Dairy Practices
The Eberts are finalizing construction on a Grade A Dairy facility. The cows are milked once per day in a closed milk system. The milk is stored in a 400 gallon, cooling bulk tank. The milk is bottled unpasturized and unhomogenized, thus raw, daily.
The Eberts do not allow the use of any hormones on the cows and the cows at Ebert Farms are not vaccinated. The Eberts only use antibiotics to treat cows with serious mastitis or health issues. Milk is always withheld from customer consumption after a cow is treated with antibiotics.
Jars used for bottling milk are sanitized with food-grade hydrogen peroxide instead of traditional chlorinated products.
The Feed Stuff
The Ebert Family Farm believes in the philosophy of “grass fed is best.” While the farm is not Certified Organic, the cows graze all year round on about 800 acres of native grass pasture. The grass would definitely meet organic standards.
To entertain the cows during milking, a feed ration is ground at the farm. It contains 85% certified organic alfalfa, 7% palm oil, 5% molasses, and 3% mineral. This ration makes up a small percentage of the gals diet. The rest of their feed comes from native grass pasture which is grazed in both the summer and when possible, the winter. During the winter months, we supplement with certified organic alfalfa that is purchased from neighboring farms. The cows are not fed any grain, ever.
Milk Testing
The Eberts are performing monthly tests on milk collected from the bulk tank. The have adopted the following standards:
- Standard Plate Count less than 15,000/ml
- Coliforms less than 50/ml
- E coli 0157 – zero
- Salmonella - zero
Additional testing will be performed on the milk as the Colorado Raw Milk Producers Association formulates guidelines.
Bulk-tank test results will be made available to customers through e-mail. The herd will be tuberculosis tested every three years. Any new cow entering the herd will be tested for tuberculosis, brucellosis and Johnes.