Looking for local milk in the Spokane area?
Listen to this NW NPR radio show...
Host intro: “Spokane’s Family Farm” dairy is working to bring
clean, unadulterated milk to the Inland Northwest. Mary Hawkins reports why
“Spokane’s Family Farm” might be considered a revolutionary
dairy operation on “Our Northwest Economy”:
Listen
here
Mary Hawkins: Mike and Trish Vieira come from generations of hard-working dairy
farmers. They used to operate in the Moses Lake, Othello, Yakima
region where they were members of the Darigold cooperative. While they
didn’t get rich, they had a steady cash flow and were consistently
considered top quality producers. However, the Vieras decided to strike out on
their own in order to have the kind of business they could be proud of. They
moved to Spokane and now they pasteurize and bottle their own product. They
chose Spokane because it’s a big enough market to support a small family
dairy. They brought 30 cows when their plant was ready and began milking them
in April. While they want to make a living, the Vieiras are more concerned with
the integrity and health of their product. One of the reasons they became
independent is because they couldn’t stand the idea of their milk being
pooled with milk from farmers who weren’t as clean:
Trish Vieira: It’s really hard when you do a really good job and you
work really hard at it to see it just get dumped with the rest of it so
that’s one of the reasons. [and] The other reason is the processing and
what happens to the milk before it gets back to the consumer – it changes
the milk components so much that it’s no longer healthy, nor is it hardly
any longer milk. The only thing that it does retain is that it originally came
from a cow somewhere.
Hawkins: Most organic and conventional milk goes through several processes.
Milk is pasteurized, which simply means that it is quickly heated to a
temperature that will kill pathogens. Lots of milk now goes through an
“ultra-pasteurization” method, which heats it to a very high
temperature, around 280 degrees Fahrenheit for a fraction of a second. This
process not only kills pathogens, it greatly extends shelf life. At
Spokane’s Family Dairy, they are less aggressive in their pasteurization:
they heat their milk to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that the milk is
much closer to its natural state.
Viera: ….so our milk comes from the cow in its raw form, goes through
the pasteurizer the very next day, so it’s very quick. It’s
pasteurized for safety only – so everything else good is left in there -
and then it goes through the bottler. We don’t take the cream and
integrate it so that it won’t leave the milk…
Hawkins: They do not homogenize their milk. Trish Viera argues that
homogenization alters the milk product and inhibits the body’s ability to
digest it. In fact, she says that milk products now are so adulterated that
they contribute to atherosclerosis and obesity partly because our bodies treat
milk products as irritants instead of as nutritious foods. She goes as far as
saying most milk has very little food value.
Vieira: Cows only produce cream and skim. That’s it. No two percent.
No one percent. You know it’s almost like - it comes to you white and
liquid and that’s the about the only resemblance it has to milk anymore.
Hawkins: Much of today’s milk has a very long shelf life because it is
so sterile. It’s a commodity that is shipped over long distances and can
last for months. Dairies don’t have to be as fastidious as the
Vieras’ because their milk is highly processed anyway.
Viera: You get good shelf life for two reasons: low bacteria and
refrigeration. You also get quality with low bacteria. So if you got a lot of
bacteria you GOTTA boil the heck out of it to make sure it sticks. You watch your
bacteria counts then you have quality and you have long shelf life. Ours is
three weeks, and that is an excellent shelf life – I mean our raw milk
would last that long. Our raw milk is very clean.
Hawkins: It’s their cleanliness that sets this family dairy apart.
Cows are not naturally clean animals, especially when they are confined for any
length of time. They defecate where they eat. So it’s a big job keeping
their Holsteins clean. The Vieiras clean their cows, and turn their waste into
the ground several times every day where it composts naturally.
Like most dairy people, the Vieiras love their cows. Because they breed and
raise their cows, they control the cow’s feed and are hyper-vigilant
about their health. They are proud of their low “somatic” or white
cell count. They keep that number low by maintaining clean, healthy, happy
animals. Which brings us to why they are NOT planning to go organic any time
soon. When one of her cows gets sick, Trish Vieira wants to reserve the ability
to treat her…
Vieira: We don’t put them in the same realm as people, but on the
other hand, you’ve had her for eleven years or ten years, you’re
not real excited about not giving her an antibiotic when she has a horrible
problem because if you lose her, it’s a big deal. I have cows our here
that are 11, 12 years old. They’ve been with us a long time. Some of
‘em produce a hundred pounds a day…that’s a lot of milk.
Hawkins: In order for cows to produce optimally, high quality feed is
crucial. The Viera’s have a history of very productive cows: one of them
attained the position of 25th in the nation for milk production. Unfortunately
when times are tough, dairies will often skimp on feed - which can be very hard
on the animals.
Vieira: They’re like a marathon runner - all the time quietly running
a marathon and if you don’t give them their Gatorade they are going to
tip over – I mean tip over and die – they have to have a ration
with their grain and their mixed hays that will keep them upright so that you’re
not treating cows with antibiotics every day for mastitis, for stomach issues
or because they are “unthrifty” because of their feed. [If you
have] 50 thousand cows, you don’t care. You just pop them with an
antibiotic.
Hawkins: Spokane Family Farms hopes that other dairy farmers make choice to
“jump out of the pool” to provide clean quality local milk.
Vieira: We think that local trumps organic all the way around.
Hawkins: It’s been a tough year for the dairy industry and futures
aren’t looking extremely bright. But Spokane’s Family Farm dairy
seems to be finding a clientele willing to pay a little more for their product.
For more information about the dairy industry and this family dairy, go to Our
Northwest at n-w-p-r dot org. I’m Mary Hawkins.
Links:
Spokane's Family Farm
Posted by LLFMarket
@ 11:56 AM PST
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