Educational Resources

No, the milk our herd share owners buy into is raw, or as we like to call it – Farm Fresh!
Pasteurization is the process of heating milk (or other foodstuffs) to a specified time and temperature in order to kill organisms in the milk that may cause spoilage or disease if consumed. Pasteurization is practiced widely to enhance food preservation and promote food safety. Conventional pasteurization requires heating milk to 145°F (63°C) for 30 minutes. Milk can also be pasteurized by heating it to 161°F (72°C) for at least 15 seconds. When heating to the target temperature, it is important to use a thermometer to verify that the correct temperature has been reached. Pasteurization is critical for large commercial dairy farms to ensure that the milk they produce, when shipped all across the state and continent, is free from bacteria that may grow over time and to extend the shelf life. Here on the farm, the milk we provide to our herd share members is fresh. Depending on the designated pick-up day, our members receive milk from that morning’s milking. In addition, because we are a micro-dairy with a limited number of cows, we are able to ensure that proper care and attention to sanitation and food safety practices are followed.

Sanitation practices are critical to any production farm or any location that produces consumable goods. Here at Twisted Oak Farm, the everyday practices and routines that we follow help minimize microbial, chemical and physical contamination as well as ensuring the health of the animal and the quality of the milk is our highest priority.
Milking Preparation: The dairy cows come into the barn at night and at 6 am they are ready to be milked. The utters and teats are prepared and cleaned using soapy water on one side of fresh cotton cloth. The teats are then expressed to ensure the flow of milk is not clogged before a 1% iodine teat dip solution is applied and wiped after 30 seconds. The inflations are then attached to clean dry teats.
Post Milking: Once milking has been completed, the teats get dipped again and Dynamint Utter cream is applied. These girls are truly spoiled in their routine. Twisted Oak Farm follows the OSU Extension Service Guide when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing our milking equipment. We rinse our 10-gallon stainless milking container with cold water to rinse off the milk residue. We then use a two/three-step cleansing system to clean the bucket, equipment, and milk line.

1. Liquipfan, a dairy-specific liquid cleanser, is run through the equipment and milking lines. The equipment and buckets are scrubbed in a pattern of three (thank you OCD) to ensure no section is missed. The warm soapy water is then emptied and sprayed down with water to wash off any soap residue.
2. The equipment is then run through a Sani-Cide Plus sterilizing solution using a tested dilution with 140-150 degree temp water and scrubbed.
3. Every 4-weeks we do add in third step (Soap, Dairyland Power Team Acid Rinse, then Sanitizer). Again, we test each solution with QAC QR5 test strips to ensure our cleaners are not too concentrated and at safe levels.
4. Upon collection, the milk is placed in the collection bucket with a Rapi-Kool Cold Paddle Chill Utensil to ensure cooling of the milk begins immediately. Within 30-minutes of milking, the milk is brought down to the house and filtered through a dual-screen and non-gauze milk disc filter. Filtered milk is then bottled in pre-sanitized jars, and in the freezer for 60-90 minutes to ensure the temp is rapidly lowered.

Both the dairy and meat cows are raised on pasture grass, local hay purchased in the fall and winter months, alfalfa, and brewers spent grain (a mixture of barley and malt) from a local brewery, in addition to block minerals and salt.