How to Milk a Cow: 21st Century Edition

“Creamery Journal, 1907”

Inspector Under the Act

By Wheeler McMillen

“Where are you going, my pretty maid?”

I’m going a-milking, sir,” she said.

“Dear maiden, I’d like to disclose the fact,

That I’m an inspector under the Act.

So pray remain, for I want to know

A thing or two before you go.

Nay, pretty maiden, you must not weep;

How far away are the pigs you keep?

And what percentage of butter-fat

Does your moo-cow yield? Pray tell me that.

And how is the health of your pretty pet;

Has it anthrax, cancer, blackleg, garget?

Has your sister measles or whooping cough;

Is the water clean in the drinking trough?

I pray thee answer these questions of fact,

For I’m an inspector under the Act.

With the fierce bacilli also I cope

By means of my powerful microscope.

Excuse me, I must examine your hand,

Purely official, you understand.”

Hailey’s sun was hot, as it is almost everyday of July, but the farmer’s market tents set up next to the bronze statue of John Hailey and his sheep acted as a subtle reprieve from high-noon. Landon Knowles was standing up, his 6’3 frame seemed to fill the white pop up tent he was taking cover under. He shuffled back and forth between the cash register and his father-in-law, who was selling yogurt right beside him. Many people walked up to his stand eagerly that day, only to slump their shoulders when they arrived. Disappointment was something that Landon was quite used to coming from his customers, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for him; he was out of raw milk. Like a good businessman, he would return the grim body posture, but only superficially. Milking the moment for all it was worth, he would pick up a business card and offer it to the customer while flashing them a “forgive me” smile.

I’ve been that customer many times. In-fact, I think I still have a few of those cards in my truck somewhere. I’ve always been weary of subscription lists, especially when it comes to food; maybe even more so when it comes to milk, but for many it's a no-brainer, especially when it's that farm-fresh, local, raw milk on the table. Promised every week.

Some of you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Especially if you’re from New Jersey where raw milk can’t be legally obtained in any matter. If you’re from one of the 11 states that has approved raw milk for retail, you’ve probably seen it in your local co-op if you’re the hippy dippy type that likes to buy organic. Or, in the 41 states that allow farm to consumer sales, maybe you’ve come across it during the summer as you walked through the farmers market, wondering who would be stupid enough to sell milk in 90 degree weather. New Jersey, if you’re feeling hard-done by, just know you have the FDA on your side, which advises all Americans to stay away from raw milk no matter how many safety precautions were taken when it was produced.

If you still don’t know what I’m talking about…that’s fair, I’ll explain. Raw milk is as new as it is ancient these days. It can be thought about in the same way raw carrots or raw meat can be thought about. It’s uncooked milk. And, if you’re thinking…”wait, what is cooked milk…cheese?” you’d be wrong. But let’s wait to get into that. Raw milk is milk that has been unheated. Straight from the udder, to a cooling tank, and in some states, right to the consumer.

So, where did it come from…? Where did it go…? Where did it come from….You know the rest.

The answer though is complicated. 10,000 years complicated actually.

Milk has been a true super-food throughout history, except when it wasn’t. Throughout human history, most adults have been, and remain, lactose intolerant. Babies have an enzyme called lactase that helps break down the sugar in milk, known as lactose. As we mature, a lot of us stop producing that enzyme and lose our ability to digest milk…comfortably. Over 36% of people in the United States are considered lactose intolerant. That number drops between 18% and 26% in Europe, while East Asia and North Africa see somewhere around 82%-100% intolerance. Globally, it's about 68%. That being said, about 10,000 years ago in a few geographical areas, a genetic mutation in a handful of humans allowed them to keep producing lactase into adulthood. This would have been an incredibly advantageous adaptation for communities who were on the brink of starvation. Drinking milk for those who were starving and didn’t produce lactase would only cause more sickness and even death, but those that could handle it were getting a massive nutritious advantage, leading to better fertility and survival rates. As situations of starvation have dwindled, humans capable of comfortable milk-consumption haven’t enjoyed any more massive advantages, other than being able to crush a milkshake without severe repercussions.

In case it wasn’t completely clear, the milk that those ancient tribes were drinking back in the day was raw milk. In fact, the milk everyone was drinking up until the late 1800s was raw.

Despite the large number of people who are lactose intolerant, milk consumption has remained fairly constant over the years. In the USA, that could largely be because of the emphasis of dairy in a balanced diet recommended by the USFDA. The natural calcium, vitamins, and minerals have made milk a staple in the American diet, ever since “rural America” was the only America. Straight from the udder, baby. Fast forward to the late 1800s, and a historic man named Louis Pasteur makes a truly world-changing discovery. As we all know, the French love their wine, and when it keeps getting “diseases”, there’s some urgency to figure out what's causing it. Pasteur had been studying microorganisms and believed that it was the presence of these little creatures in the wine that was souring it. He predicted that if he heated the wine to a temperature of between 60 degrees and 100 degrees celsius, he could kill the unwanted microorganisms, and he was right. This became known as pasteurization and it was soon realized that this could be applied to a multitude of foods, including milk.

While pasteurization didn’t really make a splash in the United States until the 1920s, it was monumental when it did, especially considering milk and public health. Modern doctors still describe it as one of the most important discoveries concerning public health today. Many illnesses such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever were spread through contaminated food, especially milk, and pasteurization eliminated significant risk.

There is no denying pasteurization was a world changing discovery, and it was especially so in a world that didn’t understand pathogens or bacteria all that well. In our new world, a world that has learned a lot about pathogens, mostly through process of elimination ( *see the clorox wipes under your bathroom sink), pasteurization still has its place, but to what extent? Have we hit a level of diminishing returns?

The spring of 2019 was my first, and probably my last trip to an industrial dairy farm. This particular farm was a major producer for Chobani yogurt and I was bringing along twelve kids under ten to tour with me. It was “cow-polks” week at summer camp. After spending an hour and a half driving in Southeastern Idaho blasting Queen and Imagine Dragons, the van started to slow down and the air got thick. Even louder than ten screaming kids was the penetrating smell of birth, shit, and milk in 90 degree weather; we had arrived. As my co-counsellor and I unloaded the kids we couldn’t help but side-eye each other, with an “uh-oh…” innuendo attached.

It was calving season. In Southeastern Idaho it’s not rare for calving season to take place in the late spring due to the heat stress the cows are under during breeding in July and August. September breeding just makes more sense, which pushes calving back to May and June. Calving is the reason we were on the tour with the kids; the putrid smell was just an added benefit.

Despite my disconcernment, curiosity trumped comfort for most of the kids. Two of them though, with tears rolling down their faces, would not get out of the van. We gently encouraged them for a moment, but in honesty, Jesse and I would have crawled back there with them if we could have, and so we finally gave in and let them eat their lunch in the van– where it was less likely to come back up. The rest of us trudged over to the barn where a stocky lady in a sweaty ball cap greeted us. Her brown face and thick forearms protruding from her flannel shirt told me that she had this place dialed. She spoke to the kids sternly, as if she didn’t sign up to babysit. Jesse recognized this and assured her they would be on their best behavior.

Our first glance of the ins and outs of a commercial dairy farm was a large grassy field where cows were just casually popping out calves at their leisure. Hispanic men with four wheelers and trailers were driving around the field keeping an eye on who was birthing, and swooping in to load up the calves once they were out. Brand new babies, still wet and goopy, were swooped up and put into a separate area while the mother was checked and then led to the stables.

The kids loved this part. From a distance, a field full of cows giving birth isn’t too gruesome, despite the looming smell, and guessing which cow was next became a fun little game. We moved on to a holding area where there were cows and calves together in some pens, and in some pens there were just calves, laying there, with hundreds of flies dissecting its helpless, wet body.

Chobani declares that they uphold the five freedoms of animal welfare.

Freedom from hunger and thirst—with plenty of food and fresh water.

Freedom from discomfort—with good shelter and a nice place to rest.

Freedom from pain, injury, or disease—with proper veterinary care and compassionate husbandry.

Freedom to express normal behavior—or the freedom for cows to be cows, with the right space and good company.

Freedom from fear or distress—by providing the right conditions and care from good people.

At the time I wasn’t aware that they had this pledge in place. In-fact if they did have it in place when we visited, I’m surprised they let us visit at all. They probably didn’t expect that a tour for a bunch of kids under ten would end up in a written story about milk some years down the line. Oops.

In other words, I did not witness the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare. It wasn’t that the farmers weren’t compassionate or caring, it's just that there were too many animals and too much profit to be lost. When milk became a cooperation, cows became slave laborers, and slave laborers don’t get unions. This means that while the healthy and producing cows may be worth keeping healthy, those that aren’t going to make money for the company aren’t worth spending money on. In a capitalistic world, it's an ideal situation. Within almost any ethical framework, it's unjust. Now, death happens on farms, and certainly more frequently during birth. I can’t say that some industrial dairy farms don’t practice the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare that are listed above, and that the suffering calves I saw weren’t on their way out, but I don’t think the kids ate their free yogurt that day after seeing what had to happen in order for them to get it.

The milk produced on this farm isn’t processed and turned into Chobani yogurt on the same land. This was one dairy farm of many in Southeastern Idaho that ships their milk to Twin Falls, Idaho where the Chobani processing plant is located. That plant can take in over six million pounds of milk in one day, coming from about 50 farms in a 100 mile radius.

The Chobani plant in Twin Falls, Idaho is where all of this milk is pasteurized, and as the people who are buying it all across the nation, we should be glad it is. Raw milk advocates have made a number of claims touting raw milk as the superior choice nutritionally. While pasteurization can heat out trace amounts of certain nutrients such as riboflavin, vitamins B6 and B12, and vitamin C, it isn’t typically enough to make a difference in the nutritional profile of a cup of the good stuff. Other claims suggesting that people who are lactose intolerant or have asthma can better handle raw milk over pasteurized milk are unfounded. In order for massive companies to feed our nation, safety precautions need to be in place. For the majority of people who want grocery shopping to be simple, worrying about their child contracting E. Coli. from their store bought yogurt is not ideal. The mass production of milk, and the pasteurization of it, has allowed the people who live in major city centers access to a nutritionally packed food that they can be confident will not make them sick.

What can’t be debated is that raw milk producers are not handling six million pounds of milk in one day.

Quite the opposite actually. Wild Spaces farm in Glenns Ferry, Idaho is what is known as a “micro dairy”. The owner, Wilder Jones, grew up farming organically with his father, who learned the ropes from his father, and his father before him. As I pulled into the driveway of his property, I was greeted by two grizzly looking men in overalls and bandanas and a chicken crossing the road… No joke. My boyfriend and I hopped out of the truck as Wilder was coming out of his house with a big ol’ smile to meet us. After a firm and genuine handshake the first words out of Wilder’s mouth were,

“Are you guys planning on staying the night? We are having gyros for dinner!”

The immediate familiarity I felt with him surprised me. This was a fully functioning business, yet the two “farm hands” were having a bud light for lunch, and two customers were just invited for gyros and a sleep over.

We politely declined, but by the end of the tour we wished we had packed our overnight bags. He began to lead us to the milk processing room, approximately a 12ft by 8ft structure, 20 paces away from his front porch, 20 paces away from the chicken coop (that currently did not have any chickens in it because they were roaming freely around the property), 10 paces from the milking barn, and probably 100 paces from the dairy cows themselves who were grazing in the pasture. Micro. Dairy. It was a far cry from the Chobani farm I had visited just a few years earlier.

As he opened the door to the processing room, the laid back-country-feel vanished momentarily. Stainless steel sparkled in every direction. Wilder drifted over to the industrial sized sink and washed his hands like he was prepping for surgery. I followed suit.

The conversation started out light, as his girlfriend Sky, a biologist for Idaho Fish and Game, met us in the processing room and partook in our testing of the home-made mozzarella, feta, yogurt, kefir, cider, and some jello-like milk product. Like a mad scientist, Wilder kept pulling glass jars full of liquid brine out of the fridge, while a new cheese creation was bubbling on the burner in front of him.

He walked us through the steps of the cheese making, explaining that the ingredients for most cheese stays the same and it’s the process that distinguishes a feta from a mozzarella.

Cheese was new for Wild Spaces Farm. Wilder explained that it was necessary, as the amount of milk his six cows produced was creating surplus beyond the calf’s needs and the amount he could bottle and sell. The milk though, is and will always be the most important product they produce. Wilder explained,

“The milk will always hold us down, it's just too profitable. You milk, you cool, you put it in a bottle, boom. With cheese I have all this shit going on to make it, and comparing it to store prices, I’m not sure I could compete unless people get really stoked about where the cheese is coming from.”

So the next question was why do people care so much about raw milk? Without going to the local Co-op and harassing customers near the refrigerator section, I was left asking Wilder what he has come to understand from his own customers. Considering the plethora of health advice and opinions on social media, I couldn’t help but suspect that part of the allure was the rumors that raw milk can help cure eczema, lactose intolerance, and cancer. I knew at least a small number of people have read studies that supported those claims, and probably not the studies that dispute them, but I had to believe that this new fascination and admiration of raw milk was deeper than some misguided fad. Wilder confirmed my beliefs,

“I try not to do any persuasion. I’d rather everybody have their own understanding of raw milk. What I’ve found from a lot of people is that they are nostalgic. Around here, a lot of people grew up drinking it from their family farms and so that fear of it is gone, and they like it better. “

“I’ve also had people meet me at the farmers market to just talk cows. They want to know how I raise my cows, the difference in industrialization and pasteurization, the whole nine yards. For them it seems to be about what goes on and not so much about the final product.”

“And I guess the other group that seems to be excited is moms. A lot of them are hitting me with the same questions. I think that is stemming from the current change in the food system. They want what’s best for their kids and they’re trying to figure out what that is.”

Wilder’s words and what I witnessed on that little farm matched up. We finished up our cheese making in the milk processing room just as a neighbor pulled in the driveway. Sky and I were headed up the nearby hill to meet Ferdinand the bull, but in the distance I could hear Wilder asking the lady if she needed more eggs, milk, ect.

At the top of the hill stood Ferdinand, and his “friend” Flatbed, who Wilder bought to keep Ferdinand company. Ferdinand had the hump of a camel and the ears of a basset hound. Sky, standing at about 5’2 and weighing approximately 120 pounds, walked up to Ferdinand, a 1000 pound Gyr Bull, and began scratching his head. He leaned into her gently.

Later on, we all walked through the goat pen, where Wilder and Sky took turns naming off each and every one of the 15 goats jumping around, and into the organically fertilized pasture where the dairy cows grazed. We chatted as the cows took turns coming up to us for head scratches and baby talk. The animal husbandry witnessed was what you might imagine when singing “Old Macdonald had a farm”. As we worked our way through the field, Wilder eased into the conversation and became a little less animated than an hour before when we first met. He explained to me why all milk bought in the store seems to have so much less advertising than the rest of the products we buy,

“The companies don’t really need to compete with each other. They don’t spend money on different bottling or colorful logos because they are all paying into the lobbying fees which does the advertising for them. The USFDA recommends three servings of dairy a day and Big Milk has a lot to do with that.”

“In Idaho, I’m not required to buy into that program. Which is nice because it really does nothing for me, but in California and some other states, micro-dairies are, and that can be really hard financially on them.”

When it comes to dairy farms, the middle sized guys are almost extinct. Wilder is lucky he is in Idaho, where regulation on raw milk and lobbying fees are minimal. But nationwide, the push to “get big, or get out” has made it almost impossible for independent farmers to run a profitable business. More than 70% of milk is produced on farms with at least 500 head of cattle, while many have over 25,000. In 1997 there were approximately 125,000 dairy farms across the USA, with an average of 73 cows on each farm. In 2017, the number of dairy farms dropped to 55,000, with an average of 200 cows per farm.

The attraction to raw, small-farm milk is hardly a mystery anymore. Beyond the nostalgia and prospective health benefits of it, people are making the decision to support small and local farms because they are sick of being told what to do. When pasteurization of milk became mandatory in 1987, everyone was on the same playing field, but it didn’t take long for the regulations to pile on and for big dairy to push out all of the little guys.

The same thing happened with cheese, but with a twist.

One important and controversial ingredient that is essential to cheese making is rennet, a coagulate that is found in the enzymes produced by a calf’s stomach. Wilder explained,

“There’s a big conversation to be had around rennet, and cheese, and death. In the 90s, Pfizer created a yeast, genetically spliced a cow gene into the yeast, enabling the yeast to secrete an enzyme. They totally uprooted the rennet world, and the cheese process as a whole. That’s what really started industrial cheese making.”

“Per death of individuals, that’s a great thing, but for me it’s like, has the sacredness of the genome of the bovine been harmed?” “I think when we enjoy cheese, we have to remember that there was the taking of the milk that was supposed to be for the calf, and in some instances there was the taking of the life. I don’t know, for me it makes the cheese so much better.”

He added that he is aware of how satanic that sentence comes out, but he’s still trying to wrap his head around the options available and how it has changed cheese as an industry.

Wilder had just taken a natural cheese making course in the winter of 2022, run by Trevor Warmedahl, a nomadic cheese maker. Trevor travels the globe and studies animal husbandry, pastoralism, and cheese making. He’s renowned in the niche world of raw milk. The world seems to be moving backwards in terms of food and ingredients, which in a lot of cases I am thankful for, yet the idea of killing a calf when we have a genetically identical alternative for rennet didn’t add up in the world of animal husbandry.

For the non-vegans who are passionate about the well-being of animals, a shift away from industrial agriculture is a no-brainer, but the rennet debate adds an unexpected bump in the road. Companies like Kraft and Tillamook certainly are not using naturally sourced rennet to produce their masses of cheese. Yet, the uncertainty of what other ingredients they are using, or the quality of life of those producing the ingredients, still haunts the public. When sourcing natural rennet slows down the cheese making process, the amount of cheese made, and the transparency of the ingredients used, is there justification in the killing of a calf?

In 2023, raw milk is a lot like marajuana in the USA– other than its not considered a schedule 1 drug. Some people swear it has changed their life, others are scared of what it may do, and most people just don’t want to be told what they can and cannot put in their own bodies. The conversation is nowhere near finished, as regulations are being added and taken away on a yearly basis, state by state. While Big Milk could have 100 cases of recalls or outbreaks and come out of it almost unscathed, all it would really take is a bad case of E.Coli from a batch of raw milk to really change things for the small industry.

Who knew there were so many ways to milk a cow? Despite the difference in tactics, my experience is that farmers want to share and engage, whether they are taking care of 25,000 cows or only six. They take a lot of pride in what they do, and as they should. The aisles of our grocery stores would look a lot different without them – Whole Foods and Walmart alike. Knowing where our food comes from is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves, our children, and whoever else we are feeding. Humor them and take a visit. It’s just like visiting your grandma, I can almost guarantee you will get a meal, or walk out with free groceries of some kind.

That’s just what farmers do, they feed people.

- Abbey Nimegeers