Winter (weak) Milk, going into Summer (fresh) Milk.

[Guest guest]

This is the worst time of the year for the poor cows who live in

Minnesota. They've been off fresh grass for months now, the

grassfed ones living on hay, baleage and silage for the most

part. If their weight or production slips, the farmer is required to

dip into the grain a bit to tide them over. A gaunt cow is neither

fertile nor healthy.

It's only been recently that farmers were forced by consumer

pressure to keep cows fresh over the winter and it's pretty hard

on the farm family and the cows. Cows are forced to ovulate at

the wrong times and are bred at the wrong times so that

consumers can have milk all year long. In a natural world they

would breed in the summer and calve the following spring giving

milk all summer until they are dried off for winter. The current

system obviously isn't natural for us or for them. Cheese, butter

and fermented dairy was invented to get us through the winter

time. There are still a few seasonal dairies in Minnesota and

Wisconsin and they put up some good cheeses.

The good news is that the cows at Mom's are going back into

rotational grazing on the new grass this very week! It's Earth Day

for them too. All this rain will require some deft handling and

management so they don't tear the fragile pastures up, so about

1/2 day per paddock for now. We will soon see a rapid rise in the

color, flavor and density of the milk products, same with the

pastured eggs.

Right now the Mom's milk brixes at 10.5 but I'm expecting it to

shoot up accordingly. I'm hoping we will see 16 or higher soon.

We will brix all the milk samples we have at the

CHEESE-MAKING workshop (featuring PATRICK MOORE- " the

Cheese Guy " ) and DAIRY TASTING coming up on SATURDAY

--MAY 7th. This next event will be held at the LINDEN HILLS

COMMUNITY CENTER as we need the kitchen and wide open

space for a big crowd. As usual, we'll have the POTLUCK ,

FOOD SWAP and TRADE SHOW. More details to follow.

Will