A Tale of Two Milks
For 55 years, my family sold milk commercially. We believed that we were doing things “right.” We believed that the “safest” milk was pasteurized milk. For all we knew about milk and cows and proper procedures, we thought still that milk was dirty and unsafe by it’s nature.
In a sense, we were right.
Now, let’s dive into that a bit. We were right to think that the way we milked cows before was unsafe. We sold grade A milk, but grade A per USDA’s standards pales in comparison to high quality, low risk raw milk for consumption.
Grade A milk is considered sanitary for human consumption, but still need to be pasteurized. Grade A milk has to align with certain standards. For standard plate count (bacteria count), it can’t surpass 100,000. Somatic cell count has to be under 750,000. It needs to be cooled with in 2 hours to 45 degrees. There can’t be foreign material (i.e. hair, dirt, plastic, glass, metal, ect.) in the milk. They test to be sure that there is no antibiotics in the milk as well. There are state inspections on grade A farms to be sure they are meeting cleanliness standards.
This all sounds great, right? But let’s look at what standards we aim for now that we do raw milk.
We are working to meet the Raw Milk Institute’s (RawMI) standards for high quality, low risk milk. For that, they go over our milking procedures, view our farm, require regular testing, and have plans in place for safety. Let’s look more closely at these areas:
Milking procedures
Cleaning the milkers overall is the same now as it was when we did grade A milk. We still sanitize the line before milking and put it through 3 washes after milking. One thing that we did change as we tested and learned more about our milk prior to opening our herd shares was pulling apart the milkers to clean all spots where milk and bacteria may build up. Microfilms build up before you can see it. This won’t make your milk so dirty that it won’t fit grade A standards with regular washing, but it can make your bacteria and coliforms higher than desired for raw milk.
Prior to RawMI reviewing our milking, we did sanitize the teat before milking, but we didn’t do quite enough. That’s great for Grade A milk, but in raw milk, we clean before we sanitize. We use a gentle soap to wash the udder when the cow comes in to the parlor. Then we sanitize her with iodine and wipe it off before putting the milker on. This assures that she is very clean so all that gets into the milker, line, and bulk tank is clean milk.
For grade A milk, it needs to be cooled within 2 hours to 45 degrees. RawMI recommends getting it to 48 or lower in 1 hour. Milk comes out of a cow at her body temperature around 101 degrees. Our milk goes through a plate cooler which cools it 30 degrees on the short trip it takes to get to our tank from the downstairs milking parlor to the upstairs bulk tank. Once in the tank, it generally cools the other 30 ish degrees in about 15 minutes. Key to low bacteria is fast cooling.
Farm View
Though we haven’t had RawMI come to our farm, we have submitted videos and pictures of the farm giving a virtual tour. And if their listed farms do need help, they sometimes come out to the farm to help! They view the farm for added accountability that the cattle are healthy, clean, and well cared for. Low risk raw milk comes from healthy, happy cows.
Regular Testing
Yes, there are standards for grade A milk, but they pale compared to RawMI standards for milk testing. Bacteria counts for RawMI milk cap out at 500 versus grade A at 100,000. Grade A doesn’t even have coliform standards, but RawMI requires their listed farms of under 10. Our personal goal of somatic cell count (RawMI to my understanding doesn’t have standards for this) is under 150,00. Which is much lower than grade A at 750,000!
Testing can be done differently per each farm, but we purchased an in home lab so that we can always keep an eye on what is happening in our milk. We make a sample bottle that is bottled exactly like a herd share owners milk bottle so that we can sample it as such. We take a sample each time we bottle to test. The averages of the month are sent out to our owners.
We also do yearly heath testing which isn’t required by grade A milk. We test for tuberculosis, brucellosis, and Johne’s Disease. And regular antibiotic use is NOT standard for raw milk. Instead, raw milk farms often use less antibiotics than commercial farms (even though they also cannot sell milk with antibiotics in it). Healthy cows are not in need of antibiotics. Should a cow truly need antibiotics to overcome an infection, her milk will be withheld and dumped. On our farm, we would not only test to be sure she’s free of antibiotics, but also test to be sure her somatic cell count has gone down which would indicate that any lingering infection is now gone.
Plans for Safety.
This covers so much! Including, but not limited to testing the water (grade A does require this), having safe distances between other livestock and the milking cow, plans in place for especially muddy weather, health of the dairy workers, regular cleaning, feed for the cows, and so much more. They truly leave no stone uncovered when preparing for safe milk.
There are really two different kinds of raw milk: raw milk for pasteurization and raw milk intended to be drank raw. Grade A might sound like very high quality, but it isn’t safe to drink raw. The standards are so much grater for milk that is intended to be consumed raw. One comes from milk with questionable cleanliness and health, the other from healthy, clean cows.
Even if you know a commercial farm that has extremely high standards, keep in mind that in commercial milk, all milk from all different farms will be getting mixed together. If a couple drops of cyanide were put into a clean glass of water, you would consider the whole glass ruined, correct?
Because of the vast difference in the two kinds of raw milk, there were a group of farmers and raw milk activists that put forward some legislation in Michigan to call raw milk intended for raw consumption fresh, unprocessed, whole milk. This was to indicate that while some raw milk may be harmful, there is raw milk out there that is produced well and is high quality, low risk.
Looking back on our previous anti raw milk stance, we were right. Some raw milk is dangerous. But fresh, unprocessed, whole milk is not only safe but is good and health-ful for you!
