Showing posts with label Milk. Show all posts
Chaseburg Farmer Finds New Use for Goat Milk Soap
Posted by Unknown in Goat Farming, Milk, Soap on Monday, 28 January 2013
(LaCrosse Tribune)
CHASEBURG — Meghan Klum was throwing away a few buckets of extra goat
milk every day on her family farm. Klum, who began raising goats with
her mother in 2007, was looking for a way to lessen that blow when one
day in March 2010 the answer came in the mail: soap.
“I had never heard of goat milk soap before,” said Klum, 26. “So I thought, ‘Why not?’”
Now
the kitchen in the small Chaseburg farmhouse is filled with scents of
sweet pea and roses. Soap shavings sit in a big kettle on a worn stove. A
few soap bars sit hardening on a nearby counter. Klum digs a spoon into
a pot of goat milk as oils heat on the burner.
The extra milk
she uses in her soaps comes from mothers who recently gave birth.
Farmers can’t sell that milk, so the Klums usually just gave some to the
farm animals and tossed the rest.
“We decided to try and make a few extra dollars with the soap,” Klum said. “I went for it and have been doing it ever since.”
It didn’t come
easy for the first-time soap maker, who learned of the trade from a
mailed flyer that provided goat farming news and tips. The first batch
burned. Klum hadn’t paid enough attention to the heat levels.
But after a few
trial-and-error runs — and plenty of free misshapen soap bars for
friends — Klum got her recipe down right. She named it Mama’s Milk Soap.
Next step: get it to the people.
That didn’t come easy, either.
“I couldn’t
figure it out,” Klum said. “Then I thought, if I was buying soap, why
would I pay $3 when I could pay 50 cents at department stores?”
Klum turned to the Internet and found a primary benefit of using goat milk soap: a moisturizer for dry and sensitive skin.
She began
attaching labels to her soaps touting the benefit. She now sells up to
60 bars a month — and has seen a complete turnaround in her own
once-dry-and-scaly skin.
Klum eventually wants to start crafting shampoos and liquid soap.
“It makes me
happy,” she said, as she spooned a pile of pink soap bits into a pan.
“The smells are great and it’s just fun to do.”
And the farm rarely throws out a gallon of goat milk.
What Dwindling Camel Herds Mean for The World
Posted by Unknown in Africa, Camel, Cattle and Livestock, Herding, Meat Animal, Middle East, Milk, Nutrition on Sunday, 27 January 2013
Stephanie Findlay
Staff Reporter
Our
insatiable appetite for camels is taking its toll. The population of
the humpy beast in the Middle East is rapidly declining, threatening
herds around the world.
The Problem: According
to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the stock of
meat-producing camels in Saudi Arabia, slaughtered yearly for the hajj
pilgrimage, has decreased 39 per cent, from 426,000 in 1997 to 260,000
today.
The
story is the same in Pakistan, where numbers are dropping because of
camel racing, a popular pastime. It’s believed the camel population
dropped 20 per cent between 1994 and 2004 in Asia.
Consider
the camel in Somalia, where it is a source of food (both meat and
milk), trade and transportation. Millions of them — an estimated 50 per
cent of the country’s total population — have died from the famine; yet
another reason for their declining numbers.
Meanwhile,
Australia has for years been culling its camels — a cruel consequence
of globalization. They were introduced to the arid outback in the 18th
century by British settlers but without any natural predators or
diseases, they have become an invasive species. Today, there are an
estimated 1.2 million feral camels living Down Under and the population
is expected to reach 2 million next year.
In
fact, Australia’s parliamentary secretary proposed a plan this summer
that would see accredited marksmen shoot the camels for carbon credits.
Apparently, the animals emit an infernal amount of methane and have been
identified a contributor of climate change.
Australia has also become a supplier of camels, selling them Saudi Arabia for meat.
The Impact: For
some, disappearing camels are a desert version of the canary in the
coal mine. As one Somali herder said to the BBC: “When they start to
die, then what chance have sheep, goats and cattle?” He might have added
humans. To date, some 80,000 Somalis have died from hunger and thirst
because of the famine.
The Hope:
Some parts of Somalia continue to enjoy high camel stocks. After a
livestock ban was lifted, Somali herders supplied some $250 million
worth of animals to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage last month.
Provided
Somalis can work around burdensome rules imposed by the Al Qaeda-linked
Shabab militia, an organization that controls large parts of the
country, Saudi Arabia plans to double its imports of livestock from the
country by 2013.
Somalia
could also invest more money into its burgeoning camel dairy industry.
Currently, the country has a competitive advantage — it’s the world’s
largest distributor, supplying 850,000 tons of camel milk a year — and a
bigger market could be developed. (Camel’s milk is reportedly saltier
than that of a cow and much richer in vitamin C and B, iron, and
unsaturated fatty acids.)
Goats to give Spider Silk
Posted by Unknown in Goat, Milk, Research and Technology, Silk, Zz_Wordpress on Sunday, 9 September 2012
by Will Knight
Spider silk has been grown from genetically modified cells for the first time. The research company behind the feat believes it opens the way for the manufacture of super-strong, light and biodegradable materials within a few years.
Nexia, based in Canada, is also breeding goats that have been genetically modified with spider genes and hopes that their milk will be a plentiful source of the proteins required for spider silk. Nexia says that the modified goats have bred females that are now pregnant themselves, but will not reveal whether these are producing milk or whether it contains the necessary proteins.
In the current research, cells were taken from the mammary glands of dairy cows and genetically modified with spider genes to produce the proteins used to make spider silk. The proteins were then stretched and spun from an aqueous solution into fine silk fibres.
"We're not perfectly mimicking nature, but this shows a major breakthrough that no-one has been able to achieve before," says Jeff Turner, president of Nexia.
David Knight, a research zoologist at Oxford University, says that the new research is impressive: "It is the first time that they have got a pure protein that is soluble, despite being so hydrophobic."
However, he points out that the synthetic silk generated by Nexia was too stretchy to be turned into a practical material. "It extends too much to be used for anything," he says.
Stronger than steel
Knight also suggests that, in order to create a spider silk as good as the natural silk, it may be necessary to combine two different proteins that are used by spiders. A spinning method that better simulates the spider's may also be necessary, he says.
Nexia's "biopolymer" also had only 30 percent of the strength of natural spider silk, but the company believes that this can be increased by refining the spinning process.
Spider silk is one of the strongest and most flexible materials in the natural world, five times stronger than steel by weight. It would be ideal for bullet-proof clothing, biodegradable fishing nets and medical materials, such as sutures. But spiders are too aggressive to be farmed and previous efforts to grow the silk from bacterial cultures have failed.
Nexia bred two male goats modified with spider genes in January 2000. These have since bred with normal goats and transferred the spider silk gene to female offspring, which are now pregnant.
The approach is believed to be promising because the epithelial cells found in goats' mammary glands and those in spider's silk glands produce similar types of complex, water-soluble proteins. It may be possible to mass-produce spider silk in this way within a matter of years, according to Turner.
The work was performed with the help of the US Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts.
Journal reference: Science (vol 295, p 472)
