# Funky tasting milk from first freshener



## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

Our farm had its first goat birth last month. The doe is a two-year-old Nigerian Dwarf and a first freshener. 

We let the babies have all of the milk at first and then tried to milk her after 12 days. We were really disappointed that the milk tasted funky. We thought maybe there was still a trace of colostrum in it, so we waited until 3-weeks-post-birth and tried again. Still funky tasting, but it is getting slightly better each day. We're at 5-weeks-post-birth now. It's still not drinkable. We just keep milking her each morning to make sure her milk supply stays up (letting the babies have the milk the rest of the time). 

We did a mastitis test and it turned out fine. The funky taste is not salty, either, as I've read it may be with mastitis. There doesn't seem to be any other problem with her health or udder. (Though it did turn from gray to pink after we shaved it. It exactly corresponds with a sun tan.) She hates to be milked, but I don't believe she is in any pain because she's fine with her babies nursing. 

We don't have any bucks, so that wouldn't be contributing to the bad taste. One of her kids is a buck, but I haven't heard of a young buckling influencing his mother's milk. 

We've tightened up our straining and cooling-down process and have made sure there are plenty of free-choice minerals available. (She had run out at one point.) We're not sure what else to do. Our only other guess is that there might be a particular weed that she's been eating. (Though there aren't very many weeds at all at this point after the particularly long winter.)

Anyone have their milk taste bad at first and improve? How long can colostrum stay in milk? Can a doe's milk just taste bad? Am I just not used to goat's milk? :chin: Any other ideas?

Thanks!


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## TDG-Farms (Jul 12, 2013)

what and when are you feeding her vs when you milk her?

Although there are many factors to milk flavor, some animals just have nasty tasting milk.


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## sbaker (Nov 11, 2012)

normal goats milk is good. Tastes like milk! My girls milk tasted terrible, and I found out it was because she was eating buttercups, which grow freely where I live. Taste improved 100% once i penned her up away from the flowers! Maybe try confining her to see if taste improves on a monitored diet? I've also heard baking soda can improve taste- I just started adding it to my girls minerals yesterday, so I haven't noticed a difference yet, as far as that goes.


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## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

She gets free choice hay, minerals, and water all day. Twice a day (morning with milking and night at bed-time) she gets a grain mix. It has peas, barley, oats, alfalfa pellets, flax, minerals, etc.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

When was the last time she was copper bolused?


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## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

We haven't used copper boluses. Does a lack of copper cause goaty flavors in milk? Maybe we should try that.


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## sbaker (Nov 11, 2012)

I've heard that lack of copper can give an off taste. My milker still has a very faint off flavor, so I ordered copper this morning. I'm hoping that's all it takes to get her milk tasting perfect.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Yes. Copper deficiency can give milk a bad flavor.


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## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

I've just ordered some copper boluses, but it looks as though they won't arrive for another week :-( Thanks for the tip though!


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## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

Once you have ruled out mastitis, which you already have, make sure they are up on copper and b vitamins. If I have one with off tasting milk I copper bolus and feed distillers grains or brewers yeast or a cobalt supplement (depending on what I can get) plus give a shot or two of B complex. That has always fixed it right up for me, even in my Togg that I had. Takes a few days, for everything to get in to their system and milk to improve, but it has worked well for me.


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## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

So here's an update: we gave the bolus a couple of weeks ago and saw a steady improvement in the flavor of the milk. A few days ago it tasted perfect. Then all of a sudden the milk started tasting funky again. Should I assume that she's getting into bad tasting weeds now?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Could be. Is the bad taste any different?


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## cmcclung (Sep 18, 2013)

Do you feed minerals which are specifically for goats?? I had this problem a couple of years ago when I ran sheep with my goats. I used minerals with no copper that were for sheep. I copper boluse and the problem would clear up then return within a week. Once I got rid of the sheep and switched the minerals all was well. I also am a big believer in baking soda. I offer all my goats free choice minerals and baking soda.


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## carrie307 (Apr 1, 2014)

Update - After the copper and making sure the goats had plenty of minerals, the milk tasted perfect. Just like cow's milk. So that must have been the problem! (Recently, it is slightly more goaty, so not sure what that's about, but in general, it is good.)


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Probably needs a copper bolus. Glad that took care of it before.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

Some goats need copper bolus' 2 or 3 times a year. If you have hard well water- the 
iron in the water will bind with the copper in the minerals and neutralize it.


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

I added a cobalt block this year as the year before I had goaty milk towards the end of the summer. This year I had perfect all year, kept so good, only one time had less than tasty milk and that was because I had a jar of milk shoved in the back of the fridge, not sure how old it was... I was very aware of making sure to give the copper and make sure they never ran out of minerals, made all the difference.


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