WHAT MAKES OUR MILK SO SPECIAL?
It begins with a happy cow and continues with an exceptional level of care throughout our processes. When we say happy cows make great milk we mean it! Did you know that cows love a boring, consistent life style? Without consistency cows become confused, agitated and in other words “stressed out”. A stressed cow does not produce as much milk and you can actually taste a difference. Truly! Another thing that makes a cow happy is good health and at Oakridge cows are cared for by our dedicated farmers and vets that provide an optimal living habitat for our girls.
THE MILKING PROCESS
With about 2,800 Holstein cows to milk, how do we milk them all? Cows love routine, so that’s what we give them. Once we open the gate, they make their way down the alley to our state of the art milking carousel. The carousel consists of 72 stalls and constantly rotates at a slow, steady pace. When the cow enters the carousel, her teats and udder is cleaned and then she is hooked up to an automated milking unit which will release once the cow is finished. From start to finish it takes a bit less than 10 minutes, allowing them to exit one by one to head back to their designated pen. Once the milk leaves the cow it is carried to a unit that cools the milk from 100 degrees to 37 degrees in 3 seconds – this process ensures maximum quality and freshness. After the milk is cooled it heads to one of our 6000 gal. tanker trucks that act as a big insulated thermos where it will be stored until it is full. Once it is full, each load of milk is tested for quality, then it is labeled and sealed until it reaches the bottling facility where we will pasteurize, homogenize, and flavor our milk.
We’d love to tell you even more about our milking process.visit us for a farm tour!
THE OAKRIDGE DIFFERENCE
We take great effort to ensure our milk is kept fresh, safe and honest. Our milk is never treated with rBGH and an ill cow is removed from the herd so that she can be treated (just like you would one of your loved ones). Rest assured there are no antibiotics or added hormones in any of our milk. Every 8 hours the parlor is shut down for a 1 hour cleaning. We believe in a transparent milking process that you can trust. At Oakridge you’ll find exterior glass doors looking into our milking parlor, glass windows on our farm tours, and even glass bottles on the milk you buy because we want you to know your farm and trust your milk.