Our co-op's new adventure as cow owners :)

[Guest guest]

Hi, all. You may remember that almost 2 weeks ago the farmer supplying our

raw milk was visited by DHEC and told to stop selling raw milk until his

dairy is certified. It was suggested that the farmer take his 3 Jerseys

over to a commercial dairy down the road to get milked while the farmer had

his milking parlor built and did the other necessary things to get

certified. I called the man from DHEC to see if there was any legal way for

us to obtain raw milk in the interim. We discussed several options, but the

one that was finally approved was for our co-op to buy a cow and then pay

the farmer to board and milk it. We sold part interests (cow shares).

We've been scrambling to come up with all the legal paperwork and boarding

and shareholder's agreements. The farmer was able to bring one of his cows

home only 9 days after they were all sent away! Hopefully, the other 2 cows

will be home today. (They did get home on Easter Sunday.) It seems like

it's been at least a month or more since the cows went away! I've been

searching the web to find out what a Bill of Sale should look like, to

research a fair boarding fee and amount for the labor involved in milking,

etc. We had to draw up three separate legal documents and we also made a

brochure to give to cow shareholders that explains some of the

technicalities like milk pick up, if they want to sell shares, etc. On top

of all that, we had to contact all our co-op members and potential raw milk

drinkers to see if they wanted to sign on as part owners. It's been a busy

10 days! We now have all of the cow shares sold. 17 different families

have signed up. I hope and expect to finish the remainder of the paperwork

today. Whew. Anyway, that is the state of our grand adventure as cow

owners. The farmer has immediate Buy-Back rights when he gets certified, so

this will hopefully be a very short term arrangement. The contractor is

supposed to come out this week to begin building the milking parlor. On a

more somber note, one of the 2 cows that was returned on Sunday had lost a

lot of weight, was weak, and not doing very well. The farmer called the vet

who gave the cow something, but it was too late. She died of pneumonia this

afternoon. I am heartbroken for the poor farmer who takes care of his cows

like pets. The loss of the cow won't affect our agreement as the 2

remaining cows produce enough to meet the demand of the families that signed

up. But it is very sad to think that a really good cow was lost probably

because of bureaucratic red tape. I doubt she would have gotten sick if she

was home and if she did, the farmer would have noticed right away and

immediately have her seen by the vet. This whole turn of events is an

example of one of the reasons people are so antagonistic to government

over-regulation.

ine

[Guest guest]

--- Food From Afar <foodfromafar@...> wrote:

> But it is very sad to think that a really good

> cow was lost probably

> because of bureaucratic red tape.

Can the farmer sue them for death of his cow?

Roman

__________________________________________________