FAQ

What is A2 Milk?  

Visit this page on our website to learn about A2 milk. 

What makes Raw Milk better than store-bought milk?

Realmilk.com has a TON of information on why raw milk is superior to pasteurized milk. A really short answer is that pasteurization and homogenization destroy some of the vitamins and the naturally occurring lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose), and also denature the proteins and fats, making the milk harder to digest and the nutrients less bioavailable. Processing also kills off all of the probiotics and good bacteria that are so good for your gut. Raw milk dairies tend to focus more on cleanliness because we can’t rely on heating the milk to kill pathogens.

Unlike most store-bought milk, our milk is also 100% grass-fed, so the nutrient profile is also better than cows fed GMO corn and soy, and it’s is better for the environment. Our cows also get to nurse their own calves, which is just better for the universe :-)!

What Is The Shelf-Life Of The Milk? (How Long Should It Stay Fresh?)

As long as you have kept the milk very cold, we guarantee freshness for a full week. We recommend that once you open a jar and start using it, that you try to consume it within 7 days. But if you buy multiple jars, and you wait until later to open the additional jars, the milk will usually stay fresh for up to 14 days.

The key is to keep the milk very cold at all times. When you pick up your milk, transport it in an ice chest or insulated bag with some ice packs (which can even be home made by freezing old plastic yogurt containers). Make sure your fridge temperature is set no higher than 36 degrees, and when you take the milk out of the fridge, pour what you need and then return it to the fridge immediately. Store the milk in the coldest area of your fridge (not the door unless you have a “Chill zone” in the door.

If your milk ever sours before 7 days, double check the temperature of your fridge with a thermometer. And then contact us if your fridge temp is below 38 so we can troubleshoot what went wrong. Return any unused portion at the next delivery, and we will give you a prorated refund for whatever you were unable to use.

If your milk ever sours before you use it after the 7 day refund window, you can generally still use it for baking and smoothies.

What Breed Of Cows Do You Have?

We have a wide variety of breeds and cross-bred combinations but we are heavy on the Jersey, Guernsey, and Normande genetics. (We milk about 40 cows at any given time right now).  We have some purebred registered Jerseys, but most of our cows are cross-bred. We have some British White/White Park genes in the mix, a titch of New Zealand Friesian, even some Angus and other beef breeds, and a small amount of Holstein in the crosses. 

We recently purchased more Normande heavy genetics cows and will also be breeding to more Normande bulls in the near future, but have used Jersey and Guernsey bulls the past few years. The Normande breed (especially the French and New Zealand genetics we are breeding with) have excellent milk protein and milk fat profiles and the animals do VERY well on a grass-fed diet, with a good balance as dual purpose animals to produce milk and meat. 

We only breed to A2A2 bulls and only keep A2A2 cows, so all offspring are guaranteed to be A2A2. If there’s ever a concern that an animal could have been bred by a neighbor bull, we will A2 test that heifer calf just in case.  Any animals we purchase are A2 tested to confirm they are A2A2. 

NOTE:  Some people falsely believe that all Jerseys or Guernseys are A2A2. That is NOT correct.  Purebred Guernseys generally have a higher likelihood of testing A2A2, but each cow MUST be tested to confirm.  At one point, we bought 5 “purebred” Guernseys and only 2 of them were A2A2 (2 were A1A2, and 1 was A1A1).  So if you ever talk to another farmer that says they don’t test their cows but they “should be A2 because they are Jerseys or Guernseys” they are mistaken. They have to test their cows if they want to be sure. 

Do You Machine Or Hand-Milk Your Cows?

We machine milk with a pipeline system.  So the milk goes straight from the cow, through stainless steel pipes, through a filter, and into our bulk tank that rapidly chills the milk.   It is MUCH harder to produce very clean milk when hand-milking. Our system is washed everyday with chemicals specifically made for dairy equipment, to ensure the fat and protein as well as all bacteria are safely removed from the milking equipment.

Do You Bottle in Plastic or Glass?

We bottle the milk in glass jars twice a week from our bulk tank, generally on Monday afternoons and Friday afternoons. Yogurt, kefir, and colostrum are bottled in plastic containers.

You will pay a jar deposit the first time you buy, and if you ever forget to return your empty jar to exchange for a full jar. ($4 for half gallons, $3 for quart and pint jars.)

**** Please make sure your jar is CLEAN and DRY when you return it.****

*  If there is still milk residue in the jar, it will be moldy and disgusting a few days later when we wash it, which takes significantly more time for us to scrub it out before running it through our commercial dishwasher. If you consistently return dirty jars, we will keep $1 from your jar deposit to cover the extra labor to scrub your jars.

*If you are washing your jars in the dishwasher, just do a quick double check to make sure your dishwasher didn’t flip last nights salad into the jar and cook it to the interior of the jar 🙂 ****

Is Your Farm Organic?

We are not certified organic, but we strive to meet all organic standards. We don’t use any chemicals on our pastures and the alfalfa we buy is always non-GMO and currently all of the alfalfa we buy is certified organic. 

The grass hay we get locally is also from unsprayed pastures.

The grains we sprout in our fodder system to grow hydroponic grass as supplemental feed in the winter is not certified organic. But it is always non-GMO.  

We don’t ever use any hormones (rBST) for increasing milk production. 

We avoid antibiotics, but will use them to save an animal’s life or if she has mastitis that refuses to clear up after all of our natural attempts have failed. Usually, our natural methods work because we test the milk from every quarter of every cow every day to check for signs of subclinical mastitis, so we are generally able to catch it early. The natural treatments work better when caught early. But if we do have to use antibiotics, all milk and meat withdrawal periods are always followed, so there are never antibiotic residues in our milk or meat. (The milk from that cow is fed to the calves or pigs during the withdrawal period.)

We are “beyond organic” in terms of our cows always having access to pasture and never being confined. And our cows are 100% grass-fed.

Do You Vaccinate Your Cows? Are Any of Those Vaccines mRNA Vaccines?

For most of the past 12 years, we have not vaccinated at all. We recently started using 3 vaccines, primarily for our calves, to address the issues that were leading to expensive antibiotic treatments and the highest mortality rates. NONE OF THOSE VACCINES ARE mRNA VACCINES.

After dealing with a calf  that contracted tetanus during castration, we now vaccinate our bull calves for tetanus before we castrate them, using this Bar-Vac CD/T vaccine. 

The two most common things that will kill a young calf are pneumonia and scours/diarrhea. During the times of year when pneumonia is more common, we will give this Inforce 3 intranasal respiratory vaccine to our newborn calves. 

Because our calves nurse their own moms, they are exposed to more environmental pathogens than calves that are bottle-fed and kept in individual calf hutches by themselves. This exposure to extra pathogens helps them build more natural immunity, but it can also make them get scours more easily.  The best way to protect a calf from diarrhea, which can quickly lead to dehydration and death, is through strong maternal antibodies that receive through their mother’s colostrum.  We recently started giving our pregnant cows the Scour Box 9 vaccine when we dry them off 2 months before calving, which helps ensure that their colostrum will have high amounts of antibodies passed on to the calf to help them fight the environmental exposure to Rotavirus, Coronavirus, Clostridium perfringens Type C, and K99 E. coli

So currently, none of our milk cows are given any vaccines while they are being milked.

There are NO cattle mRNA vaccines currently on the market in the USA at all. If there are any that come on the market, we will not be using them. 

This article gives some additional information to address people’s concerns about mRNA vaccine use in animals. I know there is a lot of chatter on social media about the use of mRNA vaccines, but I have never seen any of them reference an actual specific vaccine that has been approved and is being sold in the US. So while I know that emotions are high about this topic, I have found no evidence that the rumors are true. But if they are, we will not be utilizing any mRNA vaccines in our animals.  So you can always rest assured that our animals and their byproducts will be safe for your family. 

Can I Drink Raw Milk While I’m Pregnant?

What you eat during pregnancy is a very personal choice. The USDA would tell you not to risk being exposed to a food-borne illness or bacteria that could cause you to miscarry, etc. However, indigenous cultures throughout history would tell you that pregnant women should get priority over non-pregnant people for first dibs on raw milk for it’s nutritional benefits. All I can say is that I personally drank raw milk through 2 of my own pregnancies and have many clients who have safely done the same. 

I Haven’t Consumed Dairy in Many Years, Do I Need to Do Anything Special to Start Drinking Raw Milk?

It is always a good idea to start slowly and just see how your body responds. Start with about a 1/2 cup and see how you feel. If you have no digestive upset, you should be able to safely incorporate it in your diet. If your gut microbiome is significantly out of balance, you might need to slowly build up the amount of milk you are consuming, as the probiotics shift your gut bacteria. But in general, if you feel good, you should be fine.  

Do You Test Your Milk and Disease Test Your Cows?

Milk Testing

We used this Mas-D-Tec device to test the milk from every quarter of every cow, every day. This helps us detect subclinical mastitis to help keep the bacterial counts low. 

We have been testing the milk with a local milk lab to help us ensure that our somatic cell count and bacteria counts are consistently low, but we have not gotten into a good routine to test on a monthly basis, which is our goal. Every time we have tested in the past, our test results have been great. 

Disease Testing

The main test that people generally recommend for dairy cows are Brucellosis and Tuberculosis.  Missouri is a TB-free and Brucellosis-free state–there have been no documented cases for many years. Any cattle that we have purchased have also come from TB-free and Brucellosis-free states, or were tested before we brought them into our herd, so we basically have zero chance of having a cow with these diseases, so at this time, we don’t feel it is necessary to do regular testing of our whole herd. 

Johne’s is another test that people are often curious about. Some people are concerned that there is a link between Johne’s and Crohn’s Disease, but there has been no link established through the clinical studies that have been done.  The thing with Johne’s is that a negative ELISA test does not necessarily mean the cow is negative. A positive Johne’s ELISA test will only occur if the cow is actively shedding. This website has some great information on the various options for testing for Johne’s and the pro’s and con’s for each testing method. (The most accurate methods are very expensive and take longer to receive results.) Currently, if a cow shows any symptoms of Johne’s (diarrhea and loss of weight), she is quarantined and tested.  

BLV is another disease that some people test regularly for, but BLV is VERY prevalent amongst cattle, and even with a positive BLV lab result, a cow has a very low chance of developing any clinical symptoms. And there are no studies that indicate a correlation between any human diseases and BLV. So testing for BLV is more about herd management, but posses no risk to humans. 

What Lab Do You Use To A2 Test Your Cows?

The newest lab we started using is mycentralstar.com  They are fast and affordable. They don’t offer tail hair testing though.  So you’d either need purple top blood vials (they can’t be red top vials) for blood samples, or you can do ear notch tissue samples. (Or milk samples if the cow is in milk, but milk samples are not quite as accurate as the blood and tissue methods.)  One thing to be aware of is they charge a “lab submission fee” for each batch of samples you send in. So if you are only testing one or 2 animals, that fee significantly increases the cost per test. But if you are sending in a bunch of samples at the same time (you can also do preg testing, BVD, BLV, etc. in the same sample submission) that lab submission fee gets spread across multiple samples. 

Igenity/Neogen and UC Davis both do tail hair testing. Neogen is less expensive than UC Davis, but they seem to take forever to get results back. UC Davis just has you tape your tail hairs to a paper that you print from their website.  Neogen has tail hair cards you can order to attach the tail hairs to, or they charge you an extra fee if you don’t use the tail hair cards for your submission. 

We use SEK genetics in KS for our pregnancy testing, BVD, BLV, Johnes, etc. And they also offer A2 testing, but mycentralstar.com is generally cheaper.