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Well' I'll be danged. I trotted out to the kitchen. I have a half-gallon paper carton that I am finishing up and a quart in a plastic bottle that I haven't opened up yet. Paper carton = Ultra Pasteurized. Plastic Bottle = Pasteurized. Paper Carton expires in two weeks. Plastic Bottle expires next week. And I just bought the plastic bottle. Since I don't drink that much milk, I am going to buy milk by the quart in a plastic bottle.

The majority of dairy farms have Holstein cows. They give the most milk by the pound. The average Holstein gives 25 pounds per milking. If the diary farm is more interested in selling cream for butter, they have Jersey's or Guernseys. Their milk has a higher buttermilk fat content per pound. After the separation of the cream from the milk, the milk is sold for skim milk or as animal feed. :chef:
 
Oh-oh, I'm starting to toy with the thought that maybe what I need is is a dairy cow...

Remember that dairy animals require 24/7 care. Dairy cows need to be constantly monitored (at least in the states) against diseases that can be passed from animal to human. (TB) Vets are very expensive. You don't get to take a vacaion. They have to be milked every day, twice a day. And hiring someone to come in and do it for you while you are on vacation is expensive. As much as I love living on a farm, a dairy animal is the last thing I would have. So unless you are willing to buy a very expensive milking machine, a separator tank and other machinery, you will have to get up at five every morning, even in the freezing cold of winter and go out to the barn, twice a day and milk by hands. Warm those hands. Cows hate cold hands on their teats. They can gve you a nasty kick. Or a quick squish in the face with their dirty fecas covered tails. You also have to wash their bag with a mild solution of bleach and water, then rinse them thoroughly. The same rules apply for goats. And goats love to butt you when your back is turned. Oh yeah. You will need to dehorn the cow with chemicals after you saw off the most part.

Still want a diary cow? :chef:
 
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Remember that dairy animals require 24/7 care. Dairy cows need to be constantly monitored (at least in the states) against diseases that can be passed from animal to human. (TB) Vets are very expensive. You don't get to take a vacaion. They have to be milked every day, twice a day. And hiring someone to come in and do it for you while you are on vacation is expensive. As much as I love living on a farm, a dairy animal is the last thing I would have. So unless you are willing to buy a very expensive milking machine, a separator tank and other machinery, you will have to get up at five every morning, even in the freezing cold of winter and go out to the barn, twice a day and milk by hands. Warm those hands. Cows hate cold hands on their teats. They can gve you a nasty kick. Or a quick squish in the face with their dirty fecas covered tails. You also have to wash their bag with a mild solution of bleach and water, then rinse them thoroughly. The same rules apply for goats. And goats love to butt you when your back is turned. Oh yeah. You will need to dehorn the cow with chemicals after you saw of the most part.

Still want a diary cow? :chef:

What do you have to do for the cows you eat? :mrgreen:
 
What do you have to do for the cows you eat? :mrgreen:

If it is a bull, castrate them as babies. Then put them out to pasture. If it is a heifer, put it out to pasture. You also have to tag them, clip their ears and attach a large plastic number showing their lineage. Then in late fall, you send them to market to go to a feed lot. A practice I wholeheartedly disapprove of. Corn is not a natural food of bovines. I would rather keep it on the farm or range until they reached the desired weight. That's what we did with the heifer we had in Texas. We called the slaughter truck in. In exchange for part of the fee, we let him take all the parts we didn't or wouldn't use. e.i. brains, intestines, kidneys, etc. We did keep the liver. :chef:
 
Pasteurization was desperately important once. But I suspect that on most farms, a microbe doesn't stand a chance of making a living in a cow. But I'm okay with pasteurization for the mass market of a product that has to be distributed before testing could be completed. I don't know much about ultrafiltered milk, but is supposedly tastes better than pasteurized. And I assume dairies might have one less step if the fine filter also homogenizes. It's go to be better than the heat treatment.

In the end, I'm okay with letting someone else do the milking.
 
Pasteurization was desperately important once. But I suspect that on most farms, a microbe doesn't stand a chance of making a living in a cow. But I'm okay with pasteurization for the mass market of a product that has to be distributed before testing could be completed. I don't know much about ultra filtered milk, but is supposedly tastes better than pasteurized. And I assume dairies might have one less step if the fine filter also homogenizes. It's go to be better than the heat treatment.

In the end, I'm okay with letting someone else do the milking.

Sorry, I want my milk pasteurized. TB is still prevalent and on the rise. Cows, whether for home use or commercial sale, need to be tested on a regular basis. It is as contagious among cows as well as humans. When I lived in Washington State, there were stores that had a special license to sell raw milk. It is so much richer than homogenized and pasteurized milk. But in drinking or using it, you are exposing yourself to TB. I used to go into the separating room at the Fair and get just enough cream for my morning coffee before it was processed. It only took a small drop for my coffee. The cream had floated to the top of the tank of milk as it was coming from the cows. It was still steaming from the body heat of the cows. I knew that every one of the cows at the Fair had been tested for TB. Their certificate was posted in each stall of each cow. So I had no qualms about using their product. But what was being sold in the stores, only had a certificate for permission for sale. Not where it came from. Or when they had been tested for TB. :)
 
Pasteurization was desperately important once. But I suspect that on most farms, a microbe doesn't stand a chance of making a living in a cow. But I'm okay with pasteurization for the mass market of a product that has to be distributed before testing could be completed. I don't know much about ultrafiltered milk, but is supposedly tastes better than pasteurized. And I assume dairies might have one less step if the fine filter also homogenizes. It's go to be better than the heat treatment.

In the end, I'm okay with letting someone else do the milking.

I remember reading that pasteurization kills more Vitamin C than is produced in California's entire citrus crop.

If I am not mistaken, the really big deal about pasteurization was that it stopped people from getting tuberculosis from cows. Nowadays, that isn't a problem.

Also, nowadays we have aseptic and air tight packaging, as well as much better refrigeration. It probably isn't necessary any more.

The filtered milk here in Quebec is still pasteurized.
 
I like my milk cold enough to cause brain freeze.

I prefer it in glass bottles. We still have one local dairy chain that uses returnable glass bottles. They also make some fine holiday milk flavors, now it is green mint flavor for St. Patrick's day. I also like milk from those old stainless steel coolers that whip into a froth when they dispense it.

Remember when the milkman brought the milk in the winter and when it froze the top would rise up under a cylinder of frozen cream?

Now I drink skim milk and try to pretend I like it! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

My grandmother used to feed it to the pigs! :pig:
 
I like my milk cold enough to cause brain freeze.

I prefer it in glass bottles. We still have one local dairy chain that uses returnable glass bottles. They also make some fine holiday milk flavors, now it is green mint flavor for St. Patrick's day. I also like milk from those old stainless steel coolers that whip into a froth when they dispense it.

Remember when the milkman brought the milk in the winter and when it froze the top would rise up under a cylinder of frozen cream?

Now I drink skim milk and try to pretend I like it! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

My grandmother used to feed it to the pigs! :pig:

They quit delivering milk in bottles before I moved to Canada. People tell me that birds would peck through the tops. They also tell me about occasional bottles breaking and leaving a frozen, bottle shaped, lump of milk. :LOL:
 
for me, a milk lover all my life, the taste of milk is not in the fat. before milk was homogenized, i carefully drank only the milk that had separated from the fat. when they came out with skim and 1% milk, i was one happy milk maiden--except for the color. i agree that blue is not a particularly appetizing color in a glass of milk.... :)
 
I like it freezing cold in summer and piping hot in winter. The only thing I can stomach at room temp is cheese. I know it's a bit nuts but I over heat or over chill everything!

My favourite way to drink milk is well chilled in a glass bottle. I add flavouring of choice. Some vanilla, nesquick (strawberry)or honey etc. Then close and shake like crazy till lots of foam forms on top. Yum!
 
I like my milk cold and served in a glass (not plastic) glass. Usually the only way I drink milk warm is when I make hot chocolate. I have fond memories of drinking warm milk at my grandparents as a child but that was way different. Grandpa had milk cows and his own pasteurization machine that he ran the milk through before the dairy picked it up in those wonderful stainless steel milk cans. He had a tin cup in the milk house just for me and would give me a cupful right from the pasteurization machine. It was really comforting and oh so good. He raised guernsey cows which produce the highest butterfat milk. You can imagine what their whole milk tasted like! And Grandma's homemade ice cream custard was the best!
 
I've always wondered why people love the idea of drinking milk from a cow but are terrified by the thought of drinking breastmilk. I've never tasted it but surely it would be better for us and probably taste better too? Who knows? I was never breast fed so I have no clue but it makes sense.
 
I've noticed that most milk here sold in paper cartons and most organics are ultra pasturized where milk sold in plastic jugs isn't. I wonder if the paper cartons are more sterile, and that the plastic can't be sterilized for UP milk?

I only buy milk in paper cartons (we only use about a quart per week) and pretty much never have issues with it going sour even when opened for well over a week.

The main milk company here is Massachusetts is Garelick. The milk, half and half, and all creams sold to restaurants are only pasturized. Not ultra pasturized. The ones that are ultra have been heated twice and sold to the general public. Thus there is a small breakdown in the fat contents. Occassionaly they have an overrun of their restaurant products and sell them to the small Mom and Pop stores or 7-11 stores. And you definitely can taste the difference. It is richer. They do have a shorter shelf life. And it is mostly sold in half gallon containers. I will grab a half and half when it is available and place it in the freezer. Because it is much richer I use less of that product than the one I usually buy. :angel:
 
I've always wondered why people love the idea of drinking milk from a cow but are terrified by the thought of drinking breastmilk. I've never tasted it but surely it would be better for us and probably taste better too? Who knows? I was never breast fed so I have no clue but it makes sense.

Well I will end your wondering. It is hot and very sweet when it is fed to a baby. I breast fed all my babies. When I had my third baby, the two oldest ones want to taste it. So I let them. That was the last time they asked for that. :angel:
 

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