Re: answers from farmer

[Guest guest]

Barb-

>It all sounds pretty good to me except for maybe the corn. Any thoughts?

If you can find better (Jersey cows, no corn, soil tested, that sort of

thing) that would be great, but if you can't, this is pretty darned good

compared to most of the alternatives.

-

[Guest guest]

> Everything looks good as far as his answers go except that the corn

they give the cows is a hybrid. He said after May 1st they pretty

much just eat grass but are given some corn and hay. What do you

think? Is the hybrid corn going to mean I shouldn't drink their milk?

Also, when I asked if they add anything to the soil in the pasture he

said just nitrogen fertilizer. Is this ok?

Hi Barb:

Open pollinated corn is a bad food for cattle. Hybrid corn is worse.

Giving the cows some corn and hay after May 1st when the cows are on

green grass is a bad sign. When nitrogen fertilizer is added to a

pasture, it may lower the nutritional value of what is growing there.

Nitrogen fertilizer is probably the worst thing to add to a pasture

if you are looking for nutritious milk.

> He also said their butter (which is $2.50/lb) is more white until

the cows are on the grass, then it is more yellow. When I asked the

average volume of milk produced per cow he said they don't keep track

of it; not important; they produce whatever they produce. That is a

good sign. The water the cows drink come from a well, they don't give

the cows supplements, they are Holstein, and the forage in the

pasture is just different types of grass. They don't use antibiotics,

hormones, growth stimulants or feed supplements.

Myself, I would choose not to drink milk from the modern Holstein

under the best of circumstances. The modern Holstein has been bred

for producing a high volume of milk. I wouldn't be surprised if a

1930's Holstein under the right circumstances would have produced the

brilliant yellow butter of the type Price used in his clinical

trials. If you read Price's chapter on his new vitamin like

activator, you will see that white butter indicates butter and milk

not worth consuming, if you are looking for nutrition.

Were the different types of grass planted by the farmer, or did they

just grow on their own?

> It all sounds pretty good to me except for maybe the corn. Any

thoughts?

It all sounds pretty bad to me.

Chi

[Guest guest]

Chi-

>It all sounds pretty bad to me.

In an absolute sense I agree, but what if there aren't any alternatives?

-

[Guest guest]

> >It all sounds pretty bad to me.

> In an absolute sense I agree, but what if

> there aren't any alternatives?

Hi :

It's up to each person to examine the facts and make their own

decision. It's not up to me to tell anyone else what do do, and it's

not up to anyone else to tell me what to do.

Chi

[Guest guest]

Chi,

Thanks for your input. As you can see, I have a lot to learn about farming

practices.

But wouldn't this milk be MUCH better than the homogenized, pasturized stuff

from the grocery store? I'll keep looking for better, affordable milk, but in

the meantime, would this milk be THAT bad? Also, what is so bad about Holsteins?

Barb

>Hi Barb:

Open pollinated corn is a bad food for cattle. Hybrid corn is worse.

Giving the cows some corn and hay after May 1st when the cows are on

green grass is a bad sign. When nitrogen fertilizer is added to a

pasture, it may lower the nutritional value of what is growing there.

Nitrogen fertilizer is probably the worst thing to add to a pasture

if you are looking for nutritious milk.

>Myself, I would choose not to drink milk from the modern Holstein

under the best of circumstances. The modern Holstein has been bred

for producing a high volume of milk. I wouldn't be surprised if a

1930's Holstein under the right circumstances would have produced the

brilliant yellow butter of the type Price used in his clinical

trials. If you read Price's chapter on his new vitamin like

activator, you will see that white butter indicates butter and milk

not worth consuming, if you are looking for nutrition.

Were the different types of grass planted by the farmer, or did they

just grow on their own?

>It all sounds pretty bad to me.

Chi

[Guest guest]

> But wouldn't this milk be MUCH better than the homogenized,

> pasturized stuff from the grocery store? I'll keep looking for

> better, affordable milk, but in the meantime, would this milk be

> THAT bad? Also, what is so bad about Holsteins?

Hi Barb:

That is the question, Barb, would this milk be MUCH better than the

homogenized, pasteurized stuff from the grocery store? I would

certainly say, from a nutritional point of view, this milk would be

better than the stuff in the grocery store. The question is, would it

be " MUCH " better? The only way to tell for sure would be a Weston

Price style analysis of the nutrients, especially activator X.

Lacking the funds or expertise for that analysis, the color of the

butter might be a guide. I doubt that it would be possible to consume

enough white or pale yellow butter to get enough of the nutritional

factors that Price found in the brilliant yellow butter.

The problem with Holsteins, as I see it, is simply they have been

bred for quantity milk production. Since most farmers produce milk

for quantity, not nutritional quality, it is the number one dairy cow

in use today. In my area of the world, it is 94% of dairy cows. In

growing crops in a field, maximum yields per acre never produce

maxium nutrition per acre. Hence, I don't see how a breed of dairy

cow, the Holstein, which has been bred for quantity, can produce milk

of the highest nutritional value, even when it's on green grass grown

in high soil fertility. If, on the other hand, the Holstein was

bred " backwards " for some generations in order to produce the volume

of milk that it would have produced in the 1930's, then I believe it

could produce milk of high nutritional quality.

For a dairy farmer trying to produce milk of high nutritional

quality, I suggest that the Holstein would be the worst breed to

choose.

Chi

[Guest guest]

>> But wouldn't this milk be MUCH better than the homogenized,

pasturized stuff from the grocery store? I'll keep looking for

better, affordable milk, but in the meantime, would this milk be

THAT bad? <<

I'm a week late chiming in on this, but I'm going to anyway. :-) IMO, it

IS much better. It might be lacking activator X and other nutrients, but

it does still have live enzymes to aid in digesting it, and possibly

more important, it is lacking the toxic qualities of homogenized milk

products.

~ Carma ~

To be perpetually talking sense runs out the mind, as perpetually

ploughing and taking crops runs out the land. The mind must be manured,

and nonsense is very good for the purpose. ~ Boswell

Carma's Corner: http://www.users.qwest.net/~carmapaden/