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This is the cream line.
My first cream came off the top of a half-gallon pitcher of milk. The rest of the milk from the first day’s milking went down children’s throats before there was time for me to separate it. I guarded this pitcher against invasion and eagerly waited for the next day to take off the cream.
I used a small measuring cup to ladle it off the top and into a small bowl.
Then I transferred it to a small dispenser to use as coffee cream.
Because, be serious, it’s not enough cream to do anything else with. I got about 2/3 cup.
When I did a search about how much cream to expect from a gallon of milk, I found that commonly in the winter, you can expect a quart of cream per gallon, and in the summer, somewhat less. This difference is because most often cows are getting richer food in the winter (more supplemental hay and feed) than they are in the summer when they’re more likely on pasture. Still, per half-gallon, that would suggest I should expect a pint (if it were winter) and something less in summer. We’re in-between those seasons right now, but our cow is still mainly on hay and feed anyway. Two-thirds cup from a half-gallon seems pretty slight, so I’m wondering if my cream separating might need work. There was more cream in the pitcher, but I couldn’t get it out without getting milk mixed in with it so I stopped.
I’ve been tossing around the idea of putting the milk in a big glass jar with a spigot at the bottom (like a sun tea jar). Let the cream rise then release the milk out of the spigot at the bottom till all that’s left is cream. I may try that–when I find a big glass spigot jar.
I’m thinking a cream separator would be really handy, but they’re a little on the expensive side. Uh, I don’t think so!
How about some free advice instead? Help? I need cream.
Update: Thank you for all the tips! What’s working well for me now, thanks to your advice, is using a large bowl and skimming off the top. I’m getting much more cream that way!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on April 14, 2010
1:57
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I have one of those spigot jars that I use sometimes. Mostly I just scoop off what cream I need. I keep my milk in 1/2 gallon RubberMaid pitchers that are made for mixing orange juice. They have a plunger deal with a handle that goes through the lid so you can stomp it up and down and mix in the cream.
My MinniCow (Jersey) gives 25-28# of milk per milking times 2 equals 50-56# of milk per day.I think milk is 8.6# per gallon so that is about 6 gallons per day and 42 gallons per week.I get better than an inch of cream on the top of each of my pitchers.
My kids are grown and gone and right now the chickens and pigs (who used to help us drink all this good stuff) are in the freezer so you can guess that with just Hubs and me, we are drowning in milk. I need to get serious on hard cheese because it will help use up more of the flood.Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the bounty, but right now my cup, and pitcher, and pail runneth over!
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One was on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Cream-Separator-50L-H-Manual/dp/B0035QZ1G4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1271228484&sr=8-2
One is a one made by a small family business. http://novocreamseparators.com/blog/
And one on a site I have not heard of before. ( I don’t know how reputable they are or not.
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=6529372
4:16
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I miss the way milk used to come for us city folks, in glass bottles with the cream on top.
4:34
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Individual cows also vary greatly in butterfat production. You may have a cow that is just a low fat producer. It happens. Our cows were tested monthly and it’s amazing to have herd records and find out these differences. Breed averages put a Brown Swiss at around 4% butterfat, but individual animals can vary widely. We had Holsteins that consistently beat the breed average and produced double the average butterfat content. At the same time we had a Jersey that never made over 2% butterfat. Needless to say she was culled because besides being a crappy producer she had a bad attitude.
The spigot jug sounds like a better solution than a separator. From everything I’ve read separators are a pain to clean. Not worth the time for one cow.
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When you really see a lot is when she is giving 4-5 gallons of milk daily.
I put my milk in a wide topped crock; let sit overnight, skimmed with a small metal ladle and saved until I got enough to churn.
I still have my electric butter churn. My dear shorthorn’s BF isn’t up to butter-making proportion!
I you are both doing great!
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Check with the summer/picnic items at walmart.
jill
7:34
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If you chilled the cream and whipped it you would have had a lot of whipping cream. Now if you want the cream to make something else you would be short. Your chickens were lucky, because I can think of lots of ways to use the milk.
7:42
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I don’t think I want to know what “culled” means…
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When my mother was a child, Grandma took her extra butter (and eggs) to the local store to trade for other things. To her, shopping was “doing your trading”.
Thanks, Suzanne, for reminding me of those days I spent with my grandparents. And good luck with your butter.
8:42
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We bought a cream separator on eBay for less, but it was still pricey. Goat’s milk has to stand for several days before the cream rises; it’s naturally homogenized.
I’ve seen sun tea jars used to separate milk from cream.
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I use my cream for many different things. I make butter with my mixer, make different sauces (alfredo!!), use it in coffee, make up a sweet cream drizzle for over top of warm fruit pies, add it to my mac&cheese and casseroles instead of milk…the possibilities are endless!!!!!
I hope you enjoy your new cow, her milk and the cream.
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I have a gravy separator like etiennette blue mentions, but it holds a quart. Bought it from a shmancy ktichen stuff store going out of business. Same idea as the spigot Suntea jar but easier to fill, empty, and clean. The spout comes from the bottom, so you poour off the broth from your roast and the fat stays on top.
It works very well to separate the fat from the broth for gravy and I bet it would work for cream.
Zabby
4:32
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One lady I know told me she always churned her butter for dinner by using the jar method and rolling it back and forth on the floor with her toe as she rocked her babies. Since you don’t have a baby maybe you could churn while you rock and knit?
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I dont have a cow nor a goat (hope to one day) but I do nurse my baby (lol) and they do say that you should nurse completely on one side before switching so that the baby gets some of the richer ‘hind milk’
8:32
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For skimming, find something with a thin edge. Stainless steel gravy spoon or ladle, stainless steel measuring cup — all the stores around here have them, so they must be the thing now. Those rounded edges on the plastic measuring cup aren’t so good for skimming cream – you can’t get the thinner layers without getting too much milk, too.
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I find that if you wait a minimum of 48 hours after milking, you will get most of the cream. You need to use a shallow spoon to skim it off with, as other things will grab the heavy cream and you will end up with milk mixed in. Then when you try to make butter, it won’t work. You want no or extremely little milk in your cream. The heaviest always works best. If you get too much cream, you will need a dasher-style churn (you can make these homemade, you know).
To get your cow to give more cream, give her barley chop (2 ice cream pails once a day or if you do 2ce a day, 1 gal./milking). We find that we get 1 qt. of heavy cream off of 1 gal. of milk this way (and this is “skimmed off the top” cream). If you don’t use as rich of a chop (such as oats), you will get less cream. Our cows both loved it and reward us with LOTS of wonderful, tasty cream. As the weather warms, you will get more milk and richer, more yellow cream with the greening up of the pasture.
I would think that a jar with a spigot would leave too much milk in the cream. Thought about doing that, nixed that idea quickly. IF you can find something that truly has the spout on the bottom, this has been done in the past, and does work. A baster can work. I have used one, but prefer skimming.
You can find separators for less if you ask around. Make sure that it does work and is missing NO parts before purchasing. You need to make sure that the set screw is not missing from the bowl (the part that spins). We have a hand-crank from 1927 and a newer (50s-60s) motorized one. Our separator is missing its set screw. It gives VERY skim milk and hard cream this way. All it takes is a little 5-10 min. massage to make butter. I like a little more cream in my milk, though, so I skim.
I clean our stainless steel separator parts in the dishwasher. To get it extra clean, use 1 T. of citric acid in with your dishwasher det. These parts are generally the bowl. To clean the spouts, you can use a baby bottle brush.
Make sure that your fridge is at a temp. of 32*-40*F. This is the ideal temp. I would highly advise getting a fridge thermometer to make sure that your fridge is cold enough. We find that it stays sweeter longer this way. We have had it remain good for a minimum of 5 days at this temp.
I would HIGHLY recommend getting the book, “The Family Cow” by Dirk van Loon published by Storey publ. It will have all kinds of ready answers to any of your questions. It is very thorough…an excellent book!
We don’t pasteurize. If you have proper hygiene in your milking process, you shouldn’t ever need to do so. Only if your milk is unfiltered, your cow’s udder is unclean, if your cow stirs the milk in the pail with her foot, will you get sick. You throw that kind of stirred milk out (or give it to the pigs)! It is not the good “chocolate” milk!
Pasteurizing kills the good along with the bad, and when your milk goes sour, it is rotting. When unpasteurized milk goes sour, it just goes sour. Another thing, I have found that I get sick on warm bought milk and not with warm raw milk. I don’t like the thought of dead things floating around in my milk either. 
2:19
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The old rule of thumb when dairying was fiber makes butterfat (cream); protein (grains top quality hay or forage makes volume.
I am doing once a day milking now and am getting about a quart per gallon of cream. Willow is getting very little grain and is on spring grass where the protein content is very high. I am close to drying her, May 29th.