Amish Dairy Farms
The serene image of a herd of black and white talking Holstein dairy cows grazing knee-deep in a green pasture on a sunny spring day is a comical television ad running these days. While most of us realize commercials tend to stretch the truth, the sad fact is, these particular commercials have broken the truth.
Most dairy cattle in the United States live out their lives in barns and cement lots on huge farms with thousands of other dairy cattle. However, some smaller dairy farms thrive and rely on seasonal grazing of pasture to provide nutrition to their cattle. The Amish are definitely in this category.
Most Amish dairies are small family run affairs. Some even follow rotational grazing techniques which allow the cattle to graze pasture for more months out of the year than free grazing systems. This technique cuts down on haying costs, and since the manure is already on the pasture it cuts down costs of fertilization. Another plus to cattle deriving nutrition from pasture, instead of the heavy grain dependent diets of feedlot fed beef cattle and large dairies, is the levels of omega-3 fatty acids found in the milk and meat of grass feed cattle are much, much higher.
A typical Amish dairy might have forty to fifty cows. Depending on religious community preference, different levels of mechanization is allowed on Amish farms. Some can use bulk-tank coolers to cool and store milk until it is picked up by the transport truck. Other still use the old fashioned milk cans to store milk in prior to delivery to the plant. Some orders allow mechanical milkers as well.
A problem encountered by the restriction to mechanization involves grading of the milk. Milk graded A (Grade A) must be cooled right after milking along with meeting other standards such as minimum levels of barn and equipment repair and sanitation, low bacterial levels and low somatic cell counts. Grade A milk is allowed to be sold as fluid milk (after pasteurization at the milk plant) and can also be used for cheese making. Milk not graded as A can only be used in cheese making, but of course it also has to meet a minimum level of standard and is safe for human consumption. The Amish who don’t allow milk to be cooled on the farm are automatically knocked off the Grade A milk level, even though all other parameters are met.
Over the years, many cheese plants have closed their doors making it difficult for some Amish communities to find buyers for their milk. Keep in mind milk is a perishable product, so transporting milk for long distances is not very practical. However, in those areas where there is a cheese plant near an Amish community, Amish dairies thrive.
Here is a good recipe any early-morning dairy farmer or any other morning worker would love to find waiting on the kitchen table when they come in from morning chores.
