How much is your raw milk? - Page 4

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post #61 of 63

3/12/09 at 8:54pm

1,651 Posts. Joined 2/2003
Location: on a farm
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Quote:

Originally Posted by AJP

I hate to disillusion you, but Organic Pastures cows are also fed some grain. They are on pasture all the time, and can presumably eat as much grass as they want, but they are supplemented with alfalfa hay and grain. They probably use far less grain than a place where the cows don't have that much access to green pasture, but they are not 100% grassfed. I know the label says 100% pastured (or something like that), which I find a bit deceptive. It's great milk, (so is Claravale), but unless something has changed in the past year or so, 100% grassfed it is not.

We have dairy cows and it's really not easy to get them the nutrients they need on grass alone.

I agree that the above label sounds deceptive, which is an issue, but I honestly don't believe that it's *good* for lactating cows to be completely grassfed. There are some grains that are better than others (obviously there's a huge difference between a heavily soy-based diet and other grains) but I think that, in people's distaste for grain-fed anything, animals pay a price.

With all of that said, we sell raw cow and goat milk for "pet" use (many in this state use share programs but it is too much following people around trying to collect boarding fees for me). We sell for $8 in glass jars, which we charge a seperate $2 deposit for.

In this area that is very cheap.

They may have reduced the amount of grain due to demand for 100% grassfed milk, but in reality, keeping a year-round dairy herd in CA on grass only is close to impossible, given the metabolism of the modern dairy cow. I'm not saying it's a bad thing for them to supplement with some grain (I have to do that with my own cow to keep her from getting too skinny, she gets a few pounds per day), but I wish they were more upfront about it on their labels and website. I would be very surprised if they have succeeded in getting their herd completely off grain, especially considering that so much of it is Holstein. A little bit of grain as a supplement for an animal that is mostly forage-fed (meaning pasture or hay) is a very different thing than confinement dairy cows eating so much grain and soy that it messes up their digestive systems and makes them sick. I believe that "100% pasture grazed" means the cows are on pasture 100% of the time, not that 100% of their nutrition comes from that pasture.

I could have just read on and agreed with this.