making yogurt with milk from different breeds

[Littlest Goat]

I have made a very nice tasting and thick setting yogurt with milk from my Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats. I use the heating milk ,cooling milk method and incubate in an ice chest with warm water for about 3 hours. Recently a friend gave me some of her Nubian goat milk. She said she has not had success making yogurt with it. She says it comes out slimy. Knowing that there are many methods out there and that I had good results with my milk I gave the Nubian milk a try. I followed my method and came out with nice tasting but sort of stringy,gelatinous yogurt. Any ideas of why the milk from different breeds would give such different results. I know that the butterfat content of the Nigerian goat milk is higher than the Nubian. This Nubian milk is handled very well and very clean. As is my milk. Both are raw but of course get heated in the yogurt process. In all instances I have used mountain high plain yogurt.I will be interested in hearing some comments. An aside --the yogurt I maker just with the Nigerian goat milk is so thick people have asked if it is Greek Yogurt. Not really because I do not strain it. I have always figured it was the high butterfat.

[Mermaid]

I agree on the high butterfat theory. I milk jersey cows and make yogurt and they are high butterfat cows- similar to Nigerian dwarf right? About 6-7 percent? Anyway I have a nice thick set beginning and mid lactation and I get more stringy-ness and the milk loses fat and protein during late lactation. You also could be using too much or too little culture as you will need to adjust because the fat content is lower.

[Bantams]

What temp did you heat the milk to before cooling to the culturing temp?  If it was below 175 degrees, that might be the issue.
Nigerian Dwarf goat milk has incredibly high protein, as compared to the milk of other goat breeds - double or triple.  This will make for a really thick yogurt.  Other goat milk is too low in protein to form a stable curd - most commercial goat yogurt makers add pectin or starch or some other thickener to take up excess water.  Goat milk protein behaves a bit differently than cow milk protein, so the yogurt will often be somewhat runny or slimy. 

[Littlest Goat]

Hey thanks for this. The protein idea makes sense. While I knew that the Nigerian Dwarf milk had high butterfat ,I never keyed into the difference in protein. I heat to between 185f and 195f. I try for the lower but it usually gets away from me. Luckily my own goats are Nigerian Dwarf. I love working with their milk.