Earlier this month I had the wonderful opportunity to visit two family-owned dairy farms as part of a blogger tour hosted by California Milk Advisory Board.  Meeting the families and other professionals was an education in the process of raising dairy cows, as well as the myriad of steps take to ensure the finest quality in the final products that reach dinner tables across the country…and world.

I was particularly interested in the nutritional value of milk and other dairy products, and how different choices the farmers make affect the quality of the products we purchase.  Some highlights:

• Great care and thought is given to the food the cows are given.  The farms have personal and ongoing relationships with veterinarians and nutritionists to ensure the cows receive a perfectly balanced diet; this diet changes as the cows needs changes depending upon their age and other life stages.
• The cows physical comfort is always taken into consideration…an uncomfortable cow is a stressed cow, and that will affect milk production and quality.
• Cows are NOT given antibiotics prophylactically.  When a cow is ill and antibiotics are necessary for its health, it is removed from the general herd and taken to a different location for the duration of its treatment.  Not until the antibiotics are out of its system and the cow is healthy again is it allowed to return to milking status.
• Some farms treat their cows with rBST, a hormone that occurs naturally in cows and promotes milk production; according to the FDC rBST does not have a physiological affect in humans.  Cows that are treated with rBST thus produce more milk than those who aren’t, but rBST isn’t present in greater quantity in their milk.
• Farms that elect not to treat their cows with rBST do so for a variety of reasons; primarily it is a management issue between the farm and the milk processors to whom they sell their milk.

• Prior to milking, the cows are checked and cleaned.  Every step in the milking process is critical to ensure there is no contamination.
• Samples of the milk are taken before the tank is emptied into the truck to be hauled to the processing plant.  The truck has milk from a few farms, and before it is unloaded at the processing plant it is tested for contaminates.  In the rare instance that something is found, the entire load is dumped and the farm at fault must then reimburse the others for their financial losses.
• California dairy farmers (98% of which are family owned farms such as the two I was fortunate to visit) were amongst the first to adopt the National Dairy FARM Program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management)”, a program created to demonstrate consistency and ethics nationwide in the treatment of dairy livestock animals.

Now I understand why California cows really ARE happy cows…and how it is they produce such delicious and nutritious dairy food.

Trip was sponsored by CMAB, but all opinions are those of the author.