Interviewing a goat farmer

I just finished writing a massive -- and I mean massive (8600 words) -- article for Backwoods Home Magazine called The Home Dairy. I was asked to write something fairly comprehensive (which explains the article length -- it's a huge topic) and to be sure to include cows AND goats.

Well I know plenty about milking cows, but goats? Not so much. I needed to find someone who milked goats. Preferably I wanted someone who wasn't a commercial dairyist (since the article is geared toward the home milker), but even in north Idaho this turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

After a few inquiries, I connected with a delightful woman named Susan who -- despite my phone call out of the blue from a perfect stranger -- graciously invited me over to see her goats and her setup.

My goodness, Susan absolutely loves her goats -- and it was easy to see why. "Goats are very personable," she said. "It's like having dogs." At the moment she has about 35 animals -- Alpine, Saanan, Oberhasli, La Mancha, Nigerian Dwarfs, and some crosses. She sells kids but does no butchering. She's worked with 4-H for about 25 years and helps many local kids get started with their animals.

The portion of the barn I saw had a large open pen at the end (pictured above), a milking stand, and a series of kidding pens.

This lady is one of the milkers, whom Susan obligingly kept in the barn until I arrived so she could show me how she milked.

This is their homemade milking stand. As with most stands for goats, it's elevated for easier milking. It has a feed box on the other side of the headpiece. Susan milks twice a day but keeps the kids on the does. She milks anywhere from two to four animals, depending on how much milk she needs.

The headpiece is an area where goats can be locked in by the neck so they don't move around during milking. Susan and her husband built a clever one that slides in place...

...and locks in with a nail.

Here's one goat in place.

And two goats.

Look at those beautiful udders! Two teats, not four (like a cow). Gotta get used to that.

Susan milks from the side, with her left wrist braced against the doe's hind leg to keep her from kicking. Couldn't do that with a cow!

The strong hands of an experienced milker.

Susan gets about a half-gallon per milking per animal, or about a gallon a day per doe.

After showing me her milking setup, Susan let the herd loose.

She has beautiful property with a small stream running through.

It was enchanting to watch these beautiful animals frolic in the spring sunshine.

Hungry kids.

This is a breed of dog called an Akbash. He's the herd guardian.

Goats, being goats, like to climb things, so Susan keeps the logs from this fallen tree in the pasture for their amusement.

This little fella is a La Mancha, a breed with tiny ears.

This is the herd sire, also a La Mancha.

It was delightful becoming more acquainted with these wonderful dairy animals. While I love my cows, it's easy to see why Susan is so taken with goats.

My thanks to Susan for graciously sharing her knowledge with me.

Interviewing a sheep dairyist

On Wednesday, I had a very interesting experience. I interviewed a sheep dairyist at a facility called Homestead Farm.

The reason behind this interview is that Backwoods Home Magazine asked me to write a comprehensive article on home dairying. Cow and goat milk is pretty obvious, but sheep milk? When I learned there was a sheep dairy within reasonable driving distance, I decided to learn a little more about this resource. What a gem of an opportunity.

The farm is run by John Cady, along with his business partner Shari Pratt and her husband Dale Pratt, who is a certified Master Cheesemaker.

John raises Katahdin sheep, a breed that doesn't need shearing because they shed. In other words, they have fur instead of wool.

Like goats, sheep are most comfortable to milk on an elevated stand.

A sheep's udder is decent-sized relative to the size of the animal -- but the teats are so small! How can you grab and milk a teat that size?

The answer is to use an EZ Milker, a handheld suction device that is pumped to create a vacuum to start the milk flowing. After a few pumps the milk runs out on its own. The advantage of this system is it keeps the milk squeaky clean.

Unlike cows, where milk is measured in gallons; or goats, where milk is measured in quarts... sheep milk is measured in ounces.

Sheep's milk has small fat molecules which won't separate the cream from the milk, so making butter isn't possible without a culture. Which begs the question, why milk sheep?

The answer? Cheese!

Sheep's milk is wonderful for lactose-intolerant people (better than goat's milk, in fact), and makes superb ice cream and yogurt. But the most princely product is cheese. Sheep-milk cheese is considered a gourmet item and is sold in Costco for upwards of $40/lb.

One gallon of milk makes about 1.4 lbs. of cheese. 100 lbs. of milk makes approximately eight 2.5 lb. wheels of cheese. It takes about a week to get 100 lbs. of milk. The milk is frozen in plastic bags (freezing does not affect the milk's quality, again because of the small fat molecules).

These is the cheese press.

Here's raw cheese curing in a salt brine.

The cheese is then waxed and aged. This outfit makes mostly gouda (including smoked gouda), but also bleu cheese, ricotta, feta, etc. These cheeses sell for $40/lb and up. They also make specialty custom cheese to order, such as habanero, cumin, garlic/herb, horseradish, jalapeno, etc. These custom cheeses cost $65 - $80/lb.

The milk they don't use for cheese gets made into soap and skin care products. They also sell cuts of meat. The meat from Katahdin sheep is much less "gamey" than Suffolk (the usual meat breed in the U.S.), so demand is high.

They sell their cheese at farmer's markets and fairs. NOW raising and milking sheep starts to make a lot more economic sense!

John Cady has over 100 ewes for sale. Unregistered sheep sell for $200-250 each, though registered sheep start much higher. He can get people started with a backyard flock for about $650-750. John says Katahdin sheep are disease resistant, parasite resistant, have fewer hoof problems, don't require shearing, and they have a brain.

Besides, they're lovely.

Making yogurt

A reader asked how to make yogurt. It just so happened I had some pictures of the process but never got around to posting them. So...here goes.

Start with two quarts of milk. I like to use skim milk.


Add 1/4 cup of nonfat dry milk. This will add to the creaminess of the yogurt. Mix thoroughly and slowly heat the milk to 180F.


Don't stir during this time, just let the milk gently heat. When it hits 180F, turn the heat off and let it cool to between 105F and 115F. Again, don't stir. When the milk is cooled, there will be a thick nasty skin on top. Scoop this off and discard.


I like to use Bulgarian yogurt starter. I order mine from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. The reason I use Bulgarian starter is because it can recultured indefinitely.


Whatever you do, do NOT add the yogurt culture to the milk when it's hotter than 115F because it will kill the culture (been there, done that). Stir gently until the culture is thoroughly mixed.


Now the milk has to be incubated for a minimum of 5 to 6 hours (I usually incubate mine about 12 hours because I like a tarter yogurt). Anything can be used as long as the milk stays warm. Several years ago I bit the bullet and bought a Yogotherm Yogurt Maker. The reason I like this is it's nonelectric - it's literally just a plastic bucket that nestles inside a Styrofoam sleeve. You could probably put the milk behind the woodstove in order to stay warm; or inside a gas oven with a pilot light; or wrapped in towels and tucked inside a small ice chest. Use your creativity to come up with some way to keep the milk warm.



After the yogurt has incubated for several hours, remove the plastic bucket from the incubator and refrigerate overnight (or about 12 hours).

Before flavoring the yogurt, scoop out a few ounces and put it in a small container. Keep this in the fridge. This is your starter for the next batch.


To sweeten the yogurt, I use one cup of sugar or Splenda, then either add 1/4 cup vanilla (for vanilla yogurt) or some peach purree (peaches are my favorite fruit). Obviously you can flavor it however you like and to your taste.