Key Ingredients to Producing Quality Milk
Whether it is Hershey®’s Chocolate, LAND O LAKES® Butter, or Wawa milk, premium dairy products begin with high quality milk supplied from the farm. Dairy producers like Gary and Jennifer Bowman of Lancaster County, Pa., take pride in producing high quality milk to supply to their customers. They work hard day in and day out to produce milk that exceeds the high quality standards ensuring our nation a safe, wholesome milk supply.
The Bowmans have been recognized both locally by their dairy cooperative and nationally for the excellent quality milk they produce. They were bronze award winners for the National Dairy Quality Awards, a program that recognizes the “best of the best” across the nation in quality milk producers. In March 2006, the Bowmans received the Five-Year Milk Quality Award from Land O’Lakes, meaning the milk they produce has consistently been among the highest quality milk produced by the cooperative’s dairy-farmer members in the past five years.
Producing high quality milk takes several key ingredients – good quality feed, clean cows and a clean environment, a consistent and thorough milking procedure, and a commitment to keeping cows healthy and comfortable.A consistent and thorough milking procedure
The Bowmans milk twice a day, at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., to keep their cows on a consistent schedule. Before they are milked, the cow’s udders are thoroughly cleaned and dried with a sanitizing solution and clean, disposable towels.
The Bowmans wear latex gloves while they are milking. “The gloves really serve two purposes,” Jenny says. “They protect my hands, and they protect the cow’s teats, since the gloves prevent bacteria and germs that exist on your hands from being transmitted to the cow’s teat.”
The milking unit consists of four separate inflations, or cups, that attach to the cow’s teats that are part of her udder. Those inflations are connected to a milking unit that carries the milk from the cow’s udder to a pipeline leading to a bulk milk tank. In the tank, the milk is quickly cooled to 38° Fahrenheit.
“The milking unit’s pulsation system automatically shuts off when the cow is done, so we know when to remove the milker,” Jenny says. “Then we move the milker to the next cow, and we begin the process again.”
In total, it takes the Bowmans about 1 ½ hours to milk their 60 cows. At the end of each milking, the milker units are thoroughly rinsed, washed and sanitized, along with the pipeline that carries the milk from the cow to the bulk tank.Clean cows and a clean environment
The Bowmans’ cows are housed in a 62-stall, tie-stall barn where they are fed and milked twice daily. Mattresses, which are about 3 inches thick, cover the stalls. The mattresses are cleaned out completely once a day and bedded with straw and wood shavings to give the cows a soft, dry bed. The stalls are also scrapped clean several times throughout the day to keep the cows clean and dry.
Once a day the cows go outside in the meadow for exercise. In the summertime, they’re let out at night since it is the coolest part of the day. While they are in the barn, they are given a constant supply of fresh, clean water and are cooled by fans when the temperature is higher than 75° Fahrenheit.
“If cows are kept clean and comfortable, they are healthier and produce more and better quality milk,” Gary says. “We also want healthier cows because that means less time spent on herd health problems and fewer vet and medical bills.”Good quality feed
The Bowmans feed their cows twice a day. Their diet consists of a total mixed ration – a blend of feed ingredients specially formulated to meet all of the cow’s nutritional needs. In their ration the Bowmans use corn silage, haylage, shelled corn, barley, cottonseed, wheat and a protein supplement formulated specifically for the Bowmans’ cows. The cows are also given dry hay each morning.
According to Gary, you have to feed the cows right to get them to produce good quality milk. “That has a lot to do with the weather,” he says. “You have to harvest your silage and haylage at the right time to get the proper maturity to provide the most benefit to the cow. Yet, you don’t want it to rain on your crop after you already cut it but before you put it away. That can lower the quality of the feed.”A commitment to keeping cows healthy and comfortable
Along with maintaining a consistent milking procedure, keeping the cows clean and providing them with good quality feeds, there is one more ingredient in the Bowmans’ formula for producing excellent quality milk. That is their dedication to taking good care of their cows and keeping them healthy and comfortable.
“I enjoy my job 95 percent of the time, and I am glad we chose to be dairy producers,” Jenny says. “The farm is a good place to raise our family, and it teaches my children to have a good work ethic and good values.”
The Bowmans have three children — Laura, 13; Ellen, 10, and Mark, 7. With all three children involved, the Bowmans have made producing quality milk a family affair. “Each of them has their own jobs to do, and they all help get hay down into the barn,” Jenny says. “I think getting them involved teaches them a good work ethic and good values.”
Gary says keeping cows clean, comfortable and healthy makes the job of producing quality milk a lot easier. “We don’t like to milk dirty cows, and we don’t like to treat cows for infections or other illnesses,” he says. “The healthier our cows are, the less headaches we have and the smoother each milking goes.”