Straus Family Creamery :: Healthy Farms

Healthy Farm Practices

These are the practices that set our organic dairy apart from other dairies:

Healthy Farm Practices

Herd Management
Young cows (heifers) graze in the fields. Milking cows graze on a rotational basis during the spring, summer and fall.

Balanced Diet
We work closely with an animal nutritionist to guarantee that our herd gets a properly balanced diet of grains, hay, legumes, home-grown silage and fresh grasses. Our cows are vegetarians.

Milking
We milk our cows two times a day at 3:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Closed Herd
We maintain a "closed herd" on our dairy. That means we never bring in any outside animals to our farm. This is important because inviting animals from outside, we run the risk of bringing in new diseases including Mad Cow disease, Hoof & Mouth disease and many new infections and viruses. Maintaining a closed herd is not a common practice on all dairies (organic or conventional), but one that we feel is important in order to keep our cows healthy and safe.

Preventative Medicine
All visitors to our farm must participate in our preventative health care plan for our cows. Just like other animals can bring harmful diseases to our farm, so can people. We require visitors to wash their hands and step through a footbath with sanitizing solution in order to prevent the spread of illnesses.

Organic Practices

No Hormones or Antibiotics
Treating cows with hormones, including Bovine Growth Hormone, rBGH, is strictly forbidden by organic law. We do not treat our cows with antibiotics; when necessary, we utilize homeopathy and aspirin.

Certified Organic Land and Feed
We do not use any herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers, period! We haven't used any since the 1980s, way before we turned organic.

Environmentally Safe Plant
We work hard to conserve water, recycle wherever possible and strictly avoid using environmentally detrimental chemicals. We use hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer as it leaves no chemical residues.

Organic Certification
All products are produced in accordance with USDA Organic Regulations and are third-party certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).

Natural Pest Control
We've been using an electric-powered bug zapper which the cows walk under as they enter the barn to be milked. A solar-powered zapper is used near covered drinking troughs out in the fields.


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Pasteurization Greenhouse Gases Free Farmed vs Organic Just Say No To GMO's Pasture - Is the Grass Always Greener?Waste Management Herd Health A Cow's Diet Plastic or Glass?	Healthy Farm Practices These are the practices that set our organic dairy apart from other dairies: Healthy Farm Practices Herd Management Young cows (heifers) graze in the fields. Milking cows graze on a rotational basis during the spring, summer and fall. Balanced Diet We work closely with an animal nutritionist to guarantee that our herd gets a properly balanced diet of grains, hay, legumes, home-grown silage and fresh grasses. Our cows are vegetarians. Milking We milk our cows two times a day at 3:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Closed Herd We maintain a "closed herd" on our dairy. That means we never bring in any outside animals to our farm. This is important because inviting animals from outside, we run the risk of bringing in new diseases including Mad Cow disease, Hoof & Mouth disease and many new infections and viruses. Maintaining a closed herd is not a common practice on all dairies (organic or conventional), but one that we feel is important in order to keep our cows healthy and safe. Preventative Medicine All visitors to our farm must participate in our preventative health care plan for our cows. Just like other animals can bring harmful diseases to our farm, so can people. We require visitors to wash their hands and step through a footbath with sanitizing solution in order to prevent the spread of illnesses. Organic Practices No Hormones or Antibiotics Treating cows with hormones, including Bovine Growth Hormone, rBGH, is strictly forbidden by organic law. We do not treat our cows with antibiotics; when necessary, we utilize homeopathy and aspirin. Certified Organic Land and Feed We do not use any herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers, period! We haven't used any since the 1980s, way before we turned organic. Environmentally Safe Plant We work hard to conserve water, recycle wherever possible and strictly avoid using environmentally detrimental chemicals. We use hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer as it leaves no chemical residues. Organic Certification All products are produced in accordance with USDA Organic Regulations and are third-party certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). Natural Pest Control We've been using an electric-powered bug zapper which the cows walk under as they enter the barn to be milked. A solar-powered zapper is used near covered drinking troughs out in the fields.