmed it. 

[shygirl]

At least that's how it was made in the organic dairy I worked in - all the cream was separated off, then 2% added back for semi-skimmed, 4% for full cream.  So people buying full cream milk thinking it was 'unadulterated' (apart from pasteurising) were sadly misguided. 

so what percentage of cream/fat would normal natural milk be Sally? our shetland milk, and bagot milk especially did taste much creamier though the kids were alarmed when they saw the cream rise 
we often buy tesco milk (yes i know we have cows but really need to be more organised to milk them properly) but last week we got yeovalley milk as it was 9p for 4 pints and im a sucker for a bargain    the taste was so different and so creamy, i have been wondering why the taste was so much better than tesco milk, ok they are organic but its freisian cows and i presume its homogenised etc like other big dairies. just curious to understand the difference as iv never really bothered with shop-bought organic in the past.

[SallyintNorth]

%age butterfat can be anywhere between 4 and 6, I think, maybe more, depending on feeding, stage of lactation, breed, individual cow, etc etc.  Hillie sometimes gives me over 1" of cream on a standard 1L jug.  At one point it was 2" !

Tesco sell cheap milk so don't have to worry about flavour. 

I could use more words but that's the message

Organic cows will be on a more natural diet, and getting plenty of outside on grass time.  Cheap milk comes from cows all over the place on all sorts of regimes, including 'zero grazing' 24x7 indoor cows etc etc.  And unless it says otherwise, quite possibly not all from Britain either.

I can taste the sugars rising in the grass in the milk from my Jerseys, and BH is now used to getting some of his grass quality information from me, based on the quality, quantity and taste of the Jersey milk.

Cheap milk comes from cows all over the place on all sorts of regimes, including 'zero grazing' 24x7 indoor cows etc etc

Go figure

[Lesley Silvester]

%age butterfat can be anywhere between 4 and 6, I think, maybe more, depending on feeding, stage of lactation, breed, individual cow, etc etc.  Hillie sometimes gives me over 1" of cream on a standard 1L jug.  At one point it was 2" !

I thought Pom was doing well to produce about 5mm.

[Anke]

%age butterfat can be anywhere between 4 and 6, I think, maybe more, depending on feeding, stage of lactation, breed, individual cow, etc etc.  Hillie sometimes gives me over 1" of cream on a standard 1L jug.  At one point it was 2" !

I thought Pom was doing well to produce about 5mm.

At this time of year probably yes! Not much cream comes through the separator - but goats eat mainly grass and drink a lot of water... much better in the winter!

[ladyK]

At least that's how it was made in the organic dairy I worked in - all the cream was separated off, then 2% added back for semi-skimmed, 4% for full cream.  So people buying full cream milk thinking it was 'unadulterated' (apart from pasteurising) were sadly misguided. 

Gosh!! The things one learns here when idly browsing topics...