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Yukoner

8 Posts


Posted - Nov 22 2014 :  8:03:27 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I was wondering if it is okay to put milk straight from the cow into the fridge in the morning, and then pasteurize it (and do the full cooling) in the evening?

Also, does the milking machine have to be cleaned immediately after milking, or can it be rinsed in the morning and then fully cleaning in the evening?

(I'm trying to find ways to get it done before work without having to get up at 4 in the morning!)

maryjane

7072 Posts


Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  07:17:56 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Unfortunately, you can't put the milk into the fridge because it doesn't cool down quickly enough and bacteria starts to multiply exponentially in milk when it's warm for too long.

If you aren't going to thermize your milk, you could strain it and put it in half gallon bottles in ice water in a container in the fridge and leave it until you got home (using the cooler w/ice bottles idea in my book). The problem you'd run into is giving your ice bottles enough time in the freezer to get frozen again. However, if you had a big enough freezer, you could have two sets of ice bottles, one to use every other day. Hope that makes sense.

Right now, I'm milking one cow at 2 pm every day (that could easily be 6 p.m. once I slowly switched it). I'm using an EZ Milker (which is also quick and EZ to clean). The total time it takes me to milk and clean is 35 minutes. By then I've put the milk in the pasteurizer for exactly 19 more minutes (based on the volume of milk I'm getting which is a gallon/day), so I set a timer and go back to work. I come back after 19 minutes, put the milk in jars and put them on ice per the instructions in my book. Two hours later, I come back and put the milk in the fridge and the ice bottles back into the freezer.

If you use a bigger machine like a NuPulse, it takes longer to clean. I suppose you could rinse it good with lukewarm water and clean it later, but you'd want to make sure you really cleaned it's every nook and cranny after having let it sit like that.

MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~
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maryjane

7072 Posts


Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  11:48:02 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I should add that once I did chill the milk quickly using an ice bath, put it in the fridge after, and then took it back out later that day and thermized it. In theory it seems like it could work, but I noticed the cream had a slightly slimy texture afterward. I only tried it the once, so it could probably be tried again, along with some bacterial testing to see what happened along those lines and perhaps someone who understands the fat content in milk could explain why it seemed to alter the fats in it. I was going to make it into yogurt so I thought it could work. I fed it to the chickens instead. It just didn't seem right.

Another time, I left my son in charge of getting the milk out after it was done thermizing, chill it as usual in an ice bath, and then get it in the fridge. He forgot (the reason we always keep timers with us now), so after it sat turned off but still in the double boiler bath for an extra hour, he bottled and chilled it. Yuck. The minute you opened a bottle, you caught the distinct whiff of something akin to sulfur. Not even the chickens got that batch.

MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~
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CloversMum

3486 Posts


Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  3:00:07 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
On another post under the same "sanitation" forum, MaryJane shows what a bucket looks like that hasn't been cleaned with the right dairy cleaner...my bucket looked like that once when I forgot to get it washed right after milking my goats (I'm not milking my cow...yet). I have watched MaryJane go through her whole milking process and it truly didn't take long at all. She used LIQUIPFAN to clean her bucket and EZ milker and it seemed to clean and rinse completely and quickly. I have also put my goat milk jars into an ice bucket in my fridge when I've been short on time. However, I don't have a pasteurizer, so that was raw goat milk.

Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens
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Yukoner

8 Posts


Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  4:24:31 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thank you guys very much for your advice.

I am thinking that I could probably get milking and pasteurizing done in the morning. Then, I would just put the milk in small containers with the ice bottles in a cooler IN the fridge. (Yes, we have a separate fridge. Currently it is for our eggs, but there is lots of room for a cooler for milk, too.). That way, I wouldn't have to worry about it again until I got home from work.

And as for introducing my cow, *sigh* I don't have a one yet. Hubbie needs me to show him how it could work with our busy life before he will give me the A-Okay! LOL!

(We do, however, have a 160 acre agricultural property with brome grass pasture just WAITING for a bovine friend. :-)

Edited by - Yukoner on Nov 23 2014 4:25:18 PM
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Ron

4666 Posts
Ronnie
Peever SD
USA

Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  4:59:55 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Yes! 160 is all you need. You could always bypass the machine too and just hand milk. Less cleanup and I kind of like it.
Where you guys at?

With a moo moo here and a moo moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo.
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Yukoner

8 Posts


Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  6:02:57 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are way, WAY north. (North of 60 degrees latitude in the Yukon - East of Alaska).

I am actually tempted to milk only April to Hallowe'en every year. (7 months on, 5 months off. I have heard that they do 6 and 6 in some Northern Scandinavian countries.). That would be easier on me, and I think it would be easier on the cow to not have to produce milk during the coldest, darkest time up here. Besides, our excess and our whey would be going to our pigs, and they are only around until mid-October every year!
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Ron

4666 Posts
Ronnie
Peever SD
USA

Posted - Nov 23 2014 :  6:23:43 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Sounds like a good plan. Depending on the cow hand milking could work and maybe save time. Guess it depends on you set up.

With a moo moo here and a moo moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo.
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