One of the main reasons I bought goats in 2018 was for the raw milk. Some people feel that milk should be pasteurized.

Pasteurization is heating milk to kill of any bacteria, an undeniably important step in commercial dairy operations. This also destroys a lot of the good things in the milk along with anything bad that may be there.

Raw milk is very important to me. I sought it out even before living in the country where I could have my own goats. I have been drinking either raw cow or goat milk for 15+ years. With the fairly extensive research I have done over the years, I believe it is healthier raw, as long as the animals are healthy and the milking practices are clean.

A few years back, I toured a small scale milking operation. (About 30 cows.) I do believe they did an adequate job, but animals are still dirty, and sometimes it seems they (the animals!) try their best to contaminate everything. They had their cows stand in a long row for milking, dipped each teat in a sterilizing solution before hooking up to the milking machine (so any “dirt” on the teat stayed, it was now just “sterilized dirt”). The milk flows down the lines to a big vat, combined with all of the other animal’s milk. Then a truck comes to pick it up, and it gets mixed with the milk from thousands of other cows before pasteurization.

I strongly prefer milk from my own does to pasteurized milk from the store, and though I will drink both, I only drink store bought if I can’t have my goat milk. 

Watch your animals. There are some things that can pass from goat to human, and, yes, some of them can pass through the milk. Normal goat parasite load does NOT pass that way. You can research zoonic diseases in goats to learn what to be aware of. Toxoplasmosis would be my biggest concern, so learn how it works, and stay on top of the mice! (Which can get it from cats.) I have not tested for it, but I have a working knowledge of how it works. My goats have never miscarried, which is the big problem with toxoplasmosis in goats. So in addition to it being uncommon for a goat to get it (since cats are actually the source) my goats show no signs of having it, and I am confident our milk is good.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is to keep the milk clean! If you have healthy, disease-free animals, the milk is clean before it comes out of the udder. Your job is simply to keep it that way!

I wash teats before milking. I prefer this to just sterilizing the dirt.  Use a clean bowl, for milking, then pour the milk into a clean, covered jar, and filter and refrigerate as soon as you’re done milking. (Filtering only removes debris, like hair or dust. It does not remove bacteria!)

Goats are ornery sometimes. Dispose of anything questionable! (Like yesterday one little lady stepped in the bowl of milk as I was milking her and ruined a whole bowl! Ug!)

We carry clean farm practices over into the house. Muck boots are for the barn, and they come off at the door. Hands get washed first thing. Basically I have a rule: NO DIRT (i.e. poop) IN THE HOUSE!

I test for CL, and Johnes, and CAE, but these are for my herd health. These are the most regularly tested for things in goats, but only CL is potentially transmittable to humans, and it is primarily transmitted through open sores. (Not likely I’ll miss an open sore as I milk each animal every morning!) I also regularly run fecals to monitor parisites. These parisites, except for tapeworm, don’t pass from goat to human, so, again, I do it for my animal’s health, not to keep the milk clean. (Tapeworm does not pass through milk either, but definitely don’t walk barefoot through your goat barn!) The parasites are a funny thing to even be talking about, since some parasites (not all) are part of a healthy DIGESTIVE TRACT in goats, and don’t even enter the mammory system.

Listeriosis is sometimes a fear people have when considering consuming raw milk. Goats can get this from eating moldy hay. It is deadly, and hard to save a goat who has contracted it. You will know better from your daily interaction with your goats whether they have it than from a yearly test that tells you whether they had it at the time the test was performed. (Up to a year ago!  )

All of this is to explain why I believe my goats’ milk is far better than store bought, pasteurized milk. Yes, there are concerns, but they are lower concerns with a small, well-managed goat herd than a gallon of milk that contains milk mixed in a giant vat from thousands of cows.

You can always pasteurize it, if you have concerns. This kills the good with the bad, so it is a trade-off. Pasteurized milk is still a food, with nutrients and calories, just not as many of the nutrients.

At realmilk.com, you can read about the changes that take place in milk with pasteurization. Again, I am not against pasteurization, but I prefer my food with all of the nutrients intact. 

Finally, something no one has mentioned, there are bacteria and germs everywhere. Ingesting raw milk is not any MORE dangerous than keeping goats you are not milking, or even visiting animals, or even having your own cat or dog in the house. Just be smart about animal care. Try not to eat poop.  (Keep farm shoes off the carpet, and keep the cat off the table!!!)