self-intro Bill Gehm, Lisle, New York

[Guest guest]

Hello,

My name is Bill Gehm. I was raised on a 72 cow dairy farm in the Lisle, NY area and consumed a few thousand gallons of raw milk from that farm until my father sold the herd in 1993. I have also milked many cows during that time period. Raw milk is not available for sale in my area. The last time I had raw milk was during my visit in February to Organic Pastures in Fresno, CA.

I attended the fund raiser dinner last month in Madison that was a part of the 2nd annual raw milk symposium. I currently have an article featured on the http://hartkeisonline.com/ site that discusses the quality of milk in general relative to SCC data.

My current general interest in the dairy industry is with milking equipment. My father struggled with high SCC like all dairy farmers and got tired of being told by the "experts" from universities and milking equipment companies that the problem was his poor management. He decided to take matters into his own hands observing the fact that milking machines hurt the cows and focused on developing a better milking machine.

His efforts culminated in a discovery that we evolved into a milking machine that we patented and took to market under the trade name CoPulsation Milking System. We have since battled the established dairy industry of universities, milking equipment companies and pharmaceutical companies to end their reign of terror over dairy farmers. I have found that in many ways our struggles parallel those who are working to expand the market and access to raw milk.

I am interested in seeing those who want to produce and have access to raw milk be successful. I firmly believe that the foundation of that success must lie with a consistent high level of quality so that no one can use quality as an excuse for disparaging the product.

I have three web sites that may be of interest, UdderlyBetterMilk.com, CoPulsation.com and CornellDairyResearch.com. If you visit those you will find that my thoughts are measurably different from those of the mainstream dairy industry.

Bill Gehm