Post by thystledown on Nov 4, 2023 7:15:28 GMT -5
I think I get a lot of cream from Heiferlump's daughter Esther. I've complained about her for other reasons, but she milks more, with more cream and higher cheese yield than her mom. But the cream seems to change. I use a separator pretty much everyday. Recently, the milk line on day old cream changed from less than 1/4 inch to 3 inches of milk in the bottom below the cream! I figured the screw got moved somehow and tightened it. I got a skim of cream on the skim milk I set to clabber, but I still got a 1 inch milk line in the jar of cream. Then milk production, which had dropped by over a gallon with cold, snow, frozen grass and probably her last heat or who knows why, went back up a half gallon and the milk line went back to a normal 1/4 inch on day old cream. I haven't touch the screw since, but the milk line still fluctuates from day to day. And in the drop in production, has stabilized at between 2.5 and 3 gallons down from 3.5 or a little more. (OAD with 2 calves on her days, Fresh early September). I was getting two full quarts or a bit more of heavy cream (1/4 inch or less of milk line on day old cream) and now I get 1 to 1.75 if that is relevant. But I don't understand why the fluctuation in the amount of milk I'm getting when skimming the cream. I have used the separator for years and know I'm using it correctly and have double checked that. I warm it up with hot water before running the milk too. So is her day to day "thickness" of the cream different? I really don't know anything about how components in general change over the duration of a lactation. what can you all tell me? BTW, the pic I included is of a jar of whole milk I'd set out with kefir grains to culture. I attached it just to show the whole milk cream line and because I like the pic and I had it. I don't have any pics of the skimmed cream jars.