The milk you buy at your local dairy case comes from a dairy farm like ours from our dairy cows. But do you know what steps it takes to come from our farm to your table?
The process begins with the care we give to our cattle. Everyday we provide our cows with nutritious meals, fresh water, a comfortable, dry, clean home and our care and love! This starts before conception of the calf and continues at the birth of the calf, as the calf matures into a cow, and continues until the day that the cow leaves our farm.
Twice a day we bring the cows into our milking parlor where the milk is collected through milking machines. No, we don’t milk our 200 ladies by hand! We sanitize and clean the udders, and then put the milkers on the teats that massage in a similar manner as hand milking used to with a hand like pulsation. Once collected, the milk is transferred into our bulk tank that cools and holds the milk until the milk truck comes to take it to the processing plant. Our milk is picked up everyday and taken directly to the processing plant.
Once at the processing plant all milk is pasteurized, homogenized and tested to ensure it is pure before it is bottled. Learn more about these at Dairy Good – Why Milk is Pasteurized and Homogenization 101. Milk is sold as fat-free, low-fat (1%), reduced fat (2%) and whole (3.5%) milk, the percentage signifies the amount of fat in the product. All milk contains the same nine essential nutrients – Calcium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Riboflavin and Niacin and sometimes milk is fortified with vitamins A and D.
Did you know that milk can travel from our farm to your table within an average of 48 hours! Now that’s a fresh, delicious and nutritious product! Here is a great infographic showing how milk travels from farm to table. Learn more about milk’s benefits and milk safety at DairyGood.org
Really enjoyed your article, Renee.