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
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