BethM wrote:
missyscove wrote:
2) Yes, some farms may be disappearing, but it's important to note that, at least in the US, small family farms really aren't economical anymore. Sure, it's great to see a small dairy, but that small dairy can't support a family. A large dairy that takes advantage of technologies including BST and sub therapeutic levels of antibiotics is not only economical but also more efficient- more milk per cow. Also, most dairies in the US are still family owned, it's just that they're larger than they were before.
I'm sort of late getting in to this, so I'm behind a bit....
I buy my milk from a local, family-owned dairy. That dairy actually does very well here. Their milk is in Whole Foods, as well as one local grocery store chain. The use no growth hormones, which I totally support. (I read that the hormones are injected into the cows' udders, which can cause irritation, inflammation, and sometimes infection, leading the cows to be put on even more antibiotics than they already are. If this isn't correct, I want to know.) So anyway. No BGH. Plus, the milk tastes much better, and stays fresh much longer than the cheap milk that's been shipped from two states away. And it comes in a glass bottle that I can return and it will be used again.
Yes, it is a little more expensive than the "imported" milk. It's actually cheaper at Whole Foods than the other store. They also have flavored milk (banana, strawberry, orange, and root beer), cream, butter, and ice cream.
I think the problem is, people are so wrapped up in getting a lot of stuff for very little money. But we need to re-evaluate what is actually important in life. I can't go around complaining that there aren't any local dairys any more, but be buying the cheap milk instead of the good stuff from the local dairy. I love milk, I drink it every day, as well as make my own yogurt with it. But I've cut down my milk consumption so I can afford to get the good, local milk.
(So you know, I'm on a very tight budget. But I am willing to make sacrifices for the things I care about. I would prefer to drink a half gallon of good milk a week, than a gallon of cheap milk that tastes bland and starts going bad before I finish it.)
Keeping in mind that what I know about dairying is from a few days of general animal science classes- I don' t have a concentration in dairying and I haven't taken any actual dairy specific classes.
As far as I know, BST is NOT injected into the udder. Posilac is one BST supplement. You can see here exactly where they intend for it to be injected: the tailhead, shoulder or neck.
https://www.make10.net/FILES/Management%20Links/How%20to%20Administer%20POSILAC.pdf
A small, though statistically significant, increase in mastitis risk is associated with cows on BST, though I'm not sure exactly why that is.
Mastitis is essentially caused by something getting up inside the teat sphincter and causing an infection. Mastitis is generally treated with an antibiotic because there are regulations on somatic cell count in milk so in order to keep somatic cell count low, mastitis must be treated. The milk from cows that are treated with therapeutic levels of antibiotics- and thus cows that are secreting antibiotics in their milk- must be dumped. One of the dairies we toured uses this milk to raise their heifer calves instead of raising them on milk replacer. Bottom line is that you don't drink milk from sick cows.
Some more information on mastitis:
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-DA/INF-DA_MASTITIS101.HTML
Local dairies can do really well- if they have the right niche market for their products.
The problem is that most small dairies don't have the ability- let alone the desire or the marketing ability- to process their own milk. What happens then is that they buy everything- feed, milking machines, labor, medications, barns- retail where they can't control the price and then they sell their milk at a wholesale price that they can't control either.
Interesting you should mention the glass bottles- one small dairy we visited that bottles their own milk and makes thier own ice cream mentioned that they switched from glass bottles to plastic and cartons after discovering that their customers weren't rinsing the bottles out and bacteria would grow inside and they ended up having to hand wash them after running them through their dish washer.
As far as the shelf life, yeah, that varies from dairy to dairy. For example, the Cornell dairy on campus can put a few more days on their milk than most can because they were able to track pathogens back to specific cows and solve the problems right here on our dairy.
