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Good Ol' Cream

PureCountry

Well-known member
Been hand milking the Brown Swiss now for 2 weeks, twice a day, and the kids are lovin' that cream on their cereal. Cold on Shreddies or on hot porridge, goooooooodd stuff. Herein lies the problem though - everyone wants some. Friends, neighbours, some townfolks, so do we try and sell a little milk and cream for cash under the table, risking a $250,000 fine or 3 years in jail? We've given some to family, but I think as far as anyone else we'll trade for things like homemade sausage, chutney, pork, eggs and what-have-you. I think it'll make for better relations anyways.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
I always loved fresh milk with cream on Post Toasties.........mama had a jersey cow named "pet" when I was a kid. Man she sure made the milk.

Few years ago, me and mom were talkin, we'd sat down and were eatin a bowl of cereal before bedtime, I told her, Post Toasties just don't taste like they usta. she said, "that's because it don't have fresh cream on em" But told me to get half n half and it'd be close. She was right.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
In the states it is state by state.. In Illinois for example I think (and the rules are kind of fuzy) you can't sell raw milk on the farm unless the buyer supplies his/her own container... I know we looked into it as my daughter is allergic/sensative to cow milk... My mom was too as an infant and says the only thing she could drink was the raw milk from the farm accross the street... We found a farm but ad one heck of a time finding the farmer :wink:
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Yeah the good old days of raising a family off the cream cheque are long gone-I made pretty good spending money selling milk and cream in highschool-was easy doing the morning milking because I was usually getting home at about that time. It's hard to find a decent cow to hand milk any more-modern dairy cattle tend to be soo short teated. I've got a couple South Devon cross heifers would work good if any body needs a family milk cow. Ourselves just have too much going on to milk anymore-I never used to mind it in the winter but I hated it in the summer.
 

Manitoba_Rancher

Well-known member
I just heard that a neighbor that is in the dairy business is getting over 100+ lbs of milk from his holsteins. But they only last for 3 lactations then its down the road for them. This is bad when a cows life is that short becuase they have been bred to milk as hard as they can. Makes ya really wonder :roll:
 

Aaron

Well-known member
Can't beat good old cream straight from the cow. We milked for cream specifically in Ontario from 1974-1993 when the quota was split between milk and cream. Had lots of fresh cream and gallons upon gallons of milk that had to be used. Needless to say, we had a pile of barn cats and the family probably drank more milk than water. Still have one granddaughter from the original Holstein cowherd left...she is 1/4 Holstein, 1/4 Hereford and 1/2 Guernsey. Beautiful yellow gold milk.

I'd say it would be better if you traded cream for something else. We have had many offers over the years to supply fresh cream and milk to locals, but the regs always scared us just enough not too.
 

jodywy

Well-known member
back when we had a small herd of milk cows, I'd allways find a few dollars in the milkroom...... :D
Somebody want to buy milk I say I can't sell raw milk, just leave a dollar a gallon in the room.
 

PureCountry

Well-known member
Ours is a Brown Swiss named Buttercup. She's a peach - let's any calf suck her, and protects 'em all like they're her own. Even though she'd never been hand-milked before we bought her, she walks into the chute as soon as you open the gate like she's happy to oblige, and never moved a muscle when our daughter (9) took a crack at milking her last night.

That bit about gallons upon gallons of milk is all too familiar - everyone wants cream more than milk. We need to trade it away or sell it or something, because we don't have enough Mason jars to hold it all! Cream's gone in no time and your left with all this milk!
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Oink Oink-Pure Country or Gobble Gobble-milk fed turkeys or hogs are pretty tasty stuff. Our old Jersey cow is a nurse cow now-she gets odd twins and whatever to raise-had my son milking for a bit as a ways to improve your wristshot program lol.
 

PureCountry

Well-known member
Passin thru - I almost forgot about the separator! A good friend of my Dad's stopped out for a shot or two the other night, and when Dad told him I was milking, he offered us his separator - electric model - said we can use it as long as he gets it back in the same shape as when he dropped it off. He brought it by the next morning, and it's as clean as the day it was made! A Stockholm Separator - red base, even had the manual still with it. We tried it Saturday morning, and it runs like a top.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
PureCountry said:
. We need to trade it away or sell it or something, because we don't have enough Mason jars to hold it all! Cream's gone in no time and your left with all this milk!

Pick up a couple weaner pigs- nothing they like better than a little milk- and even if it goes sour they love it...And then you end up with home raised barley and milk fattened pork chops.....
 

PureCountry

Well-known member
Mrs Greg, don't know if I'd take the chance of sellin' it at the Farmer's Market - although I'd love the chance to fight and argue with some bureaucrat about selling raw dairy products, I can't afford to be locked up with calving season just starting.

Northern, I don't know why I forgot about the hogs and such just now, 'cause a neighbour and I were talkin about that the other night at our Grazing Club meeting. Grass finished hogs sweetened with a little cow cream ought to be worth a little extra spending money, eh?
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
What we used to do was buy a gilt -pig her out -then sell the pigs in the fall and butcher her. We usually end up with 10 or a dozen deer to make into sausage so go through alot of pork in the fall.
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
There you go learn somthing new everyday,didn't realise you couldn't sell that cream at a farmers market,I thought the rules were different there!Too bad I know you would get lots of customers there...funny eggs don't have to be checked,really or even the veggies that are sold at market.You know maybe they've been sprayed with some crazy chemical...you know where I'm going with this! Someday we'll be regulated to death...grrr
 
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