Em Nau Farm BLOG

A couple of things this blog –

New Additions

We have recently acquire two new cows – Cagney and Lacey who are both Murray Grey calves.  The Murray Grey cow general grow to weigh between 500 – 700kg, are naturally polled, have a dark udder and pigmentation of skin and have a coat that ranges from light silver to chocolate or dark grey. 

“Polled” means  livestock without horns in species which normally are horned. The term refers both to breeds or strains which are naturally polled through selective breeding (never grow horns) and also to naturally horned animals which have been dehorned. Natural polling occurs in cattle, yaks, water buffalo and goats, and in these it affects both sexes equally; however in sheep, both sexes may be horned, both polled, or only the females polled.

Raw Milk

A regular question we get is “can I/we buy your raw milk so we can drink it?”  The answer is always no.  Unless you own a commercial dairy and are licensed you cannot sell raw milk for human consumption.   You may although consume it if you own the animal being milked.

For those who aren’t aware raw milk is defined as milk that has not been pasteurised or homogenised.  Whilst people claim there are benefits to raw milk the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code requires milk intended for human consumption must be pasteurised or equivalently processed to eliminate pathogenic bacteria that maybe present.

Various worldwide reports conducted have concluded that there are a wide variety of organisms that could cause illness can potentially be found in raw milk.  These include campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and parasites such as cryptosporidium.

I must admit that since moving to the farm and living on raw cow and goat milk and milk products such as cheese I find it pretty good and have not have not had any adverse effects.

If you, like myself and many others, feel that processed modern foods are the things making you sick then what is the right answer and good for us when drinking milk or eating milk products.

All else being equal pasteurisation does indeed make milk safer to consume, mainly because the “harmful” bacteria will be killed during the pasteurisation process.  As for nutritional differences both contain, more or less, the same nutrients.  Although like cooking of vegetables or fruit the cooking process generally eliminates the nutritional values.  The pasteurisation process generally destroys 20% of the amino acids – those that are heat sensitive.

I am not holding myself out as being an expert on this subject but from the reading I have undertaken on this subject the real differences boil down (sorry for the pun) to two things - the amount of beneficial bacteria in raw milk over pasteurised and the diet of the sheep, cow, goat etc being milked.  If an animal is raised on grass and is free ranging as opposed to being in feed lots and fed on grains and animal by-products (which goats/sheep/cows weren’t really meant to consume) then the milk will be naturally “healthier” in the raw state ie less bad bacteria present.

Like chilli or seafood or even gluten - raw milk will not be everyone’s choice and the bottom line is the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code says raw milk is dangerous and should not be consumed by anyone at anytime for any purpose but for me it is a choice I am glad to have in my diet.

If you wish to know more about the pros and cons of raw milk v processed milk I suggest you “Google it” as it is a fascinating subject.