Hand milking questions...

[Renee70]

Hi everyone, what a fantastic site!!

We just bought a jersey cow, who we are drying up before she has her calf in late June.

I have some questions for experienced people on this....

What do people use to wash the udder down before milking?

We aren't using a seperator because of only having one cow so what is the best way to seperate?

Does anyone have recipes? I mean yogurt, ice cream, good food to make with rich cream...

Ok, so many questions - but this is a start!

Thanks in advance,
Renee

[AlchemyAcres]

What do people use to wash the udder down before milking?
There's lotsa ways to do it. A commercial pre-dip or bleach diluted 4:1 with water is probably the best way.

We aren't using a seperator because of only having one cow so what is the best way to seperate?

Let the milk set overnight and then carefully ladle the cream off the top.

Does anyone have recipes? *I mean yogurt, ice cream, good food to make with rich cream...

Lots of good recipes here..... http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

~Martin

[lsg]

I use warm water with a drop or two of dish detergent to wash my cow's udder. I use old clean rags to wash and dry the cow's udder. I usually tear up an old towel to use for jobs like this. I use clean rags each time and wash the soiled ones with detergent and bleach. After setting overnight in a glass gallon jar you should be able to see a good cream line. I use a ladle to dip the cream off the milk.

[CarolAnn]

An obvious recipe is to make butter with the cream; all you have to do is shake it. In fact, when I used to buy whole fresh (raw) milk from a Mennonite farm, I'd put about a half quart of cream in a quart jar and shake it until the butter solidified.

This is a great thing for kids to do to use excess energy, and I've even had parties where we passed around the churn jar so one person didn't get the whole job. It takes a while, but after you pour off the buttermilk, (which you also save and use) rinse the butter in very cold water until the water runs off clear and salt it if desired.

Friends were amazed to have a part in making the butter that we ate that day! (At least, the FIRST time - it IS work after all!) ;)

[CarolAnn]

One more thing - start now to collect wide mouth glass jars with tight lids! You'll need them! ;D

[Renee70]

Thank you all for the ideas. I have so much to learn!

We have completely enjoyed the rich cream and am scrambling trying to find uses for the milk. Altho, once the turkeys and chickens come we won't have enough!

Renee