Our Milk Goat Dairy

• See our Goat Dairy operation is action. Use right and left arrows to view slideshow.
• Our roomy parlor with stanchions to hold 6 goats.
• The does file in to the parlow and line up for their dinner.
• We milk two does at a time with a portable milking machine.
• Straining fresh milk.
• Milk
• The milkhouse contains a 200 gallon Dairycool milk tank
• Soft cheese in the making
• We are presently making yogurt that is sold through Steves Real Food.
• We fill packages.
• Packages are weighed.
• Ready for delivery.

Dairy Operation

The original dairy was built in the early 1950’s as a grade “A” cow dairy. The parlor was set up with 3 stanchions in a saw tooth configuration, this allowed cows to come in and go out individually rather than in groups. It was the fastest design of its day and the owners at the time milked over 100 cows twice a day. It also had a modern pipeline with Pyrex (clear glass) tubing that emptied into a 700 gallon milk tank.

We now have a roomy parlor with stanchion to hold 6 goats. The goats come in one door and go out another door so as to keep things flowing. We milk two at a time with a portable milking machine and hand strip afterwards to finish emptying the girls out. The milkhouse contains a 200 gallon Dairycool milk tank that when in operation cools the milk very effectively.

The milk cooling tank is monitored by a chart recorder as is necessary for Grade “A” standards. Also in the milkhouse is a handwash sink and a sink for washing the milk bucket. The whole room is water washable and has a drain in the floor.

The process room with all its stainless steel equipment is beautiful to look at and very functional. We have a 3 compartment sink with drainboards on each side for washing buckets and other equipment, a drying rack, 100 gallon vat pasteurizer which also works very well as an incubator for cultured milk products like cheese and yogurt, and a 6 ft prep table with drawers and a shelf below.

The sales volume to Steve’s Real Foods is growing each year. Along with the milk our goats produce we purchase milk from a several other local goat dairies. This gives us much more flexibility and ability to expand more quickly as sales increase. We have put our vat pasteurizer back in to use as an incubation vat for the yogurt so we can make 60 to 90 gallons per batch. We also have a nifty pneumatic machine called a piston pump to help us package all that yogurt! Once packaged in 16 oz pouches it is stored frozen until they are purchased and thawed for consumption by the pet’s owner. Freezing the yogurt gives it a nice long shelf life.

We also have a small walk-in cooler and a reasonable size room for storage and office space. Thirteen chest freezers round out the dairy at this time but we plan to install a walk-in freezer in the future as business expands. 

Benefits of drinking goats milk

• 1. Goat milk is less allergenic. In the US, cow's milk is a very common food allergy for children under three. Mild side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, and skin rashes and severe reactions could include anaphylactic shock. A protein called Alpha s1 Casein, found in high levels in cow’s milk, is blamed for this. The levels of Alpha s1 Casein in goat’s milk is about 89% less than cow’s milk resulting in nearly 93% of people being able to drink goat’s milk with virtually no side effects [1].
• 2. Goat’s milk is naturally homogenized. Fresh cow's milk will separate when allowed to sit, making it look less desirable for American consumers. the dairy industry utilizes a process called homogenization that allows milk and cream to stay "homogeneous" or well mixed. The problem with homogenization, where the fat globule cell wall has been destroyed /broken, free radicals are released. Free radicals are thought to cause a host of problems in the body.
  Goat’s milk has smaller fat globules and does not contain agglutinin which allows it to stay naturally homogenized thus eliminating the dangers associated with homogenization.
• 3. Goat’s milk is easier to digest. Does cow's milk make you feel bloated? Goat’s milk has smaller fat globules as well as higher levels of medium chain fatty acids which are quicker and easier to digest. Also, when the proteins found in goat milk "clump up" they form a much softer curd than cow’s milk. This allows the body to digest the protein more smoothly and completely than when digesting cow’s milk.
• 4. Goat’s milk rarely causes lactose intolerance. All milk contains certain levels of lactose or ‘milk sugar.’ If you are lactose intolerant you have a deficiency of an enzyme known as lactase which is used to digest lactose.
• 5. Goat’s milk matches up to the human body better than cow’s milk. Goat’s milk has a greater amount of essential fatty acids than cow’s milk as well as significantly greater amounts of vitamin B-6, vitamin A, and niacin. Goat’s milk is also a far superior source of the vitally important nutrient potassium. The high amount of potassium causes goat’s milk to react in an alkaline way within the body whereas cow’s milk is lacking in potassium and ends up reacting in an acidic way.
  Thermodynamically speaking, goat’s milk is better for humans to drink. Human and goat's milk is designed to take a 6-9 pound baby [or kid goat] from 7 pounds at birth to 100-200 pounds as an adult. Cow’s milk is designed to take a 100 pound calf and transform it into a 1200 pound cow. The goal is significantly different! This discrepancy, along with many others, could be why we see obesity rates sky rocketing in the U.S.
  
  [1] Freund G. Use of goat milk for infant feeding: experimental work at Creteil (France). Proceeding of the meeting Interets nutritionnel et dietetique du lait de chevre. Niort, France: INRA, 1996:119–21

Raw Goat Milk Yogurt is good for your pet

The yogurt we make here is not as thick and creamy as you are used to buying at the store but it is packed full of probiotics and nutrition. It is pourable so it can be poured over your pets regular food or put in a bowl as a treat. The yogurt with the addition of Chia seeds for omega fatty acids and coconut for fiber will help your pets digestive system as well as his skin and coat health.

Our product is sold through Steves Real Food. To find a retail location near you go to their website, www.stevesrealfood.com, and use their store locator. This is a very new product so you might want to call first to see if it is available yet.

web link: stevesrealfood.com

Having trouble with ear infections due to yeast? Try some of our yogurt in your pet’s diet, it helps to acidify the body and make it less hospitable to the yeast.

Is your pet on antibiotics? The probiotics in our yogurt will help repopulate the gut with beneficial bacteria.