I thought it'd be fun to introduce you to our milking herd. To keep things brief, I'll limit the introductions to just the ladies that are currently in milk.
Black Molly
Black Molly: Molly is a Holstein that we purchased from a retiring organic farmer 2 years ago when we were just getting started on our raw milk journey. We had a bit of a rough start while Molly was making the transition from her old farm to ours and I was just learning how to milk cows. In fact, during one of our first encounters, she managed to give me a fat lip with her back hoof! We've come a long way since then and she's now one of my favorite cows.
Smiley with baby Grace
Smiley: Smiley is the daughter of one of the original 5 Normandy cows that we brought home from New York State back in 2008 when we were just getting started farming. She's a very sweet, laid back cow and just tends to go with the flow. Well, unless you ask Madison, our oldest daughter who milks a few nights a week. Madison says Smiley doesn't like her and is always a stinker when it comes to her turn for milking.
Grace: Grace is Smiley's daughter and Madison's favorite cow. I asked Madison to describe Grace and this was her answer: "She's beautiful, sweet, smart, my favorite! Her and Smiley can be drama queens though.".
Grace
Gracie: Gracie is a Jersey cow who we purchased from a retiring raw milk farmer in Greenville almost 2 years ago. She's a sweet, gentle cow, although can be pretty stubborn and hard-headed.
Gracie
As you can see, we have a very small dairy herd. Having such a small herd allows us to really get to know each cow. Not only their personalities but their health and dietary needs as well. Each cow has its diet and supplements tailored individually to meet their needs.
We feed a strictly grass and forage-based diet. We feel strongly about not feeding grain to cows because their bodies simply were not designed to eat it. Also, the rumen pH of cows who eat grain is different from cows who do not. When cows eat grain it allows different bacteria to thrive in their bodies than what would normally be there. 100% grass and forage feeding creates a safer milk because the pH of the cow doesn't support the more dangerous bacteria.
The safety of our milk is our top concern. So much so that we have set up an on-farm lab and we test each day's milk for two types of bacteria. We test for coliform and anaerobic bacteria. All of our milk is tested before it ever leaves the farm. If we were to ever have our milk become contaminated with something like listeria or e.coli, our numbers would be through the roof and that milk would never leave the farm, never have the chance to make someone sick. To date, we've never had high numbers and our herd share owners have access to all of our lab results dating all the way back to when we first started milking.
To give you some reference about how safe and clean our milk is, the raw milk standards set by Raw Milk Institute are Coliform Counts of 10 Coliform per ml or less and SPC of 15,000 or less per ml.
Testing milk
Here at Six S Dairy, our daily average is less than 1 Coliform per ml and a SPC of less than 200.
These are important numbers because as the Raw milk Institute founder explains on their site, a milk sample with between 2 and 5 coliform in a ml cannot harbor the dreaded E.coli 0157:H7 because “you have to have hundreds in order to find one.”
Pasteurized milk on the grocery store shelf is allowed to have up to 10 coliforms per ml and 20,000 aerobic bacteria per ml.
To ensure that our cows are healthy we have them check by our veterinarian once a year and tested to be sure they are negative for Johnes, Tuberculosis, and Brucellosis, all potential zoonotic diseases that may be spread to people from raw milk.
Raw milk has been said to have many health benefits ranging from reducing allergies and improving skin health to improving digestion and helping with weight loss.
When we first started milking cows and drinking our own fresh, raw milk, we were not really thinking about any health benefits. We just believe in eating as cleanly and as close to the source as possible. We'd been eating our own grass-fed beef and chicken and free-range eggs for years, so drinking our own milk was the next step for us.
Our twins, Connor and Caleb
Our twin boys had suffered from terrible eczema since they were mere months old. I remember taking them to the doctor when they were infants because they had developed dry scaly patches all over their bodies. In the years that followed we tried all of the over the counter creams out there and tried many different prescription steroids but nothing ever cleared them up. In elementary school, their eczema would flare up so bad that they'd have open weeping sores despite moisturizing multiple times per day and applying prescription medication.
A few weeks after we started drinking raw milk I realized I hadn't checked with the boys to see how their skin was doing and it seemed I wasn't seeing them apply moisturizer anymore. I could hardly believe my eyes when they showed me that their trouble spots were completely healed up and the rest of their skin looked nearly flawless. It's been over two years now and they haven't had any trouble with eczema. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
And the taste is out of this world. Our herd share owners describe it as sweet and fresh, the best milk they've ever tasted. We could ask for no better compliment than your family loving our products.
If you’d like to give raw milk a try, there’s no need to worry about any long term commitments. If you ever decide it’s not for you, we’re happy to purchase your share back and refund your initial buy-in cost. So if raw milk sounds like something you’re interested in, give us a shout! We’d always love to work with you :)