I recently read a post on a woman's search to find a farmer in which to buy milk from. She was very educated in what questions she asked, and I was impressed with how she cared about the cows and where her food was coming from besides just knowing the section it is stored in at the grocery store. Her post got me to thinking in what I would look for if I were going to buy milk directly from a farmer. This is part of what I wrote to her, but it did get me thinking about some possible topics for discussion on my blog.
"Now what I would look for if I had to find a farmer to buy milk from is this: 1. like you said, grass fed cows.
2. I wouldn't be against buying milk from a farm who fed their cows some grain provided it is non-GMO and it is not a large part of their diet.
3. The cows have to be healthy. I have seen "no-grain" cows that look like they are at death's door for 3 to 6 months out of the year because they are not getting enough energy (starches, sugars, and carbohydrates) from the grass that they are allowed to eat. I have also seen cows that are fed way to much grain and walk on their toes and hunch their backs (signs of acidosis). I have seen herds where manure coats everything in the parlor when it is not even in use (cows have a habit of coating everything in manure when they are in there, but is it being cleaned off once milking is over?) ask to look at the milking units. Can you see lots of dried manure on them? I wouldn't get milk from there if you do. If it is a small farmer and they don't ship to a co-op they do not have regulations on how clean they have to keep the place. Is their milk holding tank cleaned and sanitized between loads of milk? How often is it cleaned? Are the cows always caked in mud up to their knees (I mean if it is rainy--yes, I expect this), but do they live in a mud whole because they only have one pasture that they are allowed on and it is basically a dirt lot?
4. Does the farmer test for butterfat, protein, and somatic cell if he doesn't ship his milk anywhere? How often does he test for it? Somatic cell is one of the dairy farmer's quality control. Every load of our milk is tested, and we have our cows individually tested to see if it is just a few cows who are the culprits or if it is spread across the whole herd (more of a health concern). Many conventional dairy farms are not allowed to ship milk over 400,000 SCC (but almost all of us shorten it down and just say "400"). There are many studies done between cow hygiene and SCC (somatic cell) here is one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787920 basically saying the cleaner the cow is, the lower the SCC. For our dairy with 176 cows, and our cows have no housing except for trees, we run between 90 and 320 SCC. During the wet sloppy months SCC is higher, because it is harder to keep cows clean.
5. Does the farmer test for Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria? How often do they test for these? Dairies shipping milk to co-ops do not have to test for these, because the milk is pasturized. But if the farmer is selling unprocessed milk to consumers, they should be testing for these. If they have a license, they are required to test for these.
And just to add my opinion to the A1/A2 debate. I truly believe it is all hype created by the book "Devil in the Milk". New Zealand, France and other countries have done studies on it and have not found any real data showing benefit of one over the other. Mostly, dairy farmers are paying attention to it simply because the consumer has become concerned about it, but not for any other reason.
I apologize for the length and I hope my comments are not unwelcome. If I can be of any help in answering questions, I would love to try to. If they are feed related questions, I might have to refer you to my husband. This site has a lot of good information on cow rations and though they are not "no-grain" I think it does a fairly good job of feeding for a healthy cow and not just more milk. This is a site for farmers, however, so it may not be the easiest read. http://www.kowconsulting.com/toc.php"
If you have anything to add, please feel free. Her article spurred me on to think of what I would look for if I didn't have my own unlimited access to delicious milk and this is the list that I came up with.
Blessings, grace, and peace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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