Milk That Wonn't Clabber

[Guest guest]

A few weeks ago I wrote that our milk wouldn't clabber. After reading

you responses I checked with Heidi , our farmer, and found that:

No, there was no mastitis (I didn't think that could be the case as

she is scrupulous about their health and very much in tune with her cows)

No there had been no change in their diet. This was early December

and they had not added hay yet. Apparently there is enough grass out

in the fields for them. There are only three cows and untold acres.

Also, the small amount of grain they get when being milked had no soy

or cottonseed.

We agreed that the next time I was due to pick up my milk I would come

early and get it before it had been refrigerated and try clabbering that.

Lo and behold, it clabbered. What a treat to have that wonderful

cottage cheese again. i knew it was good but had gotten somewhat

jaded by having it all the time.

But when I reported this back to Heidi she told me that due to the

extremely cold temeratures in the previous few days the cows had been

allowed to stay in the barn and been given hay for the day before i

picked up my milk. They had hay all day, I guess.

She said that they would now continue to supplement with hay.

So I figured it was the hay that made the difference, not the never

refrigerated milk (because, after all, I had been consistantly

successful with refrigerated milk until sometime this autumn. The

milk took longer and longer to clabber and then stopped completely.)

And I thought I would now be able to continue clabbering.

But no.. it's not clabbering again.

And K.C.: I tried adding rennet to this nonclabbering milk and it did

end up looking like the cottage cheese I was after, but it tasted

like...well, you know....awful!

So what do you think? Do they need more hay than they are getting.

That would be my guess. But why? If they are producing enough milk

on what they are getting now and they appear healthy how can I make

the case that they need more hay? does anybody have any " science " to

back me up. (I believe that the non-clabbering milk is evidence

enough that something is wrong, but I feel unfomfortable asking them

to, in effect, spend more money on the cows just on my say so.)

Ellen