Dairy Girl, Part Deux

I stand corrected.  I got a couple of my facts wrong yesterday.  I wrote that Holsteins in commercial dairy operations produce for around 10 years.  The reality is that this Holstein is lucky to produce for FOUR years.  It is cows in smaller, less aggressive dairy operations that produce for ten to twelve years.

We visited Larga Vista Farm today, near Pueblo, CO today.  They have a cow share program going that allows owners of shares in their cows to receive raw milk.  Basically, in most states, it is illegal to sell milk that has not been pasteurized.  However, if I buy a share of a cow and pay room and board fees for the care and upkeep of my cow, then I am entitled to receive the output of that cow, milk, as a raw product.  Having gotten my start in life on fresh milk, I've been wanting to get it again.  There are a number of farms in our area who have share programs in place but most of them do not at present have cow shares available.  I'd be willing to drink goat milk but Ba'al most certainly isn't.  Larga Vista is the only farm within drivable distance that has cow shares available at the moment.

One of the things I very much appreciate about the operation Kim and Doug run is that they don't put the calves on milk replacer after three days of life.  Instead, they separate mom from calf and put the calf with a cow in their nurse herd.  They don't milk any of the cows in the nurse herd; the job of those cows is to be wet nurses to the calves for five or six months.  I think this is awesome!  When I get my Dexters, I'm going to do the same thing.

The milking herd is Gurnsey and Gurnsey mix animals; relatively small but put out a high volume of milk with lots of milk fat.  The average animal in their herd produces 5% milk fat, roughly double that of cows in commercial operations.  The milking herd receives no grain.  They are on pasture land, hay, and a milking time treat of dry molasses.  The result is about three or four inches of cream at the top of the jarred milk and said cream is golden yellow.  

It costs $40 to buy a share and $34 per share in room and board per month year around.  We're going back down in a couple weeks to sign our contract and get started.  In the meantime, I need to find a butter churn.