The Rest of the Story

If you are regular reader of my blog, skip to paragraph 2. If you are new to my blog or just have short term memory issues like your truly, start here.

Our small diversified farm has a Grade A Dairy which is also Certified Organic by MOSA. For the last 11 years we have sold the majority of our milk to Foremost Farms USA in Baraboo, Wisconsin. We have never signed any written contract with them other than the one that said we would not use growth hormones on our cows. That was easy to sign. We have never used hormones. All those 11 years we sold a small portion of our milk direct to the consumer who came to our farm. About 10% of total milk produced the first 5 years. Fact: It is legal to sell raw milk off the farm in Illinois. Over the last few years the amount of milk we sell direct to consumers who come to our farm with their own containers, has gradually increased to about 30% of our total milk produced. Fact: There is no state law in Illinois limiting the amount of raw milk sold. The field man who is an employee of Foremost but also is supposed to be the farmer liasson,  has known for many years that we sell raw milk. He in fact told us to "tread lightly" in late March and warned us that if  Foremost discovered our milk sales to private customers we'd probably get a 30 day notice to quit. No one from the main office of Foremost in ELEVEN years has ever contacted us about our off farm milk sales, until earlier this month.

On April 14 we received a letter from Foremost telling us "Foremost Farms cannot condone the practice of selling raw milk for direct consumption due to the very real risk of food-borne illness. These sales also put Foremost Farms at risk for actions by the various regulatory agencies should food-borne illness be traced to your farm as a result of your raw milk distribution and/or sales. For these reason, please verify in writing by April 20, 2010, that you are not selling and will not sell or provide raw milk directly to consumers or small artisan processors." 

So there you have it. Stop doing what the State of Illinois says you can do. I called Dan Belk Director of Procurement at Foremost on April 15. He was polite and cordial. I wanted to know why our selling milk direct to consumers was suddenly a problem after 11 years. He said "It was not brought to our attention until recently". I asked where I could find the written policy from Foremost regarding this issue. He said "There is a policy our there but not about raw milk. Our bylaws say you cannot sell your milk to anyone but Foremost." I asked him where those bylaws could be found. He said he would send me a copy. He did. Under the section of Membership , this sentence was highlighted (By Mr Belk ? His staff ? ) They must be currently delivering their milk to or through the cooperative.  

Please note blog readers, the bylaw DOES NOT state that the member (farmer) cannot sell their milk to anyone but Foremost. Hmmmm I'll bet someone in that corporate office will get that changed real soon. Be warned fellow Foremost Farmer Members. That milk you've been providing to your elderly aunt to save her a trip to the store might just not be "allowed" by Foremost in the near future. And hey !, what about that milk you "deliver" to your own kids in your own kitchen.?  No, I don't think I'm being overly dramatic or paranoid. I think I'm being very realistic about the possibility of losing even more control over what belongs to you and your family. The loss of basic rights never starts with a big parade and loud sirens, it comes in through YOUR back door and oozes up your back steps and into your own kitchen before you even hear the screen door creak.

Now about the 6 day warning we were given, in all fairness when I told Mr Belk that our fieldman verbally told us we'd probably get a 30 day warning, Mr Belk agreed to extend the deadline from April 20 to May 15th. We appreciated that. It gave us 30 WHOLE days to downsize our herd by 50% and find good homes for  good cows. 30 Days to figure out how to replace our monthly income from Foremost which averages about $2500 a month. 30 days to find an independent lab to test our milk so we can maintain our standards of low somatic cell counts and high percentages of butterfat.30 days to tell our story (Special Thanks to Tim Jones and Chris Walker from the Chicago Tribune for the excellent story they did about raw milk and our farm which is in todays edition. One side note. That Chris Walker did a fab job of running backwards in out pasture over rocks, holes and cow piles just to get good video of Keith who happens to walk very fast.
 http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-raw-milk-20100422,0,2185455.story

We also have just 30 days to double our raw milk customer base to make up for the lost revenue from Foremost. That task has to be done without formal advertising since the State of Illinois says it is legal to sell raw milk but illegal to advertise it .( Don't ask. Don't tell. Our government is so good at that little mantra aren't they ?)

But enough whining ! 30 days is better than 6 days. Keith and I have a diversified farm so our revenue is not limited to the dairy. I have an off farm job for which I am extremely grateful.We have tons of meat in our freezers, dozens of eggs and gallons of milk in our frig.We have the support of family and friends Our situation does not even begin to compare to the pain that the State of Wisconsin has slathered all over hard working Farmers Max Kane ,Scott Trautman and their families

But, be warned fellow dairy farmers. If you sell milk to another company and all you have is a verbal agreement , be careful. Ask for a copy of those bylaws.READ THEM. Ask for clarification of them. Become a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Touch base with your attorney and your farm insurance agent. Dig into those Illinois State Laws. Education is the best defense. And when you are done with all that, grab a big tall glass of cold fresh raw milk , sit down for a spell on your back porch and enjoy the labors of your very hard work.Don't forget to thank the cows.

One Mean Mother

The Chicago Tribune sent National Correspondent Tim Jones  to our humble little pig/cow/nutcake farm this afternoon to interview us about raw milk issues in Illinois. While he is compiling his notes and we are waiting for the Tribunes photographer to arrive, I thought I would post some new pics of Lady Anne, the MEANEST mother in town.

Now, if you know my kids, you have probably heard that I was the meanest mother on earth. But one look into Lady Annes eyes and it becomes clear who is meanest.

 Would you try to get this little babies away from her ? Me neither. Not without a good suit of armor.

We do not sell pasteurized or homogenized milk.

Yeah. I think that says it all. Our milk is not homogenized* Our milk is not pasteurized**. Our milk is in its most natural and nutritious state and the picture above is not just a shot of our milking herd. It is also an ingredient list. The ingredient list is as follows...Grass.  Well, to be fair, there is also water in that grass.

So there you have it. We do not sell pasteurized or homogenized milk. If you would like to know what we do sell please call us at 815-635-3414



* Homogenized: Milk with fat particles broken up so that the cream will not rise
* Pasteurized: Milk that is heated to control microorganisms

Running on Empty

I've been in an accident. Yesterday afternnoon about 5 pm I ran head head on into a brick wall. I did not see it coming. There were no flashing warning lights. I had worked an extra shift last Wed night then my 12 hour weekend night shifts. I slept a little Sunday morning and gotten up about 1:30. Visited with two sons, and one daughter in law, checked on new baby pigs and then Keith and I went for a walk west of our house where this picture above was taken. That is when I hit the brick wall. Don't see it ? Look harder, its right there.

I very suddenly felt so bone weary I thought I would lie right down in the cow pasture in which we were standing and take a nap. I was Dorothy in the poppy field. Unable to resist the pull of heavy sleep. I turned to Keith , mumbled something about "goodnight", crawled back under the electric fence and stumbled upstairs back to bed. I slept 13 hours. This left Keith with all the evening chores. THIRTEEN HOURS ! What a waste of time.

What happened ? Well, the answer is simple. I work much harder than most women and I don't work near as hard as the majority. I juggle work and farm and a little grand kid care and some elder care. I handle paperwork and deadlines, family events and yardwork. I have even been known to go to church, on occasion.  I do laundry, dishes, make lots of  farm related phone calls to folks like the Illinois Department of Health and I fake a lot of meals but I'll be honest, I haven't dusted in weeks and the toilets are completely on their own.

I am woman hear me snore. THATS what happened yesterday.

Kitchen Complete

First , a brief milk update. No letter from Company A to cease and desist the selling of raw milk, no contract to review (requiring we do not sell raw milk if we sign with them ) from Company B. The milk truck from Company A continues to pick up our milk every other day and direct to the farm consumers are still coming on those days the milk truck does not come. We wait with raw milk infused breath. Its not "baited breath" because we don't sell fish.

 Now , on the lighter side. The remodel/facelift of the kitchen in our 120 year old farmhouse is complete and I could not be happier. The cabinets are the same as they were when custom built around the 1940's. Deep, wide, solid and with new paint. The old cabinets were white and the new are chocolate brown. New hardware from Menards. Cheap but stylin'. The backsplash is Italian tile bought at clearance price from BJ's liquidation in Kankakee. Since it was a closeout deal it did not come with any bullnose tile so trim was done with simple quarter round painted the same shade of brown.

The wall words above the sink came originally from Jethro Tull and were put into vinyl by a talented woman I found on EBAY at about 1/2 the price I would have paid elsewhere. That particular phrase had been running around in my head for the last 35 years. Finally it has found a home , leaving room in my crooked cranium for other really important song lyrics like "Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy " (too late) from the Eagles 1972.

To the right is a new work table I bought from IKEA who by the way also provided the most excellent butcher block counter top. IKEA is fabulous for so many things. You have to install, and or assemble their items yourself but one can save a ton of money. The wood countertops were 25% less than those I found online of the same size and quality.

The floor was my big splurge. The old floor was just a plywood sub floor painted green to match the green ivy wallpaper. It was always chipping and needing touch ups. The new floor is by Armstrong and is super strong vinyl. Everything from filthy dirty men to filthy dirty steers end up walking on my kitchen floor. It had to be durable, washable and mildly attractive, much like me.

A Pig of a Different Color

Some people get letters in the mail (if you're lucky), some people get bills. Some people get invitations to parties or flyers about meat sales. BUT, if you have a friend  in Palm Springs named Jay, you might get a pig.

Not just any ole' run of the mill garden variety pig, but instead a great big hand-painted colorfully decorated ceramic pig with a handy little (not so much) hole in its back, say for a plant, or coins, or wait, I know ! Its going to be the best ice bucket for cold drinks I've had. Unless you have a better idea.

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs.

 No new news on the raw milk front. No copy of a potential contract to sign from Company B, no letter to "cease and desist" the selling of raw milk from our current milk buyer , Company A, so instead we just farmed.

Today that meant sleep for me in the am since I picked up an extra shift last night, and a trip to Watseka for Keith to visit his mom in her new apt. In the afternoon I worked in the office on accounts receivable, accounts payable and accounts confuseable, (the ones I forgot to enter earlier and now I have no idea where I should post them.)

When Keith returned we visited the hogs and attempted to measure them for approximate weights. Its done by taking a cloth measuring tape and measuring the hogs length and girth just behind their front legs. Then you enter the measurements into this formula. Length times girth times girth divided by 400. You have to give them a  brief but tender little hug to get the tape around their girth. The crossbred hogs don't stand for this much, they don't go in for the touchy-feelly stuff. The Red Wattles not only stand for the measurements but ask for more hugs as you leave the pen. Of course this might be because our boar Mad Max is entering his adolescent period and he is all about the PDA * right now.

After that we wandered into the sows pasture to check on status of still pregnant Lady Anne. Baby pigs were all snuggled in the hogcienda, so we fed the sows their grain for the evening. We walked about 50 feet over to the little hog shed to see if perhaps Anne was making a nest in there. That's when big sow Spot came running at us, thinking she wanted more grain Keith tried to get her to follow him but she took off the other way at a dead run with her overinflated udder flapping in the wind (She's fast I tell you). Crazy pig, I thought. Just then I heard expletives coming from the husbands mouth. I looked up and down our lane and their, far far way in the neighbors yard were our 15 little piglets. Even more shocking, they had the neighbors dog cornered on the top step of the porch. Poor little 100 pound ROTTWEILER didn't know what to do. No wonder mama sow Lassie, I mean Spot ,was upset.

Keith took off running while I sorta walked faster towards the pickup, thinking I could cut them off at the pass. But before I got down the lane, Keith had reached the neighbors yard, yelled at the piglets like the misbehaving children they were and they came running back up alongside the pasture and into the main pasture with their mammas. Bad pigs.Baaaaaaad pigs. We fed them grain to keep them home. They were counted by the mommies and they settled into a big pile to take a nap.

Keith went immediately to the internet to check on pricing of hog fencing. Seems the electric fence that contains our 1200 pound cows and horses just ain't strong enough for the little bitty piglets. If only someone had warned us about this...10 or 12 more times. We might have caught on earlier. Maybe.

*Pigs Dig Affection