Let’s talk about antibiotics in dairy products, shall we? The most common misconception I hear from consumers is that there are antibiotics in dairy products. That is simply NOT true. In fact, it is insulting to have someone that has never stepped foot on the farm to tell me that our milk is tainted. But to be completely honest, it is scary that so many people are willing to take an opinion as fact instead of going to the source, the dairy farmer. So let me answer some questions for you (since you asked).
Do we treat cows on our farm(s) with antibiotics? Yes. We treat animals only when they are sick.
Do we treat young animals that are not sick? No. There is no need. It does absolutely nothing for us to treat heifers (young cattle) that are perfectly healthy.
When animals are treated, how do we ensure the milk doesn’t reach consumers?
When an animal becomes sick, we determine what her illness is & what course of action we need to take. This does not mean that we resort to antibiotics but when we do:
- We have a white board in our milking parlor. The sick cow is written on the white board. Her number, date treated & what she was treated with. This same information is also written down in our record book. We record all treated cows in two locations.
- Her leg is marked with a leg band. We milk from behind the cows & her leg band cannot be missed.
- When a treated cow comes into the parlor. The milking unit in which she is standing has the line removed from the main milk line. This is the absolute first thing that is done to insure that she is NOT milked into the bulk tank.
- She is then milked into a separate bucket while the other cows are milked into the bulk tank.
- Once she is done being milked, ALL the equipment that was used to milk her is cleaned.
- This process is done until the treatment is finished. Each antibiotic has a with-hold period for milk & meat. So basically, if you want to use the milk for human consumption you have to wait a certain period of time. If you want to sale that cow at the sale barn, you have to wait a certain period of time. That wait period insures that there are NO antibiotics left in that animal. Not even a small amount of antibiotic residue.
- Each farm is equipped with an antibiotic test system. The farmer can test milk at any time on the farm.
- EVERY time milk is picked up on the farm, a milk sample is taken prior to the milk being loaded on the milk truck.
What happens if there is a mistake? If the cow was missed & her milk entered the bulk tank, the entire bulk tank of milk would be emptied down the drain. The farmer would take that at as a loss. This is something that is taken very serious on all farms. Milk quality is our number one priority.
What happens if it is not caught at the farm? All milk has a sample taken at the farm prior to being transferred to the milk truck. At the processing plant, each milk truck is tested for antibiotics. If for some reason that milk tests positive for antibiotics, the entire truck of milk is disposed of. It is not allowed to enter the processing plant. Once each individual milk sample is tested, the farm that had the positive test has to pay for every other farm’s milk that was on that truck. As if dumping only your milk down the drain wasn’t expensive enough, this would be a huge blow to your check book.
How often do we treat cows? There is no set amount of cows we treat each year or an average on how often we treat them. They are only treated when absolutely necessary. I want to make it very clear that antibiotics are not our first resort. There is udder cream that is all natural and includes essential oils which can be used for mastitis. We use calcium/phosphorus for milk fever. Not every cow that shows sign of sickness needs antibiotics. Antibiotics are our last resort.
How often is your farm inspected? Since September we have had a federal inspection, state inspection & several stops from our cooperative. Every sample that is taken when our milk is picked up is not only tested for antibiotics but it is test for overall milk quality. We have strict guidelines that we have to adhere to. In addition, the higher quality of milk our farm produces the more we are paid for our milk.
Who is our cooperative & how do you purchase our products? We do not sell directly to the public. Our cooperative is Northwest Dairy Association. Our milk is processed at the Dairgold plant in Spokane, Washington.
If you have any questions/concerns please feel free to contact me. I can be reached through my blog or Facebook.
I strongly encourage you to read this article, Drug residues in raw milk samples decline again.ant
Krista Stauffer
Latest posts by Krista Stauffer (see all)
- Ensuring Quality and Safety: The Rigorous Inspection and Testing of Washington State Dairy Farms - May 6, 2024
- Understanding the National Dairy FARM Program: Ensuring Excellence in Dairy Farming - April 29, 2024
- The Importance of Nutrient Management Plans for Washington State Dairy Farms - April 17, 2024
- Homeschooling on the Farm: Cultivating Learning in a Rich Environment - April 11, 2024
Not every farm is so well regulated, so to assume there are no antibiotics in milk produced on factory farms is ridiculous. To a small or medium operational farm, I would imagine this seems insulting…you actually care about your animals…to a super large farm, it is all about the bottom line…money. Weis Markets personally called us to inform us to throw away milk purchased from them on a certain date with a certain expiration date and we were instructed to save the dated panels, bring them to the store and receive a replacement milk because the milk in question was found to contain too many antibiotics. To publish that there are no contaminating antibiotics found in your milk…is incorrect and misleading…it does happen, so please do not spread a lie to make people feel safe about a problem that does not exist….when it clearly does!
Linda- if someone were to call me because something I purchased was recalled. I would be asking some serious questions. I would also make sure I had all my facts straight about the recall in order to “educate” others. I honestly feel like if you have any questions or concerns about at specific recall that you should in fact contact the company. I have talked with this company. They had an unclear reading on their antibiotic test for ONE day. It didn’t say that anything was positive for antibiotics. They had no reason to believe that there were antibiotics in the milk due to their track record of testing milk from the farms that supply them. If there were in fact antibiotics in the milk then it would be a mandatory recall issued. It was in fact a voluntary recall just to be safe because milk safety is everyone’s number one priority. They never told anyone that there were antibiotics in the milk, so I am not sure how you turned that little bit of misinformation into fact. 866.999.9347 is their number if you would like to get your fact straight before you run down their business or the dairy industry as a whole.
You might find this interesting as well.
http://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/Drug-residues-in-raw-milk-samples-decline-again-246981231.html
I work with Weis dairy department regulary and i can tell you that the average size farm that ships milk to that 60% of the milk comes from small, under 100 head, farms. And that The Farmer’s Wife was right, It was an unclear test, not a positive one.
Even on the large factory farms they have to care about the condition of their animals. If an animal is lame, sick, sore, etc. then she wont produce either quality or quantity of milk. The largest of farms have some of the most comfortable and healthy cows. Have you ever visited a large dairy? looked at the health of the animals there and actually compared them to small farms?
Thank you Alan! I called your company today to clarify everything before I responded this comment. I believe her name was Deb? Anyhow, she was very nice & I appreciate her taking the time to go over this with me.
What everyone needs to understand is farms of all sizes have to adhere to the same standards. Large farms often have better facilities than a smaller farm. Overall health of the animal is everyone’s number one priority regardless of their size. If anything, larger the farm the more scrutiny the fall under!
Reblogged this on Domesticated Academic and commented:
Excellent post. As a farm girl, I find myself getting all riled up when people who are largely uneducated go off spouting. This is a well written post and my families farm abides by the same rules. No junk in your milk folks…
A wonderful, clear post. I hope uneducated people will read it carefully and ask the right questions, but I am afraid the issue is that they do not want to know. It is too easy to listen to the groups out there who spend their time on scare tactics. They have fooled themselves into thinking that agriculture is all about money, and not a way of life like most farmers see it. Thanks for this great post!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sell
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sale
They sound similar depending on the dialect but they actually do mean different things.
I will change it just for you. Do you always critique people’s blogs?! 😉
Yes I do. Improving language and its use is my OCD.
🙂
I work on very large farms. We are acutely aware of the bottom line, and medicines cost money. Some of the most effective ones cost over a dollar per CC, and using appropriate dosage-to-weight daily for long enough to cure a serious illness, that can and often does run several hundred dollars.
That said, big farms also have the advantage of special accomodation hospital groups, and designated caregivers, so welfare and quality is not only a priority, but more consistently achievable because it’s a specific individual’s sole or primary responsibility instead of one of many.
Thank you for taking time to comment! I am often trying to tell people that larger farms have better accommodations for their animals. They have to adhere to the same standards that smaller farms do. If anything as your size increases, the more you are watched & scrutinized. I strongly encourage people to go visit these farms that they despise so much. It is a real eye opener! AND I mean that in a good way. 🙂
Very well written blog on Are there antibiotics in my milk? It starts at the farm and no farm wants to be penalized for having antibiotics in their milk or in a cull cow when it goes to slaughter. There are very strict regs and the ordinary person does not understand this. I wish more people would visit farms and find out for themselves. It doesn’t matter if the farm has 20 cows or 2000 cows, we are all held responsible for our actions regarding antibiotics in milk or beef…and I for one do not want to pay for a whole tanker load of milk nor not be able to send my beef cows to auction. Thank you.
The answer isn’t really a hard emphatic “No” though. The answer is that antibiotics are present at levels below the guidelines set out by the FDA…which is not zero.
Great post! Thanks for linking up for the Country Fair Blog Party! http://kimscountyline.blogspot.com/2014/03/flat-aggie-plays-hide-and-seek.html