The good news is, both are safe and healthy choices! Your purchase of either is a good, safe and healthy way to ensure your family is getting the nutrition they need. All milk is tested several times between the farm and your grocery shelf.

Let’s take a look at the two choices:

Regular Milk. This is the milk that comes from most of the dairy farms in Jefferson County. These farms raise their cows using conventional methods that employ the latest technologies to keep their cows healthy and strong. They practice intensive agriculture practices that allow them to produce feed for their cows using the smallest land amounts possible. The farms try to keep their cows as comfortable as possible either on pasture on in a free stall barn. A cow that is healthy and comfortable makes the most milk. These farms use fertilizer to help their crops grow and use pesticides to minimize weeds in the crops. This is done in the most scientific manner. Using fertilizer and pesticides is very expensive, so farms try to use only as much as needed. Many times the farm hires crop consultants who are highly trained to determine what the crop needs, what the soil needs, and then provides recommendations to the farmer on what to apply and when.

The farmer will also use antibiotics to help cows when they are sick. The goal of the farmer is to help their cows stay healthy and strong, just as your doctor does for you. When a cow is given antibiotics, its’ milk is not combined milk from healthy cows. Milk from farms is tested several times before it ever goes into the food chain to make sure it does not contain anything that would not be healthy for humans. No milk in our food chain contains antibiotics.

Studies have shown that conventional dairy farms have a smaller carbon footprint than other farms. In other words, while they use fertilizers and pesticides, because they are able to produce more crops in a smaller area, they have a smaller impact on the environment.

Organic Milk. Organic farms use a set of recognized standards for their farming practices in order to be certified organic. The farmers utilize the standards in crop production, purchased feed and how they treat sick cows. Organic farms are strictly limited in the pesticides and fertilizers they use and their sick cows cannot be treated with antibiotics. These farms use less pesticides, commercial fertilizers, and antibiotics, than standard farms but because of those restrictions, they may not be able to produce as many crops and products on the same amount of land as a conventional dairy, thereby having a larger carbon footprint.
In the end, either dairy product is safe and healthy for your family. You are given a choice of buying a product that is either produced on a farm that practices more intense ag production but leaves a smaller carbon footprint, or produced on a dairy farm that uses less pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics, but may have a larger carbon footprint.

Hormone Free Milk. If you see labeling that indicates the dairy product you are purchasing is hormone free, it is false. All dairy products contain naturally occurring hormones that the cow passes on from her body to the milk. Always have and always will. Many farms do give their cows a hormone called rBST. The hormone occurs naturally in the cows but science has shown that if you provide cows with a boost of this hormone, it helps her produce more milk. This modern technology has been repeatedly studied and has shown no impact on the health of humans. This technology has helped dairy farms improve their ability to offer you dairy products at an affordable cost while helping them stay profitable. Study after study has shown that the milk from cows who receive this extra boost of hormones is safe for our families.
However, our industry offers consumers a choice between cows that receive the boost of rBST and cows that don’t. Our dairy farms are offering you choices in products that are refreshing, healthy and safe for your family..