Question for dairy farmers

[ladycat]

According to THIS webpage, only 4 out of 82 commercially used antibiotics are commonly tested for in the milk.

I thought that antibiotic residues in the milk that goes into the tanker was strictly forbidden.

Is the above statement true?

[dosthouhavemilk]

"I thought that antibiotic residues in the milk that goes into the tanker was strictly forbidden."
This statement is very true. If residue is found in a tank, the farmer has to buy the entire load...if it makes it into the silos at the plant that farmer is looking at a huge cost.....tank load is looking at $10,000...you get that into a silo? Yeah. Farmers aren't going to go around just putting questionable milk into their tanks. The risk is not worth it. Each tank has a sample removed from it before the milk is put into the truck. Those samples are tested at the plant.

From what I heard recently they test for a few antibiotics regularly (as in every pick up) and then they will do more indepth tests not quite as regularly. You never know what tests will be run so why risk it? What is the point in risking it? Especially since they make kits where you can run your tank if you think there is a chance you made a human error.

I love how those studies are from 1989 and 1992 before Posilac was even on the market. 15 years ago? Do you have any idea how much test sensitivities change in that amount of time? For Johne's alone the test sensistivies have changed greatly over the past decade.

[Teacupliz]

i jus started shipping milk 4 months ago and yes they test each load for antibiotics- and as stated why would you risk paying for the whole load- Liz in NY

[DaleK]

They test every tanker here and they test it for everything they can. Kind of a moot point in this area since almost all the milk goes to cheese factories and if there was any measurable antibiotic residue it kills the culture and they have to dump the vat. I know a couple of the cheesemakers, they test everything twice before they let it off the truck. That's actually why the antibiotic tests were developed not long after penicillin came out, too many vats of useless milk in the cheese factories.

[scorpian5]

most of the drugs that are given dont show unless given in large amounts. A milk sample is taken from each fresh cow by the company and tested before the milk can go into the bulk tank. some farmers dont rinse the milker after milking the treated cow and never have a problem but somw do

[Eunice]

I take exception to the statement by scorpian5 "most of the drugs that are given dont show unless given in large amounts." I milk on a 100 cow dairy and we use very little antibiotics. When we do, we have test kits from the milk plant that we use before the cow goes back in the line. It will register at about 10 parts per million. The penicillin bottle says to withhold milk for 72 hours. We NEVER have a cow go clear before one week and have had some go for three weeks. The plant can test samples that we request and they test under six parts per million. Twenty years ago I knew a guy that could not drink store milk because he was more sensitive to penicillin than the tests that were used at that time.