Farm Fresh Facts: Our Milking Process

Our milking process is built around a couple of key principles - cleanliness and temperature. These are crucial if you are selling high-quality raw milk.

Cleanliness is straight forward - the cleaner the milking process, the less foreign matter can be introduced into the milk (and the less “barny” the milk will taste).

Clean milk starts with clean water.  We make sure that water coming into the milking system is essentially free from bacteria by using an ultra-violet water sterilizer.  This instantly kills bacteria which may be present so that they cannot reproduce and transfer to the milk.

When it comes to temperature, there are two key areas where temperature plays a key role into clean, fresh milk.  

Hot: The first is that we use 160+ degree water to help sanitize our milking equipment and jars.  Most non-commercial water heaters max out at 140 degrees.  An additional 20-40 degrees is required for effective sanitation.  

Cold: The second is that we cool our milk as quickly as possible.  The milk is pumped through an in-line cooler to cool it from about 100 degrees to around 60 degrees within a minute of it being milked from the cow. 

We start our milking process by pumping about 160-degree water with a sanitizing agent through the lines and into the tank.  Once done, we run a cold rinse cycle through the lines to make sure that everything is clean and cool - ready to receive milk.  We also use the same extra-hot water to help sanitize the jars so that they are ready to bottle once we are done milking.  

Once the milking system is ready, it is time to let the cows in!

We use an iodine-based teat sanitizing solution to pre-dip the cows’ teats.  We then wipe the teats off with wet and dry rags to clean off any foreign material that may be on them.

We regularly perform a California Mastitis Test (CMT) on each cow to make sure that the cows are healthy.  

If there are issues, we treat the cows with herb-based remedies, which are much more natural than the chemical-based medicines that industry generally uses.

Once the cows are cleaned and tested, we turn on the milk cooler valve to start running water through the cooler.

The cooler uses the water temperature to transfer heat from the milk to the water, cooling the milk essentially instantly (from about 100 degrees to roughly 60 degrees).  This is one of the most critical steps which helps keep milk fresh longer

Once the cooler is on, we then connect the milker to the cow and start milking.  Our whole process is designed to keep milk in a clean, sanitized environment as it is transferred from the cow to the tank without being exposed to the environment.

Once we are done milking, we then fill our jars (which we sanitized earlier) with our raw milk.  We strain the milk using an ultra-fine grade 100 cheese cloth.  If there is some foreign matter in the milk, this will strain it out.  

The cheese cloth is usually very clean after bottling - a testament to our attention to detail when cleaning off the cow’s teats.  Those who have worked at conventional dairies can attest to the fact that their filters tend to be much dirtier as they are not very particular with how well they clean off a cow (if you are killing everything with pasteurization - it doesn’t matter - right?)  I think not…

We then wash and rinse the milking system out to prepare it for the next day.

Finally, milk is transferred to our commercial refrigerator to cool down to about 35 degrees. Since the milk is already cooled to about 60, this is a relatively short process.

Now you can pick up the milk and enjoy our farm-fresh, A2A2, pastured, raw, 100% delicious milk!  This is considerably fresher than milk that has to go to a bottling facility before being shipped to a retailer.

A couple of notes:

1) When you pick up milk and/or eggs, feel free to get more than your subscription/ order when you are at the farm store (as long as there is plenty available and I haven’t sent a message out regarding limited supply).  Just write down on the sheet what you actually picked up.

2) Although we have higher supply right now, we do not necessarily stock much extra cream or skimmed milk.  If you are wanting either of these regularly, I would encourage you to set up/ add them to your subscription.

3) Remember - when supply is limited, we restrict availability to subscribers (like it was the last couple of months).  Since we are pretty small, milk supply will still be somewhat cyclitic, although we are trying to even that out.  If you want priority when milk supply is limited, a subscription is required (and saves you 5-15% depending on how much you subscribe to).  Just text me if you need assistance setting up your subscription.

We appreciate your faithful support as we strive to bring ancestral and nourishing food and wisdom to our community!

Your farmers - the Schrock Family