I was aware the heritage centre had resurrected one of the old dairy’s from the region called Jenyn’s Dairy. The below photos give a good story about how it was done back then.

One of the original stalls with a door that opens and the cows walked straight through after milking.

The holding tank located in the processing room on the other side of the milking parlour

The motor / pump setup

Milk Testing Equipment Side view

Milk testing diagram

The cream separator and explanatory information about how it worked.

Close up of the cream separator – side view

A 3D model of another dairy farm in the area back in the early 1920′s.

About twenty local farmers and raw milk producers attended Rural Vermont’s raw milk meeting in Poultney on Wednesday. We talked about specific concerns that people had about raw milk production and regulation in the state, reviewed state inspection information, had a nice lunch together, and discussed possible solutions to problems throughout the state.

Some of the biggest concerns were:

- State regulations regarding vaccinations and testing of milk-producing animals

- Sales of raw milk at farmers’ markets and how to educate consumers about proper handling of raw milk

- Sales of raw milk products, such as cream, butter, and yogurt

Rural Vermont is holding one more meeting in the state on Saturday March 23 in Townsend. I strongly encourage you to RSVP and attend this meeting if you are interested in raw milk sales in the state. As usual, Rural Vermont did a great job hearing everyone’s concerns and moving the meeting along in a timely way.

My name is Wes Hannah, I work with the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, a grassroots coalition of beginning farmers and ranchers. Among other things, we coordinate an annual beginning farmer blog series on our website called the Bootstrap Blog. The idea is have farmers still early in their careers providing inspiration and ideas to folks just entering or hoping to enter a farming career.

This year we are going to focus only on dairy farmers for the series, which will be seven blog posts over the course of the year. We’re hoping for young people who can still also talk with some degree of knowledge about specific dairy-related topics.

I know everyone is extremely busy, which is why we set it up for bloggers to be compensated for their time ($600 for the year – hopefully will make it worthwhile!), in addition to the less tangible benefit of getting some publicity for the farm.

We’re hoping to get our writers lined up in the next month or so, so if there are people who might be interested, please check out our website for more info (http://www.youngfarmers.org/apply-now-to-be-a-2013-bootstrap-blogger/).

Thanks!

It will continually be updated.

We hope this post will overtime become a tomb of knowledge for those looking to understand the ins and outs of micro-dairy farming, from those with a wide range of experience and expertise from all around the country.

If you would like to contribute in anyway to these topics, please email us at amdairies [at] gmail [dot] com

Topic: Feeding – The grain verses grass debate

How do you meet your dairy cows nutritional needs? – do you favour grass & hay only or do you agree a small portion of grain in addition to grass and hay can be equally healthy and at times necessary?

1. Moderation in all things.
2. All my animals are grass fed (hay in winter) but all my pregnant girls get grain once they get close.
3. We have to feed some grain in the witer as we have Jersey cows and they need the extra energy during our cold hard northern Illinois winters. I also think as long as you feed non GMO grains, it is not bad at all for your cows. Grass alone in these hard winters is not enough for milking cows.
4. we found our the hard way that energy NEEDS have to be met and if your beautiful green high-protien hay/grass does not have enough energy or brix levels…you can starve/KILL your cows!!
5. At least with dairy cows we have to remember that average per cow milk production has quadrupled since 1950 due to genetics and better feed. Our
   first responsibility is to keep our cows healthy and well fed. Personally I think that takes a little bit of grain with their hay and grass. But again, moderation in all things!
6. Don’t confuse energy needs with grain, molasses is energy without omega 6 fatty acids. Sugar beets are high in energy and store through the winter, etc. The research shows that if an animal is ever given grains it never can get as good a O3 vs O6 ratio as it used to have prior to the grains, they really seem to have a life time knock on effect when given as a supplement. So solve the energy problem but don’t solve it by creating another problem.

Topic: Milking – with a calf at foot

Looking at getting a milking Jersey cow for the family. If I have one and keep calf with her, is it ok to pull calf off twice a week, so I can milk her two times a week for house milk?

1. “It is very unlikely that the calf will milk out the mom. And the calf will probably prefer one teat and leave the others alone. To maintain the cows health, she should be milked out completely once a day – every day. She’ll have plenty of milk. One possible solution is to use her as a nurse cow to feed veal calves. Some people do this, where one cow will feed three or four calves”.
2. every day milk out is important for udder health. i’ve heard of people keeping calves with the mother and successfully having enough milk for the family with the “left overs”
3. People often call us asking this question or a similar one. From friends who have tried taking the calf away at night and milking in the morning, there have been mixed success stories. Typically the complaint is that the milk is not very rich and or there is not very much. The cows can somehow hold back the good stuff and then let it down for the calf when you put the calf back on. There is also the problem of the calf favoring 1 or 2 teats and the others stop production or get infected. We have always taken the calf away, milked the mom twice a day and fed milk back to the calf with a bottle. Makes for a much tamer cow and calf. You get all the good milk and the calf gets plenty as well and you have a healthy udder. I would never suggest that a person get a Jersey if they don’t have a pig or a large flock of chickens, some farm dogs and cats or a lot of time to make cheese. The first few days are fun and then a crisis of what to do with all the milk sets in.
4. We milk our Jerseys once a day for at least the first two to three months after calving, because milk production is so high, and we do not separate the calf from the mother at all during this time. There is still plenty of milk, and if there is too much for your family, there certainly is not too much cream! Skim off the cream and make butter and freeze it for lean times. When production starts to go down, you can separate the calf off at night and then milk the cow once a day. Our calves have never favored only one or two teats when they get older, and will certainly keep mama stripped clean. Months later, or in the winter, when production is really down, we only milk every other day, and the night before milking we separate the “calf” who is now a big fat baby. (If it is a Jersey steer, this time with his mom these many months leads to some delicious meat for the freezer, and if a heifer, she will be so much healthier.) This is a luxury to still have the big calf on the cow, because in really bad weather or in times of travel, we can depend that the calf will keep the cow stripped clean and we don’t have to worry about milking except when we want to.
5. I agree, she should be milked at least once a day. And feeding calves is a great idea, don`t think I would let them nurse the cow, I would milk the cow and bottle feed the calves.
6. I have gotten the new calf a friend and kept the 2 in the milk barn. When I bring mom in she lets down for me fine and I let the calves finish her out. This goes on for a couple of weeks twice a day and then I let the calves on mom/adopted mom for 12 hours and then lock them up for 12 hours so I get milk. I have better luck locking them up at night. As they get bigger, I put halters on them and tie them up to keep them back while I milk. They get halter broken and I get what I need. I always milk at least once a day. It’s not convenient to be home each night, but mastitis is a terrible thing and I want to avoid it. I feel like I can better evaluate udder health when I handle the udder ahead of the calves each 12 hours. Also, there is way more milk than one family can handle, so unless you are making butter and cheese and feeding chickens, dogs, cats and hogs, you will be freaking out about what to do with all that milk. If necessary, add another calf or 2, but that gets into bottle feeding and after BTDT, I think that’s a ton of hassle. Hope this helps.
7. Get a goat.
8. we have always left the calves on 24/7 and milk shared with them. the jersey produces so much milk it is necessary to leave the calf on and milk her atleast once a day. for the first several weeks we even have to milk her twice a day with the calf on her 24/7. after the calf is a litter bigger and consuming more of the milk production we can go back to once a day milking. the calf remaining with the cow is just good all the way around. the calf learns important herd behaviour, good foraging skills, and has the company and caring it needs from its dam.
9. We have been milking with the calves on for the last 4 years. Just when we need milk for the house about every other day. When your cow first calves your going to have to milk twice a day. The calf has to be strong enough to take all the milk. Once the calf is to that point you can lock the calf up as need and milk to supply the house. Lack of let down can be solved by bringing the calf in and milking one side while you milk the other or haltering the calf tied just out of reach of the teats. Good management skills and a strong calf will resolve other issuse such as not nursing the cow dry or mastitis. Always keep an eye on things.
10. don’t get a goat!

Topic – Milking Schedule – Once a day (OAD) or twice a day (TAD)

Do you milk once a day or twice a day and what time/s? Or do you change it up depending on stage of lactation?

1. Once a day. Lifestyle decision
2. We milk once a day as well. It’s the only way I can have the joy of running a dairy as well as be there for my family and pursue other interests.
3. we milk twice a day for the first 45 days of the lactation. the cow simply has too much milk even with their calf on 24/7. we milk share with the calf. we want the dam to raise the calf. after about 45 days the calf is taking more of the milk supply and we can go to once a day milking for the rest of her lactation.
4.  there are many farmers who milk once day, not just with one or two cows, but larger herds as well. There are pros and cons with both, but OAD can certainly be done maintaining herd health very well, ensuring cows are milked out each milking. For some it is for lifestyle reasons as mentioned above, for some, on larger farms it might be about reducing expenses like labour. I think its fairly well shown that overall milk production is usually less on OAD (particularly if no calf is at foot), however, and although this is important as an income stream for some, it is often not the primary concern. That said, on micro-dairies of just a few cows, depending on your daily routine, personal commitments and milking setup, milking the cows does not need to take up a lot of time and can easily be fitted in twice per day.
5. We’ve been OAD going on 4 years with a 30 cow herd. We did transition from a much larger TAD herd. There was certainly a transition period where we were selling cows who just couldn’t transition to OAD. Now that we have a herd of the right genetics mastitis is no more of a concern than it was when we were TAD. I do let calves nurse on fresh cows for at least 3 weeks to ensure the extra milk is relieved

Associated articles - Mastitis and Once a day Milking and Using once a day milking in early to mid lactation

Topic: Pregnancy Checking – How do you do it?

1. I Biotrack my cows. Cheap, easy & no risk of miscarriage. www.biotracking.com
2. Genex carries one too. Love it because you can test at 29 days with 99% reliability. It works out to 3-4 dollars per sample. Highly recommended.

Topic: Weaning

“My first calves are nearly 18 months old. I need to separate them as I want to get the mums serviced again in March/April. However a farmer near us was killed recently when try to separate a calf from its mother. How do I do this safely? and with minimum stress for everyone?”

1. I would distract everyone iwth food, seperate as far as possible while weaning. I start very early here with mine, I start seperating at only a few weeks old for a few hours and then put them back. I raise all my cows who will be staying on a bottle (their moms milk but out of a bottle) because I am here alone so have to handle animals by myself, this makes the mothers very biddable, and I have Jerseys who no one else around here likes. If you have a friend with a farm who is far enough away I woudl drive calves onto a trailer and move them there for a month. Good Luck!
2. place calves in an adjoining pasture with a good fence for a few hours each day and gradually increas the time over the course of 2 weeks until you have them there full time.
3. I’ve been around cows for fifty years and have never heard of a farmer being killed in such a way (not unless a bull was involved). The first responsibility of any farmer is to socialize his or her cows so they are safe and easily handled. That has to be started within the first weeks of their lives or you their developmental opportunity to do so. I once bought a first calf Jersey heifer than was range raised and never been handled by people. She was dangerous so I sold her back to her owner. Why bother… If you want to let your heifer calves stay with their moms for months after they are born it doesn’t eliminate a farmers responsibility to properly socialize them, especially on a small dairy. Sure it takes work but that’s what a farmer’s life is all about. “Your always cows eat before you do.
4. I would think that since the calf is pretty much full grown, it should be weaned already. I have a neighbor that doesn’t bother weaning his calves, he just puts the bull in with them and they wean them themselves. The problem is if the calf is a heifer and you don’t want it bred, then separation is necessary but again if the calf is 18 months, even as a heifer it can probably be bred if it is big enough. We here at our dairy handle from day one, separate by day 3 and bottle feed.

What procedure do you generally follow when it comes to removing calves/kids/lambs from their mothers? If you have tried different lengths of time, have you noticed differences?

1. Most dairy farms separate calves from their mothers within a day of birth to susposeably reduce transmission of disease and simplify management of milking cows. Studies have been done allowing calves to remain with their mothers for 1, 4, 7 or 14 days after birth. Cows whose calves were removed longer than one day after birth showed increased food searching, sniffing and vocalizations. However, calves allowed to remain with their mothers for longer periods showed weight gains at three times the rate of early removals as well as more efficient food searching behavior and better social relationships with other calves. Calves here get 7 days full time with mothers, then get to suck extra milk from mothers for up to 6 months.Not only does this produce healthier calves, but since the calves completely strip the cows of milk twice a day, I NEVER have a case of mastitis, (inflamation/infection of the udder).
2. I worked on a cow dairy and we let the calves on for 8 weeks. Those dairy heifers turned out to be very wild. I like this idea that baby is with mom for more than 18 hours, but not enough to get wild.
3. Our cows are a “family herd” The calves get to suck on mom at least 8 months. We only milk once a day and let the calf have the rest. They take care of each other and they are always a part of our family. We do separate the calves for at least 12 hours a day so we can share the milk. Very healthy friendly cows

Topic: Winter caring of dairy cows

1. Our Jerseys would much rather be out and about than cooped up in the barn.
2. As the old folks say “There are a million ways to farm and it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it right”. We have nice little tie barn where our cows spend many winter days eating sleeping on the mats and chewing their cud. They go out side daily to eat at their feeder and get their exercise. But when it is freezing out and the wind is blowing they love to go back inside to their favorite stalls. We keep the barn well ventilated at a constant 50 degrees F. That said, when we had our big dairy farm and milked 90 cows and had over 250 head I didn’t have enough barn space for all the animals. I would keep my bred heifers outside in a well sheltered pine grove with its own spring. As long as I kept those heifers well fed they always did better than the heifers we kept in the barn all winter. But I will admit I felt very guilty sleeping in my warm bed when I heard sleet or freezing rain bouncing off my window at night. But that was just me. The outside heifers always did well.

Related articles: Cedar Circle farm: What do pasture raised cows do in winter? and Spirited Rose Farm Winter Tips: keeping your milk cow comfy

Fridays are tour days, where for $18 I was lucky enough to be joined by two fun, energetic elderly couples from Brisbane, a ‘fell-in-love-with-the-area-so-recently-moved-here’ full of life mother and her friend, and a single woman who had just returned from a trip around South East Asia. I was probably the only one really interested in the dairy setup, as the cheese-tasting and demonstration at the end seemed to be the highlight for most. And to be fair, it was pretty impressive.

We sampled six different cheeses in all, starting with an entrée of “Eweghurt”, a yoghurt cheese marinated in herbs and olive oil, together with a smooth salty Feta, which apparently is no longer allowed to be called “feta” unless it is produced in the town of the same name. So as we are not in Greece, it instead goes by the apt name of ‘Baa Jar’.

Eweghurt & Baa Jar/Feta

Our mains followed and were a combination of aged crumbly pecorino (which for me being a Parmigiano Reggiano lover and all, certainly scored most of my points), and Peppered Ewe, a fresh curd cheese infused with black pepper, also quite tasty.

The cheesy meal was wrapped up with samples of a smooth, creamy, mild ‘Blue Ewe’ (which has been known to convert any blue cheese hater to a lover) and a desserty style Lavender Cheese, presented like a beautiful slice of cheesecake with honey drizzle. It’s a shame it was so fresh it had not yet been salted so did lack a lot of flavour, but Carolyn, the farm owner, tour guide and avid gardener, was up front about this and to be honest, I was having such a good time (thanks to the beautifully landscaped gardens and eclectic, enjoyable company) I did not mind at all.

Now back to the dairy itself, the key to producing this fine assortment of cheese. Towri is run by Carolyn and her husband, along with an events coordinator and ad hoc farm help when her children and their friends are at home. The 300 acre farm is home to 3 different flocks of sheep, all a cross between Awassi and East Fresian. With an average of 70 ewes in milk at any one time, where the lambs are kept with their mums and milking is only done once per day, the current average production per ewe at milking time is 1.25L.  Carolyn explained that when they first started milking back in 2004, the average was probably about 750ml per ewe, and although milk quantity is certainly not the be all and end all, through selective breeding they have been able to increase yields over the years.

She also tells us that if the flock was 100% Awassi they would likely be averaging 3L per ewe per milking, but along with higher production of the pure breds, also potentially comes more problems and less hardiness.

The sheep graze on natural, organic pasture year round, except in flood worthy conditions like last month, when they are bought into a covered, safer area. Carolyn explained it is important to keep them out of the wet for lengthy periods of time, as in as little as three days in soggy conditions, the sheep can become lame, cold and sick. Unfortunately this is what happen just recently when although they nursed them for as long as possible, they ended up loosing 5 of the 400 sheep flock. Thankfully those weather conditions are few and far between.

One thing I was very inspired by, was the way the dairy and cheese-making facility, along with sheep yards, the milking platform, an office and the café area are all located under one roof, thanks to a large second hand shed that was available during construction. The cheese-making and cooling rooms are enclosed in their own walls (and roof) within the shed, but they all border each other making it feel like a smooth and easy operation.

Cafe area in front, office to the right, & in the middle you can see through to the milking area.

The setup allows 12 ewes to be milked at one time, where they are each fed a grain ration each milking. The milk is pulled through the pipeline and directly into a holding tank in the cheese-making room. The cheese vat is actually a second hand jam kettle, with a capacity of 100L, however, the average amount of milk used per batch is 75L. No milk is sold as fluid milk despite the weekly requests from consumers (including myself) for as Carolyn informs us, she would have to sell it for $10/L in order to recover costs. A hefty price that would no doubt, not last long in the marketplace. Instead for her, is far more economical and valuable to turn into cheese.

At a point a few years ago I thought sheep may have been the animal I’d like to milk due to their small size and high milk solids, but since working with cows, particularly smaller breeds, I just don’t think Id enjoy it so much if I milked any other animal. Being around the sheep at Towri confirmed this, for although cute and friendly, they just don’t have the same effect on me as cows. We all resonate with different animals, and for me, it is the cow. It also happens that good quality cows milk, and cows milk cheese remains my favourite out of them all, even in the face of the delicious sheep products I have just savoured.

All in all, visiting Towri Sheep Dairy was a thoroughly pleasant surprise. I always find it interesting to see how others have setup, what processes they use, what challenges they have faced and why they do what they do. Not only did I gain insight into all of these, but I thoroughly enjoyed the company of strangers on a very beautiful property, which has given me inspiration and creative ideas for when I eventually have my own.

How to use a grazing stick and planning your paddock rotations:

Sarah Flack has some helpful videos as we start to think about planning our pasture use over the coming spring and summer. She has one about how to use a grazing stick to calculate dry matter:

And another one to help you calculate a paddock size:

Silvopastures:

The USDA and the National Agroforestry Center have a great website dedicated to silvopastures, or forested pastures. Instead of clearing land completely to graze your cows, goats, or sheep, the practice of silvopasturing has you leave some trees on the land. This practice is good for your animals and good for your land, and allows you to harvest trees as high-value saw logs in the future.

The website has many helpful papers on a variety of topics, including an overview, working trees for water quality, and converting your pine forest to silvopasture  or your pasture to silvopasture.

We discussed milk as its own value-added product, how to determine when to put your animals out to pasture, and what breed of animals make for the best micro-dairy producers. Please leave us a note if you have a comment on any of these topics—we are always happy to learn from our members and readers.

Thanks again to everyone who was able to make it to the conference, and a big thanks to NOFA-VT for putting together such a great conference!

If you are concerned about raw milk in Vermont, take the Rural Vermont survey here.

Additionally, you may attend their raw milk meetings around the state (February 7th in Randolph Center, February 21st in South Wheelock, and dates to-be-determined in southeastern Vermont and Poultney).