Got Milk? Raw milk, that is.

By Steven Schwartz and Angelique Chao

It’s giving away one’s age to remember milkmen carrying wire racks filled with clinking glass bottles to the door of houses.  The sight of moms putting the heavy half-gallon glass bottles into the refrigerator and the empties out for pickup was part of daily life. Families drank glass after glass of rich whole cow’s milk – no one had even heard of skim, 1% or soy milk back in the day. Eventually, home milk deliveries ceased and the familiar sound of the milk truck grinding its gears in our neighborhood faded into memory.

Fast-forward to 2010. Twenty billion gallons of milk are produced in the U.S., nearly all processed by a handful of multibillion dollar corporations. Dairy products of all kinds are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. However, an increasing number of people are beginning to wonder what exactly is in their cheap milk and cheese and how a simple animal like the cow is being manipulated to produce it. Their doubts are leading them to look for alternative sources.

To see one such alternative, we recently visited Hedgebrook Farm, a Winchester pasture-based dairy operation certified by Animal Welfare Approved (AWA), an animal welfare organization based in Washington, DC.  Our hosts from AWA, Beth and Jill, kept an eye on a menagerie including screeching peacocks and a three-month-old lamb that didn’t know it wasn’t a dog. Angelique sat down with owner Kitty Hockman-Nicholas.

Angelique: Kitty, thanks for having us here today, would you tell us about Hedgebrook Farm?

Kitty: I love talking about our farm. My grandparents started the farm in 1906 with apple orchards and Hereford beef cows. My dad was an only child and always loved the farm, and in 1948, when I was six years old, he decided that he needed another business and a niche in the marketplace, so he started a Grade A dairy business with twenty black-and-white Holstein cows, the kind you see on most U.S. dairy farms now. Believe it or not, my sister and I were raised as southern belles, and had never milked a cow while we were growing up. So, years went by, and when I came back here [to this farm] 32 years ago I said, “It’s time for Miss Kitty to learn how to milk the cows.” In time my daughters, Jackie and Shannon, learned how to milk the cows as well.

Holstein cows, which my father started with, give a lot of milk, but we’ve switched to Jersey cows and now there’s no other breed for us. The Jersey cow is actually the oldest breed in the United States. They originally came in the 1600s with the first settlers, from the Isle of Jersey off the coast of England. The settlers chose the breed because the cows are small and the milk is high in butterfat, from which they could make all the dairy products, the butter and the cream.  And that’s why we love Jerseys; they may not be as high-volume as Holsteins, but the quality of the milk is so much better. Also, they are very special and easy to work with. They don’t eat as much feed, they have really good herd health, [they’re] good calvers, and they’re always beautiful, no matter what their age. We have one cow that’s twenty-two years old, Dody, and she still gets milked. She’s a little slower than the others, but she’s wonderful.

Angelique: In other [industrial] dairies it’s common for dairy cows to only produce milk for two or three cycles [years], and they’re very productive for those few cycles, and then that’s it. How is it that you can manage to keep your cows healthy for 22 years?

Kitty: Well, one thing is that they’re grass fed. They love grazing, they’re the best grazers in the whole world. Another thing is, they’re happy cows. And if you’re happy, you don’t run away, you don’t kick, you don’t carry on, and you’re not tense all the time. I talk to them, Shannon talks to them. I tell them every single day, twice a day, how beautiful they are. And I believe that from the bottom of my heart. 

Angelique: Why did you choose to partner with Animal Welfare Approved?

Kitty: We’ve always done things the way the Animal Welfare Approved standards require, as far as being pasture-based and giving the cows proper housing, a good environment, no hormones, and gentle handling. But [certification] takes us to a new level. And we’re also marketing raw-milk cheese from our Jersey cow milk. So we thought this is a good time to get the certification, and it’s the only one that’s approved by the USDA. 

Angelique: They [AWA] are the strictest certification out there for animal welfare, is that right?

Kitty: Yes that’s true. They also have a wonderful newsletter that comes out that introduces the new people that are AWA certified, with information about their farm operations and how they treat their animals.

Angelique: Let’s go back to why your cows are so healthy. You mentioned being grass fed, but aren’t all cows grass fed?

Kitty: Absolutely not. The majority of cows that are in dairy operations never ever go out on grass. They’re constantly eating “hot” food, meaning very high in protein and gases. . . I don’t think the people in the dairy industry are going to like hearing this, but [the cows] get a lot of unusual vaccinations, excessive hormones, and excessive antibiotics which they would not be receiving if they had the proper food and environment. The majority of cows are on concrete 305 days of the year; that’s the milking cycle. They’re on concrete for the 60 days when they’re dry as well.

Angelique: I know that antibiotic and hormone use is one thing that is on people’s minds when they’re buying milk for their children and for themselves. They want the purest product out there. Do you ever use antibiotics?

Kitty: We use antibiotics to save the life of a cow. I’m not going to say to a cow, “You’re going to die because I won’t use antibiotics.” Our theory is, you take good care of the health of your animals, you don’t have a problem with herd health, so you don’t have to use antibiotics on a regular basis.

Angelique: Let’s talk a little about growth hormones: rBGH, recombinant bovine growth hormone, is used by a lot of conventional dairies in the U.S. to enable cows to produce more milk. Why do you choose not to do that?

Kitty: I have never done that. When that whole issue came about, they told us that we were going to be injecting our cows once a day. At the time I was the President of the Local Dairy Herd Improvement Association, and I stood up and said that we don’t know the effects the hormones have on people, nor do we know the effects they’ll have on the dairy animal. It has taken seventeen or eighteen years for the consumer to say, “Stop it, we don’t want this happening anymore.”

Angelique: So we’ve talked about the importance of what you feed – and don’t feed – the cows. What about the cows’ environment? Can you tell me why it’s important for cows to be out walking on pasture rather than the conventional dairy method of keeping them on concrete or dirt?

Kitty: Cows are just like people. If you get fresh air and exercise you’re going to live longer. If you eat properly you’re going to live longer. If you’re not obese you’re going to live longer. I read about dairies having problems with lameness, but that’s a product of having animals on concrete or dirt. We really don’t have that problem here.

Angelique: Do you think your milk tastes different from what you buy in the grocery store?

Kitty: Oh absolutely. It’s a golden color; the cream rises to the top. It’s the most natural product that you could ever, ever drink – cow’s milk. It’s been around for thousands of years and it will never disappear.

Angelique: Is your milk pasteurized or homogenized at all?

Kitty: No, if I had a milk stool here I could milk this cow and it would be exactly what you get from this farm. All the cows are coming into the barn, and it’s a Grade A environment, and they’re being milked by milking machines.

Angelique: I know that raw milk can be controversial. Have you ever had any health problems from the raw milk?Kitty: Absolutely not. I’ve always had raw milk here on the farm. I drink it every day for lunch.