Why we pasteurize ,,,

The cows came home after the state fair.

We brought the kids' Guernseys home because the farm where they were staying ran out of room.

So we got a used, vintage, one-cow De Laval bucket milker and are starting to milk again.

The girls, Peaches and Zola, produce "golden Guernsey" milk with a lot of cream. We are feeding a bucket calf, the cats, the dog, the chickens and us of course.

Years ago when we milked a whole herd, we got a home pasteurizer and used for all of our milk in the house. We had milk for the table and I also tried making fresh mozzarella cheese. Our vet recommended pasteurizing because we were milking in a herd situation.

It sometimes happened that one of the cows would kick her milker off and it would land on the floor. Before we could get to it, it would keep vacuuming up whatever: Grit, dust bunnies, cow hair, chaff, and worse. There was a filter at the end of the line before the milk went into the bulk tank, but still ... um, yeah  ... not appetizing.

Now that we are milking just two, why aren't we drinking raw milk? People always say, "Our parents and grandparents did. And they never got sick." Or so people will tell you. Actually, parents and grandparents did get sick. My grandma mentioned "summer complaint" that sounded an awful lot like food poisoning. They just might not have been able to track it back to raw milk.

Well ... even though I am all for individual freedom and responsibility ... I feel like I've done my due diligence.

Back in the day, some of the superbugs out there did not exist like they do in present-day cattle. One in particular, E. Coli H157 (or something like that) developed fairly recently and is now wide-spread in US cattle herds. Maybe even ours.

In addition to E. Coli, cattle can carry a wide assortment of other germs that unfortunately can make us pretty sick.

That's a lottery that we do  not want to win, so we're not buying a ticket. Instead we pasteurize all our milk and go from there.