Raw milk products, are they safe for use at home?

[savingdogs]

We bought dairy goats (weanlings) last fall to make goats milk cheese and soap and some of our family members are lactose intolerant.

Since then I've heard horror stories about raw milk and listeria and e-coli.

I'm a fairly clean person but inexperienced with this, is it feasible to think I can do this without endangering my family? The goal was self sufficiency here, not a trip to the hospital.....

Are many of you using raw milk products, goats milk in particular?

 

[tamlynn]

I don't have dairy goats myself, but my mom and some of her neighbors do. If you take steps to keep equipment clean and goats healthy, everyone should be fine. We drink raw goats milk all summer when we visit.

 

[Wildsky]

You should be totally fine, a goat or cow kept at home, and kept with good food and lots of sunshine will be a healthy animal.

If you keep your kitchen clean and all your milking stuff, you too will be fine.

We just got a goat on Friday, we've been milking her and everyone has had some milk - we're fine.
I trust my own handling of the goat, the milk etc more than I trust what some huge company is doing, they only have to pasturize because they don't/can't keep everything as clean as a person with a small farm can!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

all raw, all the time - goats that is

Big Dairy has done a great job of putting fear into the masses. if you home dairy and do your research and do what is recommended you should be fine. always a risk? yep.. but then only 80 people a year die from raw milk.. i think more folks get killed by vending machines falling over on them
;-)

ps you'll get this from a lot of people in your family - but they probably think you are a weirdo for doing this farmin' thing anyway... maybe its just my family... but thats what happens


pss there are some people who you will never convince. thats fine.

psss we dont give anyone raw dairy UNLESS they are in our home and we tell them and they understand the risks, we never give to kids or those with impaired immune systems. and we dont make them feel bad about it. until they leave. then we mock them. (just kidding)

pssss there are plenty of ways to pasteurize at home if it makes your nervous

 

[freemotion]

Statistically you are far more likely to get very sick from produce you buy in the grocery store than from raw milk from any source. From your own healthy animals, using common sense and good practices of cleanliness, you will be safer than safe. I drank raw milk as a kid from our family goats and cow and drink lots of raw milk and eat raw dairy products from my own goats. YUM!

I cannot tolerate so much as a spoonful of commercial dairy products such as milk or fresh cheeses or ice cream without getting very ill. I can drink raw goat's milk in any quantity.

Enjoy!

 

[big brown horse]

We are raw milk drinkers here too. (It is cow's milk though...hopefully I will have my own sheep's milk next year.)

I also buy raw cheese when I can.

I was raised on raw cow's milk too.

I'm not afraid of raw milk IF it comes from your own well kept goats-sheep-cows, or a nice clean reputable dairy.

 

[Blackbird]

Raw milk here too!

Cleanliness is of the utmost importance, and even then often times the good beasties in raw milk will kill any potential hazards.

I cannot believe that so many states ban the sale of raw milk and put up a deathly front in the news about it, while millions are spent on cigarette commercials.

 

[BriteChicken]

I have an auto immune disease called non-tropical Celiac sprue aka "Celiac" and my Gastroenterologist swears by raw goat or cows milk saying that one day I'll most likely develop a sensitivity to lactose also, so I'm interested in hearing why people with auto immune disease shouldn't drink raw...

I hope that I can continue to drink raw right now I get raw cows milk from TN but I'm hoping to eventually get dairy goats and at least hobby farm...

P.s. Everyone has given awesome answers and I hope you get the answer your looking for!

p.s.s. Sorry if I digressed on the threads topic :/

 

[~gd]

You should be totally fine, a goat or cow kept at home, and kept with good food and lots of sunshine will be a healthy animal.

If you keep your kitchen clean and all your milking stuff, you too will be fine.

We just got a goat on Friday, we've been milking her and everyone has had some milk - we're fine.
I trust my own handling of the goat, the milk etc more than I trust what some huge company is doing, they only have to pasturize because they don't/can't keep everything as clean as a person with a small farm can!

They have to pasturize because they blend the milk from lots of farms and it only takes one mistake anywhere in the system to spread the disease to a whole bunch of customers.
I have a theory that many small holders both now and in the past may have picked up a few germs from their animals they either died or recovered with immunity to their local germs.
I grew up on raw milk, when I went into the Navy I failed my TB test and was thrown into isolation so I couldn't spred it to others. Later a old Doctor came wandering in and asked about my upbringing and asked about the milk I drank as I told him he got a BSEG on his face and he told me these young punks think you are a carrier what they forgot is that this cheap test we use just shows if you were ever exposed to TB before. You were, probably through the milk but you beat it. relax and sit tight while we run modern tests which will show that you are free of the disease and actually have partial immunity if you should be exposed again. I did and the tests showed what he said they would.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

These are your goats, and you know how clean you are, how healthy your animals are, so that's a choice you have to make. That being said, we've been drinking raw milk for about 2 months now and no one has been sick. (other than a head cold I got when they brought out the crop-dusters)

If you are clean, you keep your equipment clean & your goats healthy, you shouldn't have any worries.