Raw Milk CSA in Virginia

[Faith Farm]

My wife and I are considering a CSA for raw milk production in our area.
We have a milk cow now but stopped milking her and put her on a few
calves which has been a blessing.
We raise beef cattle, pork, poultry, honey, mushrooms and other items
now which we sell @ three farmers markets. Many of our customers
have requested the service and are willing to travel to our farm to pick
up their milk. So, we are compiling a member list of at least 50 people
before we start.
To start we will purchase milk equipment for milk room, surge pump
and milking attachments then purchase 3-4 Jersey milkers. We plan to
purchase the cows outright then sell them to the members to cover all
expenses. We have an old barn with dirt floors where I park my tractor
which could be used as a milk parlor. It is 10 ft wide x 35 ft long.

Should we build a small shed with concrete floor alongside a 8 x 40
container shed we already have which can be used as the milk room
and customer pickup room?

What type of equipment do you recommend for first timer start up?

How should I set up the milking parlor? Stanctions, alleys, cattle flow.

Should they be totally seperate from the beef herd @ all times?

What books to read, magazines or other information sources are
recommended?

Any suggestions how we can start by the fall would be appreciated.
Monday we will visit another raw milk farm a few hours from here for their
advice.

Thanks,
Paul from Faith Farm

[steff bugielski]

First off check into the legality of it.

[Faith Farm]

CSA's are legal here in Virginia. There are several in operation
in state for many years. We will not sell the milk to people only milk
the members cows and store the milk for them to be picked up
@ the farm by them. We can sell our meat products to them
from our small store where the milk will be stored.
To be a cow owner the person will need to sign a legal contract which is
used by most CSA's in this state before purchasing the animal.

[Ken Scharabok]

Since these are legal in the state your Country Ag Agent should be able to help you on facility designs. Likely the state has minimum standards and I strongly suspect a dirt floor in the milking parlor would not be acceptable.

You may have some problem in balancing your customer base to your realized milk production. If you are going to raise the calves on the side some of that production will also likely have to go to them.

Please keep us periodically posted on your progress and results.

[Faith Farm]

You are correct about the dirt floor Ken. We will need to put in
concrete through out the milking area. I have several rubber 3 x 5
rubber pads to use while the cow’s milk. A stiff rake and water removes
the manure from the pads.

The logistics for distributing fresh milk on a timely schedule will be
a challenge. We plan to have groups of 6 or 7 families who will take turns
coming out to the farm once every 6 or 7 weeks to pick up their milk
and the group’s milk. The 50 total customers will have 8 groups of
6 people each. Two groups may have 7.

Each week @ the farmers markets we gather more potential customers
through our e-mail sign up which we use to remind customers each week
before the market. People have been very responsive so far with our meats
as we run specials or they Send us orders.
The milk business should increase our overall customer base by at least 30%.
Anyway, that's the plan.

We will have 4-5 cows with 15 or 16 shares per cow as we hope to milk
once per day. The calf will enjoy the remainder. I have 7 calves now
which were bottle calves by one means or the other. Mama died, abandon,
given to us, etc. and are gaining weight nicely for our beef inventory.