Milk Production

(Apocrine Secretion is a type of glandular secretion in which the tip of the secreting cell is released along with the milk.)

Alveolar merocrine secretion is a type of secretion in which the honeycomb-type cells remain undamaged during the secretion of the milk, so only milk is released.

Goat milk has cytoplasmic particulate debris and epithelial cells shed along with the milk.  Cow milk does not.  (see definition section below.)  Therefore, if the somatic cell count of goat milk depends only upon counting numbers of cells, with no effort to sort out the type of cell, the goat milk will appear to have a higher somatic cell count than cow milk. 

The debris and epithelial cells are about the same size as the white blood cells that appear where there is disease, and unless you have stains that differentiate between types of cells, you may have a falsely high somatic cell count, especially if the testing company uses machinery calibrated for cows. 

As a practical matter, AgSource said, many small testing companies cannot afford to have a separate machine calibrated just for goats, so you  can expect higher counts.  The solution: ask your legislators to raise the test limits for goats in the state statutes.

What we are looking for in somatic cell counts is evidence of infection (mastitis).  Where there is infection, you will find an increase in the number of white blood cells, since their duty is to protect the body from infection and disease.  Therefore, the perfect SCC test for goats would count only the white blood cells. The green stain, or direct microscopic (DMSCC) test is the only test that does that at this time.  
(Haskell, Caprine Milk Quality and Mastitis)

Normal butterfat concentration of most European dairy goat breeds is 3.8% under temperate conditions.  Nubians traditionally give richer milk than other dairy breeds.(Smith, p. 485)

Milk fat synthesis is derived from palmitate, and palmitate is synthesized from acetate. (Baldwin, 1968) 

Butterfat is increased by increasing the number, and protecting the conditions which are beneficial to cellulose digesting, acetate producing, bacteria in the rumen. 

 (1) Don't over feed supplement.  
Supplement should not exceed 50% of the diet. In their effort to make more milk, producers will often overfeed supplement.  This reduces butterfat, especially when the supplement to forage ratio approaches 2:1.  Concentrates are too quickly digested and with the correspondent drop in the need for saliva production, you get a drop in rumen pH, which is harmful to the microbes that produce butterfat. 
 
(2) Feed roughage before you feed grain in the morning.
Again, having hay in the rumen first will slow down digestion, ensure adequate saliva production and keep the rumen pH at a favorable level for acetate-producing microbes.

(3) Take the total amount of supplement the goats need to eat during a day, and feed it in several small meals instead of giving it in only two larger meals at milking time.. Again, this optimizes the conditions beneficial to microbes.  It takes time to feed more often, so producers will have to decide how badly they want higher butterfat.

(3) Provide good ventilation, plentiful water and multiple smaller meals when it is hot outside.  Goats eat less when it is hot, so you will often see a drop in butterfat in the summer due to a drop in intake of feed..  Anything you can do to help them eat more will increase butterfat.  Increased intake increases the  heat of digestion in the rumen, and that in turn increases acetate production and raises the level of butterfat.
 
(4) Feed good quality forage.  If you have only poor quality forage, add buffer to the diet.
Low-roughage fiber intake lowers butterfat.  Supplement the diet with buffer at a rate of 4% of the amount of supplement fed per day to increase butterfat production when feeding poor quality forages.  (Note: many goats do not like buffer in their feed, and will completely refuse to eat the ration with it in there, but will take it readily when it is offered free-choice in the barn or lot.)
 
(5) Feed larger quantities of dried brewer's grain.
Research show that distillers grains contain yeast by-products that stimulate rumen cellulose digestion, which results in acetate formation, thereby increasing butterfat.  . 
 
(6) Breed for high butterfat as well as high milk production.
When selecting breeding stock, if you select for high milk production alone, don't pay attention to butterfat levels, you will gradually see decreased butterfat from one generation to the next..  
 
(7) Buy a couple Nubians.
Nubians give less milk than some other dairy breeds, but they add butterfat to the tank.

(Smith, 485)