We, at Brechland Farms, feel it is our responsibility to consumers to help you understand what we do and why we do it. As you likely know, we, personally, do not support the raw milk "movement". As most of you also know, our area has had an outbreak of sickness that many believe is from drinking local raw milk. We pray that those that are ill will recover fully without any long term side effects. In light of this outbreak....our industry will suffer negatively from this, so we wanted weigh in. We have heard that the milk has tested positive and negative in varying reports, so we are not here to say that contaminated milk is the cause.
It has long been our position that raw milk consumption has too many risks for the public. Basically, raw milk is straight from the cow. It is filtered (like through a thick coffee filter) and placed into a bulk tank where it's cooled. That is all that is done to it.
Here on our farm, we do not drink our milk. We don't even feed unpasteurized milk to our calves. There is a very slight chance that it could contain E. Coli, Camplyobactor, Salmonella, Listeria etc.....all forms of bacteria. Even though the milk is tested monthly and safe practices are used, there is always a slight chance and we choose not to take the risk with our kids or our calves. We prefer not to have stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea.
Pasteurization of milk has been around for well over 100 years and has been a common practice in milk processing for 60-70 years. Pasteurization kills bacteria and has made milk one of the safest foods to consume. Less than 1% of food and waterborne illnesses are caused by milk and milk products.
There are varying opinions on why raw milk is "better" or "healthier" .....during pasteurization, enzymes in milk that help aid in digestion are destroyed so people that have milk sensitivity or lactose intolerance may be able to digest raw milk better. Many believe that raw is always better for you.....but from a safety aspect for the entire populace, this is not the best choice. For the general public, drinking pasteurized milk is the safest. As always, we are a country of choices and we do support every one's right to choose. What we want is to inform you that when consuming raw milk....there is a chance of it containing a bacteria that can cause health issues. Know your product.
Farms that sell raw milk are inspected and tested monthly to make sure that their sanitation and hygiene of the cows and facilities are kept up. But this alone doesn't ensure safe milk 100% percent of the time. A cow could develop a mastitis (a mammary gland infection) without the farmer knowing it. A few infections are sub clinical meaning that the udder and milk don't show signs of infection. Sometimes the cow can fight the infection on her own and the farmer never even knew that she had it. So basically a cow could shed dangerous bacteria in her milk one day and not the next. My guess is that this is what happened to the farmer's cow in our area.
I know the dairyman that is involved and trust me he is a good farmer. So if it could happen on his farm it could happen on any farm that sells raw milk to the public.
We hope that this has helped enlighten you a bit on what is happening locally- if these folks are ill because of milk...remember.....it is because it was raw milk. Pasteurizing kills any trace of harmful bacteria....so don't let this turn you off of dairy. You may rest assured that the milk you are purchasing in the store is 100% safe.
Read more...
None other than Ms. Brown Sugar. She has a special place in our hearts, because she was our first red calf that was born on my watch. You can read all about her in her very own blog post HERE.
