Are they claiming that the milk that comes out of the cow actually has fecal matter in it? How is that possible? Wouldn’t the cow’s system process it out?
Like it or not we all eat some fecal matter every day. Its one of the reasons I don’t keep my toothbrush in the bathroom.
I agree. This does not seem reasonable. Seems like someone just had too much government study money on their hands.
I bought some milk once from a convenience store that tasted like cow poop. I took it back and never bought that brand again..................
I’m thinking along the line of why my uncle the farmer, always wiped down the cows’ udders vigorously with a square of rough feed sack burlap that sat in a bucket of warm water with iodine in it. The same kind of iodine solution the family used to sterilize the milkers, strainer and all the surfaces the milk came anywhere near. Milk, fresh from da cow? You betcha, and Uncle and Auntie both made it into their 90’s! :)
Raybbr,
No, fecal contamination arises from improper cleaning of the udders prior to placing the rubberized vacuum pump on.
When I milked cows in High School, we used an iodine - based teat wash with hot water in a bucket.
The cows would come into the stanchion and as they were eating their corn treat, we would wash and prep them for milking while their neighbor cows was being milked.
I dreaded wet days and nights as the cows would come into the barn REAL dirty from laying down in the mud/manure/etc.
Things have really changed when you look at today’s modern dairies.
MFO
No, but consistent with the poor quality of this rant, it seems the are thinking of the cow's udder now being properly washed, and or her letting loose while being milked, with resultant contamination.
However, that is highly unlikely in a modern dairy farm. I began working at a dairy farm at age 14, and worked almost 20 years there, from scooping ice cream to processing to shipping/receiving and (mainly) delivery.
Back in the late 60's the farm was run by frugal if hard working owners (one time the old man had us put a heifer in the back of his Old 88, with the head out one window and the tail out the other!). They used to have put the 10 gal. jugs of milk in a stream on summer nights and pull them out in the morning. Back in those days milk was delivered to stores daily due to lack of refers, and small stores when thru hundreds of gallons.
The barn with about 350 cows was wood, with hay stored in the middle, and rumor had it they were insured by Loyd's of London. It was a stanchion barn, meaning the cows were locked in in a for feeding, milking, and watering. Thus their manure fell onto a moving track to be hauled away. But they also usually let most out all night to pasture in good weather (sometimes getting lose, and providing some excitement in our small town.
A farm hand, which were binge alcoholics (30 days sober, then paid resulting in nights getting loaded in the city, and often being brought back by cab, sometimes paid for by the owner), would call to them when it was time for milking, which was twice day around 4am and 3pm.
Then 2 of them would go around to each cow with a small tank that connected to a vacuum line to milk out the cow, and which was then dumped into a 10 gal. jug. These jugs were poorly washed and steamed briefly. As i recall, a good Holstein gave about 8 gals a day. The full jugs were then loaded into a pickup truck (which had no brakes) and (slowly) transported about 150' to the processing plant, which was also a retail store in the front.
The milk was then poured into a tank with cheese cloth over the top to strain out the flies and blood clots. It was then finally refrigerated in the raw milk tank, but from the moment it left the cow then bacteria was multiplying.
Then it would be processed, would normally first involved a clarifier to remove blood clots etc., and reduce the fat content to about 3.5%, by which cream (where the money kind of is ) was obtained. But during that time this was not done, resulting in a rich milk. It was then heated to 72 °C (161 °F) for 15 seconds pasteurized (Louis Pasteur), thru a process of steam heat exchange, and then homogenized so the fat stays in suspension, and bottled.
At that time we used glass as well as paper cartons. However, the bottle washer for the glass left somethings to be desired (or things not to be desired). But the pipes and equipment was washed/sanitized better. And the delivery truck refer was poor.
However, one summer night (about 1970) the barns burned down (only 3 or 4 cows were lost as they were out to pasture), and new brick and steel ones built under the son of the owner who set about improving the whole system. This was the loose-housing barn system so the cows could roam (look out for the bull!). They are then brought into a milking "parlor," 16 at a time, and their utters washed with warm water. Cows are temperamental animals, and need to be relaxed to let down their milk, and so this is a better system for that, as well as cleaner.
The milk was then pumped directly into a sanitized refrigerated holding tank, and brought up to the processing plant by sanitized tank truck, and pumped into the raw milk tank and then clarified, pasteurized, etc. Because the superior sanitation and lower temp milk today can be good for over 14 days after it left the cow.
That said, i do not know much about the raw vs. processed milk debate.
I don’t think these people know where milk comes from. It isn’t from the anus.