Milk test kit

[wberry85]

Is there anyone making a kit that you can test raw milk at home for any signs of e. coli, etc?

[gone-a-milkin]

It wont tell you which strain of bacteria may be present,
but the California Milk Test is a standard tool in every milkbarn I have ever been in.

http://www.jefferspet.com/california...IV/cp/0040465/

[wberry85]

Cool. We have not started milking our cow yet but all this talk about e coli and lysteria etc makes me a little worried. Not trying to start a raw milk debate here, just looking for steps I can take to prevent any bad things since I am somewhat new to this and dont want to make a dumb mistake.

[Athena]

Just keep everything scrupulously clean and if you're milking every day, always use the freshest milk for your household consumption and generally speaking, you'll be fine. We have pigs who get the excess and anything a little older.

The only thing you can readily test for at home is the presence of somatic cells in the milk, which may indicate mastitis, but you can drink milk which tests positive but still looks like good milk without harm. (Or my system is now so robust I didn't notice any harm!)

Don't feed non-pasteurised milk or its products to anyone who may be pregnant or have an immune-system disorder. Make sure you tell your visitors it's unpasteurised, so they know. You can't easily tell whether you have listeria in your fridge or not.

[Awnry Abe]

Paranoia is good in this case. There is a lot that goes into healthy milk. Milking cleanliness, dairy handling, and healthy cows are predominant. When milking, if I have any doubts, I throw it out. (not literally. But it doesn't get saved for human consumption).

I'm gonna toss this out for everyone to jump all over. If you are worried about it, then you are probably going to have very safe milk. It is the people that argue that there is nothing worry about that make me worry.

[Athena]

The "oh, don't worry, it'll mix in" comment gets my skin crawling. ;-)

[tab]

I was absolutely paranoid at first with raw milk. Now, the store bought creeps me out. I found some very unexpected health benefits from the raw milk. If ever some of it was questionable it went into vinegar cheese or the cats.