A Photo Story

The cows are just getting up to the morning sunrise as I walk into the pasture. The morning mist is lifting from the field and wafts of cow breath meet my nostrils.

It's the same morning milking routine that they've come to know like clockwork, only this time it's me bringing them home from the pasture instead of the usual milking guys and I have my camera poised so you can come along too! 🚶‍➡️

I prod the last cows that are still laying down. They stand and give a big, morning stretch.

Once I've got them herded to the end of the pasture they head out the gate and down the walk lane towards the milking barn. They have around a half mile to walk this morning. A morning walk is a great way to start the day! 😊

Here we come to the "undercrossing" for the cows to go under the road! Single file, everyone.

Almost through... 

This tunnel was installed when the frontage road was put in as part of converting old Rt 121 to Interstate 155. The new frontage road was going to cut off some of the pastures from the farm so Grandpa asked to put the tunnel in. It sure is a lot handier than crossing the road every day!

The morning sun warms our backs as we near the barnyard.

In the milking parlor with Silas and Seth - two of our dependable milking hands! They live just down the road so it's not far to work for them!

They start by washing off the cows' feet followed by cleaning the cows' udders and teats with an iodine teat dip and a clean towel. We are very particular when it comes to keeping the milk clean and safe!

Because of how detailed we are, prepping and cleaning the cows takes about the same amount of time as actually milking! It takes around a half hour for each phase. 

Putting the milkers on. We are milking around 14 cows total right now. The milker uses vacuum and a pulsing squeezing action to gently draw out the milk. The cows are quite relaxed during milking.

The milk is pumped through a stainless steel pipeline and stored in the refrigerated bulk tank.

After milking, the cows are dipped with an iodine teat dip as a preventative against bacteria finding its way into the teat.

Silas applying a balm with essential oils in it to a cow's udder. We use this balm for the first few days after a cow calves to help reduce the swelling.

Heading back out to the pasture!

Time to clean up! The "fire hose" makes fast work of spraying down. 

We built this parlor back in 2006 to milk 200 cows so it's a bit oversized for what we need today! We just use one side of the parlor which holds up to 20 cows at a time. How we got from 200 cows to 14 cows is a story for another day...

Cleaning off the milkers and plugging them into the cups for the washing system to sanitize the inside. Clean up time takes around 15 minutes.

Silas replacing the filter that all of the milk goes through. It was impeccably clean which means they did a fantastic job!👏

Seth following the cows back out to the pasture.

Howdy, Timothy! He just finished setting up the cows' next break of fresh pasture and is headed back to the farm to get on to the next thing.

And we made it! 

Happy cows! What could be better than a lush pasture on a summer morning?🐮 I hope you noticed how happy the cows were throughout this whole process...these cows truly are living a cow's dream life!

So what thoughts do you have after coming along with me this morning? Are you impressed by how careful we are to make sure the milk is clean? Or maybe you enjoyed seeing the team in action? Or seeing how happy the cows are? 

Truth be told, it takes a lot to run a raw milk dairy farm.  But it's so worth it when we see how excited you are to have access to clean raw milk and how much of a difference it makes in the health of your family!

Thanks so much for supporting us in providing nourishing raw milk to our local community!

Your Farmer,
Corbin
Prairie Creek Pastures