For those of you who purchase organic milk at the grocery store, I have a question:  Why do you do it?  And what expectations do you have for the farming practices where the cows are raised, bred, and milked?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve always assumed that organic dairy = the humane treatment of dairy cows and the ability to have pasture land on which to move about and graze.

Well, if that is your vision then you’ll be happy to hear that last week the USDA passed some new regulations that will help maintain the integrity of organic dairy family farms.  After years of abusing the term “organic,” larger factory farms will have to comply with new rules that are being cheered on by family farmers who have long believed in and practiced allowing their cows to roam and consume a significant portion of their food from pasture.

Why is Del Marie Creamery happy about this?  Most importantly, because we believe that happy cows provide the best milk, as Laura Chisholm says.  And secondly, because the milk for all of our dairy products is produced from cows at Chisholm Family Farm – a farm on which the cows are allowed to roam and are on a rotational grazing system.  The cows are 100% grass-fed.  No grain, soy or corn.  Ever.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition summarized the main requirements of the new USDA rules as:

• Ruminants [i.e. cows, sheep, and goats] must graze pasture during the grazing season for a minimum of 120 days;
• Ruminants must have a minimum of 30% dry matter intake from pasture during the grazing season;
• Organic livestock operations must have a pasture management plan that includes protection of soil and water quality; and
• Livestock must have access to pasture during the finishing period.

Here’s to knowing that there will be many more happy cows out there!  Cheers.

- annemarie

ABC News is getting ready to do a report on Nightline which features undercover videos of “factory dairy farms.”  I’ve not yet watched the videos, and to be honest I don’t believe I will – the photos in the report are enough.

Thankfully, not all dairy farms are factory farms.

Visiting Chisholm Family Farm on a weekly basis means knowing the family, the farm and the cows that supply our milk.

The Chisholm’s cows are happy cows with names (not numbers) and a whole lot of love.  On our very first visit in August, we stood in the pasture and watched the sun set while the cows munched on grass and glanced at us with curiosity.  And every Saturday, when in the milk parlor, we open the window and talk to the cows as they slurp up water from the trough right in front of us.  Last week, we mostly talked to “Kathy” who was very pregnant. She just gave birth to her bull calf yesterday. Congrats Kathy!

We are glad that the Chisholms and Del Marie Creamery agree on the fact that “happy cows make great milk.”

- annemarie