# Bitter/Sour tasting milk??



## JamieRuth

One of my nubians is giving me a bitter/sour/strong tasting milk (I'm not sure exactly how to describe it), it is not a goaty taste. Her udder looks great and the milk looks great. The people we bought her from milked her last year and said the milk tasted good. My other nubian's milk tastes good so I don't think it is something she is eating. My husband talked to her breeder (the doe comes from good milking lines) and she said something about clinical (or was it sub-clinical?) mastitis. She is not showing any evidence of mastitis that I can see. Do any of you have any ideas? The doe also supposedly gave 1 gallon + 1 pint last year, she is giving me a little over a quart at each milking, although we are just now going to start milking her regularly as her kids are now turning two months old. Thanks


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## FrenchFarm

I wish someone would answer your question, because the same thing is happening with our French Alpine doe, Isabelle. Like you said, it's not a goaty taste, just bitter. We're very careful about sanitation and cooling the milk down fast, so I doubt it's that. She doesn't browse either. I suspect in our case it's something missing in her diet, so we're working on that. We just got her twelve days ago, and her milk tasted good then. Just yesterday I bought her a protein bucket for goats at TSC. It has lots of minerals that she should be getting, and she spent a lot of time licking it last night. My husband is going this afternoon to get them (We have 2 goats. - Phillisa is five months old.) some better hay with more alfalfa in it. So I'm hoping to see/ taste an improvement soon. - Stephanie


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## nhsmallfarmer

i also cannot answer this one, I have 2 that I am milking, their milked gets strained an place in the same gallon glass jar in the fridge, sometimes the next day it tastes funny also, not sour but not good either. I just put it off as something they ate to many apples? new hay?


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## StaceyRosado

I have one doe whos milk taste awful to me but my aunt LOVES it. My two other does have wonderful tasting milk.

I can only think that my off tasting milk comes from my black doe who would need more copper hence eating more minerals which makes it taste almost extra salty. 


if the milk tasted good when you first got her ask the breeder what she was feeding, how much etc. That way you can try to eliminate options.

For the question about how much she was making and now is producing less --- did the previous owners milk her from day one or did they leave the kids on her as you did? that makes a big difference as mom does wean the kids (hence producing less) or she is holding the milk back from you because she wants to feed her kids and then if the kids dont nurse because you have them separate her body slows production because you "left milk in her udder" 

Another thing to look at is how much grain are you giving her -- she needs enough grain to produce milk. Does she have salt available to her? she needs salt to produce milk. Does she get fresh water daily? Like twice a day? I notice a drop in milk production if I dont dump and refill buckets 1 -2 times a day.


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## FrenchFarm

Hi Jamie, I don't know if you're still keeping an eye on this thread, but how are your goats doing? We seem to have cleared up Isabelle's problem. I don't think I'd recommend the protein bucket that I mentioned before. My husband went to TSC and bought a "Dumore goat block". It kind of looks like a big sawdust cookie, and Isabelle and Phillisa love it. The day after we introduced it, we noticed an improvement in the taste of her milk, so we're thinking she was missing out on some necessary minerals. We also started giving her a better quality hay with more alfalfa in it, so that may have helped too.


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## liz

Hi Stephanie, The availability of minerals to goats ensures they are getting what they need, and I have used that block before as mine basically inhaled it, it's best to get it out of the weather because it will fall apart. You mentioned not recomending the protein pail, I've seen it but mine now get loose minerals....was there a problem with it as I have mentioned the use of it to other goat keepers.


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## StaceyRosado

I think she was saying it just wasnt worth the money

If I was wondering about the protein in my goats diet I would just up their feed to a higher protein and make sure I have a good mineral block or loose mineral available.


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## Pheonix08

Is your goat near burdox(sp) we had a goat that ate in and her milk tasted aful!


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## FrenchFarm

Hi Liz, I haven't looked back at this thread in a while, so I just saw your question about the protein pail. It was more expensive than the Dumore goat block (aka cookie bar according to our children) and it's so solid, that they seem to get frustrated with it. They can lick it, but not bite pieces off of it like they can the block. My husband takes a pocket knife and kind of draws a grid on it, and he can tell it gets smoothed off, so they must use it some, but it seems like that thing's going to last forever, which isn't all bad I suppose. And if they do ever use it up we'll have a really sturdy bucket to re-use. But personally we would have just bought the goat block and not the protein pail. - Stephanie


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## TLatCP

I have 2 Oberhasli doe's that I seem to be having the same problem with. I have spent an incredible amount of time making sure that all of my milking equipment is spotless, I milk with an eze milker which gets put into an ice bath immediately and then into the freezer. I have the goats on hay which is usually sold for dairy cows (very good quality), purina goat chow,and BOSS. In the past 3 months I have tried browse, no browse, apple cider vinegar, changing my minerals to purina, introducing alfalfa as well, adding yeast, stool samples to the vet with worming, vitamin A & D shot and just yesterday I gave them a copper bolus. The milk is not goaty flavored, just bitter. I am still looking for an answer and hoping for other suggestions. If i could get past the bitter part the milk would taste wonderful. good luck. with so many complaints of bitterness it must be something mineral related I just hope to find the right needs


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## ksalvagno

TLatCP - http://www.thegoatspot.net/forum/f183/milk-tastes-bitter-salty-148778/ - read through this whole thread.

For everyone else, this is a very old thread.


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