Good raw milk info needed

susanne · #41 01/08/09, 04:09 PM

heather i feel for you. how do you prevent your hands from cracking?
have you tried nitrile gloves? at least your hands will stay dry and i heard it helps a little bit with the cold. no idea how to help with the udders from your does.
my girls don't need to go out to be milked as i have the luxury of a milk room in the barn

hoofinitnorth · #42 01/08/09, 04:51 PM

Susanne, this year it hasn't been too bad for me, for some reason. But usually it is quite a battle. I had to try different hand soaps (for me when I'm inside washing up) and different detergents for the milking equipment, etc. Just keeping them dry is important and I do dry the udders and my hands IMMEDIATELY after washing so that keeps us from having any real problems. I have tried the nitrile gloves but I like the feel of the udder and I think it's better for the does without. I think the friction of gloves can upset the skin??? Who knows. Anyway, the girls' udders look great this year, even this late in their lactations (not talking capacity, unfortunately, that suffered after our big three-day event of shows in August).

Even if I had a better sheltered area for milking, I would not have the girls in a heated area for more than a few minutes every day. As it is they easily "look cold" if they are out "too long" in these temps. and their stall is only a few degrees warmer. They hunch up and puff up their coats and stand in the corner when they are really cold, otherwise they just puff up and walk on. Lately they have been feeling pretty cooped up so they have been tearing around the yard while I milk. The only thing funnier than watching a kid kick and twist and jump around is watching a full-grown adult do it! Wish I could bottle their energy!!

One thing I had to NOT do with the girls' udders is put a balm or salve or cream or anything on the udder when I'm done. This made one doe break out after ONE use (corona udder balm) and it took me a while to get her udder to calm down. The others just seemed to be dryer and more red when I put anything on them after milking. Maybe I just didn't try the right product but for now, they all look great so I'm not messin' with them.

Of note on SCC, I noticed that our SCCs went WAY up on all three girls when we held them twice daily for kids to nurse without milking them. Two of the girls were still feeding their own kids at will, but all three would be held to supplement some young does I bought that I didn't want weaned yet. That was an interesting finding, anyway.

sammyd · #43 01/09/09, 06:27 PM

According to the Director of the Dairy and Egg Safety Division at the FDA CFSAN, in testimony on raw milk safety presented to the Ohio House of Representatives Agricultural Committee on May 24, 2006, a search of their data from 2000-2005 “produced 44 illnesses associated with pasteurized milk products as compared with 473 from raw milk… many of them children and pregnant women.” There were seven deaths, including three infant fatalities.

In other words, raw milk has been linked to more than 90% of the cases of milk-borne illnesses, ten times the number linked to pasteurized milk.

Yet, only about 3.5% of American consumers drink raw milk.

hoofinitnorth · #44 01/09/09, 11:50 PM

I think you are misinformed, sammyd. Much of the FDA information, when you actually go look into it, has not proven an illness truly caused by raw milk but *suspected*. If you read the book I posted for the OP, you will open your eyes to a lot of the misuse (on *both* sides) of the data. Then you can go from there and start digging a bit to try to find more reliable data.