How to milk sanitarily.

More people in the world drink goat milk than drink cows milk. Sheep and even donkeys have been raised for milk production in the past and still are in some parts of the world.

The idea one has to keep in mind is that milk is sanitary so long as its in the animal but from the time it leaves the animal till the time it is consumed it has to be kept sterile and that is nearly impossible without expensive equipment and facilities.

The first thing most milkers do is to wipe down the udders , some even shave the entire udder of the milk producing beast. So the utters and teats are always wiped down with warm antiseptic water - or teat dip - we use Mouthwash as a cheap substitute.

After the milk gathers in the udder and fills it, it has to pass through the orifices at the end of each teat. These are basically holes and where milk comes out and bacteria and dirt can enter so the first few squirts are to flush out the orifices. It gets sprayed onto a rag or in a 'stripping' cup. This first few squirts are good to examine for clumps , infection , or blood as the presence of any of these is cause for concern. The milk should not be used for human consumption if it has any of these characteristics.

So once your milking fresh milkyou should milk each teat until it is empty and then take your fresh warm milk and strain it either through cloth or through a very fine strainer. The reason for this is even the most careful of milkers and cleanest of animals can allow hair and particals of dirt to fall into the milk bucket - this is not catastrophic as it is so minute an amount of germ present that by straining the milk any thing like this can be removed leaving only clean palatable milk.

The next thing to be wary of is cooling time - you have cow temperature milk that is around 90 degrees or goat milk that is closer to 100 degrees. Warm fresh milk has a shelf life of less than 30 minutes at that temperature before bacteria in the air starts to cause the newly acquired milk to sour . The faster you can chill the milk to <40 degrees F the better as at this temperature the bacteria growth is slowed and the milk can be kept and used. Dairies have equipment that chill milk quickly by pumping it through heat exchangers I try to keep a clean stainless steel bread pan chilled in the freezer to pour the warm milk in and then set it n the freezer until it is uniformly chilled . the large surface area allows for quick chilling, Milk should always be stored covered as dust in the air carries bacteria enough to shorten the usable life of the milk.