Comments on: Raw Milk, Oh Baby!

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:54:07 +0000

So, what do you DO with the milk?
We take to back to the kitchen as quickly as possible and then strain it into a clean jar. You can use milk strainers and filters but we just bought some synthetic fabric from a fabric store that works as a very fine screen to remove hair or bits of stuff that fell in the milk. We usually fold the fabric so that the milk must pass through a few layers of it. We then move the clean milk to the freezer or an ice water bath as soon as possible to chill it. Chilling the milk keeps any bad bacteria from multiplying to a dangerous level.
We aren’t currently milking but we drink it whole or use a ladle to spoon off some cream and use the cream to make butter in our mixer. To make butter you basically just agitate the cream at room temp. and it starts to separate and bind to itself. I then use the mixers dough hooks to kneed the butter and squeeze out all the left over milk.

Hope this helps. If you’re looking for a milk cow I know where there is a Dexter/Jersey cross heifer for sale.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:28:59 +0000

Thanks for sharing your knowledge about Dexters. I’m a suburbanite-recently-turned-mini-farm-girl and I’ve been researching Dexters, but I’m embarassed to say that I don’t know what you do with the milk from the cow. Do you need to “process” the milk in any way before drinking it? And, do you use special “equipment” to separate the cream? Thanks for putting up with my newbie questions.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:23:34 +0000

Could you restate the first paragraph? I’m not following you.

By: Yeoman

Yeoman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:00:40 +0000

Assuming adequate feed otherwise, I don’t think there would be a requirement for a non-freak dairy cow. Sufficient and forage ought to take care of it.

I’m not familiar with dairy cattle at all, but I suspect that typical ones are fed simply because they’re partially confined, and the modern dairy cow is a bit of a freak, bread for extraordinarily high milk production.

Very interesting on the Dexter.

Is your family good with the milk? I sometimes find that people who are used to getting their milk from a plastic jug are a little put off by the original product for some reason.

By: Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:17:48 +0000

Nice! Congrats on you & Ivy and your new milking abilities! I’m still plugging away with my goat girls and making lots of cheese too. Ivy looks great. ‘Almost’ makes me want a cow.. ha… Julie

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:31:59 +0000

Geri, My wife wrote this but I’ll answer your question.
Yes, that’s right, Dexters were a “house cow” in Ireland. They were required to produce enough milk for a family’s dairy needs and a calf for beef. They can also be used as a nurse cow.
What is really amazing to me is that we are using no grain at and yesterday was the first day I used alfalfa pellets. Despite being on pasture alone she’s giving 1 3/4 – 2 1/4 gallons of milk and not only that but her body condition looks really really good. Part of the reason that we bought Dexters was the fact that they were so versatile and we wanted to have the option to milk if we wanted. I now am ready for some beef cows but am still really happy with her.
By the way, Dexters are also used as oxen.

By: Yeoman

Yeoman — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:56:52 +0000

Were Dexters developed as a mixed purpose (milk and meat) breed?