Tag Archives: milk

Workshop

Make Great Milk: Milk Quality Workshop with Gary Anderson

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Monday, April 25th
9:00am to 5:00pm
Governor’s Restaurant Capitol Room
Waterville, Maine
Fee: (includes all materials and a buffet lunch)
$50 for 2016 Guild Members
$75 for non-members (includes 2016 Guild membership)

The Maine Cheese Guild will sponsor a workshop focused on helping small dairies create the best possible milk for their own use, and/or for sale to the growing number of Maine cheese makers. Gary Anderson, Maine’s long-time dairy agent at Cooperative Extension, will cover these topics:

  • What do we mean when we say “milk quality”
  • Maine resources
  • Milk components and characteristics
  • Milk quality of different dairy animals and breeds
  • Quality variation dependent on the end use of milk (fluid, cheese, yogurt, etc.)
  • Animal health
  • Good decisions during the milking process
  • Comparison of milking systems, the challenges and benefits of each
  • Sanitation process and tools
  • The challenges of the organic dairy
  • Proper milk storage, affects on quality
  • Proper milk transport
  • On-farm testing options for dairies
  • Questions, individual troubleshooting

To sign up please send the full workshop fee with your name, phone number, and email address to:

Maine Cheese Guild
c/o Mary Belding, Treasurer
250 Walker Mills Rd.
Harrison, Maine 04040

The Maine Cheese Guild needs to finalize the lunch count ahead of the workshop so we must receive your payment at least 1 week ahead of time to guarantee access to the buffet lunch.

State of Maine Flag

Maine Supreme Court Rules On Dairy Licensing Question

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The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling against Dan Brown (aka “Farmer Brown” in Blue Hill), upholding a lower court’s decision that he had broken the law by selling raw milk from his unlicensed, un-inspected Gravelwood Farm. Here is the link to read the BDN story.

This ruling lifted Mr. Brown’s crusade to the national spotlight with a recent New York Times article covering the history and outcome of his, and the supporters of municipal “Food Sovereignty” ordinances, fight against state regulation.

Oakhurst Sold to DFA Cooperative

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The Bennett family — for a long time the “First Family” of Maine Dairy, and well known for challenging Big Ag interests by insisting on labeling their milk as being produced without growth hormones — have now decided to transfer their company to Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative processor. Oakhurst currently contracts with 70 Maine dairy farms for it’s milk. DFA is owned by roughly 8000 dairy farms across the continental US, and has purchased milk from many Maine dairy farms even before the Oakhurst acquisition. At this time DFA has indicated that the Oakhurst brand will be maintained in its New England sales region. The Bennett family members who have worked at the company were expected to stay on, and no employee reductions were anticipated elsewhere in the company.