Before everyone I know starts to have a cow, literally and
figuratively….or before the people I don’t know that happen to be reading this
start cheering like they’ve convinced another sole to join their cult….hold up,
back up and listen.
Let me start for those that don’t
know me – I do this because in the remote chance that the internet works it’s
wonderful/horrible magic of making the weirdest things popular, and who really
gives two farts what I think – I know what I’m talking about when it comes to
cows, farmers, farming and milk in general. Really I do. I grew up on a dairy.
Big deal – so did a bunch of other people that think farming is some romantic
way of life. I went to college and earned
three degrees….a BS in Animal Science; a BS in Agricultural Extension &
Education; and a MS in Dairy Science. I emphasize “earned” because it was a lot
of work (with a lot of “play” thrown in). I spent nearly 8 years of my career
working at a University as a Dairy Extension Specialist (i.e., educator to
dairy producers, 4-H kids, college kids, consumers, legislators; a consultant/problem
solver for dairy producers; investigator of research; translator of research; a
non-biased source of information for anyone interested in dairy; an advocate of
dairy producers; an advocate of the dairy industry; a liaison between producers
and consumers; etc.). I spent 4 years working for a small international company
using technology and data to investigate and solve milk quality issues on farms.
Now, I work for a large international company that sells milking equipment and
aftermarket solutions to dairy producers. I have worked with farmers that own 5
cows, and farmers that own 10,000 cows; from Florida to Canada to California to
Texas and everywhere in between. I have worked with organic farms,
‘conventional’ farms, what some would call ‘factory farms’, family owned farms,
corporate owned farms. I have worked on farms that were the poster child for
animal care and consumer mindedness. I’ve worked on some shitholes. I have no
problem telling producers what I think is wrong (even if THEY are the problem),
and I have no problem telling consumers when they are wrong. I drink cow milk –
conventional and organic at times. I drink almond milk. I’ve tried soy milk,
and I don’t care for it. I haven’t tried coconut milk. I am a runner. I lift
weights. I do yoga. I am a type II diabetic. I am not obese. I have an extreme
interest in my health, and am actively involved in my diet and exercise and
want to live a healthy life…duh…this is my “running blog”. SOOO….do you believe
me now? Think I have enough pizzazz to speak the truth? Or at least enough for
you to listen to me? If not…just stop now and don’t bother commenting if you
are only going to scream your opinion at me. I don’t have time for that…..I’m
writing this because a wonderful family member whom I love dearly has asked me
for my opinion. She truly wants what is best for herself, her husband and
mostly her 3 beautiful daughters…and yours. I want to calm her fears. Because
who wouldn’t be scared silent when someone says – hey, there is pus in your
milk!?
One last thing – anything I say
here does not reflect the opinion of my employer. I say this b/c this is MY
opinion based on MY past experiences and MY education and MY expertise. My
opinion has the potential to tick off consumers and dairy producers alike,
simply because opinions are like…a certain necessary anatomy that we all sit on….and
well, they all stink at some point.
Now, back to pus. There is this
claim out there that there are “135 million Pus cells in milk”. Is that true?
Truth be told….there’s more like
378 million in your gallon of milk!
GGGAAAAASSSSSSPPPPP!!!…..WHHHAAATTT….DID….YOU….JUST….SAY?
If you’re a consumer – your eyes
are the size of silver dollars and your mouth is wide open. If you are a dairy
producer – your head just spun around three times, didn’t it?
Let’s talk pus for a moment…such
a lovely dinner topic. Are eating yogurt right now? I am…really...I am.
What’s this “pus?” This claim is based on what we in the dairy industry call the cow’s Somatic
Cell Count. We use this number to determine when/if a cow has/or has had a
mastitis infection (i.e., an infection in her udder….her teats…where the milk
comes from….her boobies for crying out loud…talk to any woman that has had a
baby and nursed…she knows what this is). The number is expressed as a
concentration. There are legal restrictions on this number. There are also
market restrictions based upon this number. The higher the number, it’s likely,
the worse the infection. The higher the number, the more negative impact on
current and future production for that cow. The higher the number, the more
likely a farmer will use an antibiotic to treat the cow. The higher the herd
average, the more infections a herd has, and the more likelihood of antibiotics
being used. The higher the number, the more negative impact on consumer taste
tests and yields on manufactured products (like cheese, etc.).
SO HOLY SHIT!!!! ISN’T 378 MILLION A
HIGH NUMBER???
Not really. Really! Not really.
Let’s talk science and biology
for a moment. So what is a somatic cell? In the most basic terms, it is a white
blood cell (WBC). One of the functions of a WBC is to kill invasive microbes.
We are all familiar with that “pus” from an infection. We know what it looks
like, smells like, etc. So why would we want that in our milk?? Stop it. Just
stop going there for a minute.
One of the other most basic,
crucial functions of a white blood cell is to be a sentry. It is their job to
patrol their area and detect whether the cells they come into contact with are
“good” or “bad”. If they come into contact with “bad” cells or invasive cells,
they raise the alarm and cause an immune response – or call in reinforcements –
or whatever you want to call it. If an invasive microbe is in the mammary
system, you WANT there to be an immune response. You WANT millions and billions
and gazillions of WBCs to flood the mammary system to kill the invaders! If
this happens, then guess what – that cow’s immune system is healthy and
functioning properly. If this does not happen or if the cow cannot beat the
invasion on her own, then the farmer must use an antimicrobial to treat the
infection – we’ll save whether it should be organic or non-organic for another
discussion.
So, what’s an acceptable number?
The legally defined number for the sale of raw milk that is being transported
across state lines to a processing plant (for making bottled milk, cheese,
whatever) is 750,000 somatic cells/ml of milk. The number that the EU uses is
400,000 cells/ml. The marketing forces in the dairy industry in the US (i.e.,
the large export market) have forced nearly all of our milk plants to use a
400,000 cells/ml limit despite the higher legal limit. Some individual milk
processing companies have even tighter market standards, like 250,000 cells/ml.
They offer bonuses to individual farms with low herd somatic cell counts, and
penalties for those with higher counts.
Those numbers still sound high!?
Is that what you’re thinking? You know it is.
Through DECADES of scientifically
sound, verified and repeatable research, we as an industry have determined that
there is a lower limit of somatic cells at which we can say definitively that a
cow is infection free. There is a range of numbers that we say the chances of a
cow having an infection are very low. There is a number at which we can
determine a cow either has a current infection, or is recovering from an
infection. These numbers are universal across all dairies, of all sizes, of all
housing systems, of all feeding systems, of all creeds, religions, races and
breeds. So what I’m saying is this….
If you think that organic, raw,
“lightly pasteurized”, local, family owned, “small”, Amish or otherwise blessed
cows have less “pus” than conventionally managed, freestall housed, factory
farmed, corporately owned cows….you would be wrong.
So what are these magic numbers?
At less than 100,000 somatic
cells per ml, a cow is infection free. From 100,000 to 200,000, she is most
likely infection free. The chances of her having an infection are so small that
they are not detectable. From 200,000 and above, she either has a current
infection or is recovering from an infection. In some cases, depending on the
invading bacteria, a cow’s somatic cell count can go from 100,000 to 8 million
within 12 hours. Or it may only rise to 500,000. It always takes longer to get
a somatic cell count to go back down than it does to go up! Why is that?
Because another important role of WBCs is to clean the house after the bacteria-frat
party. The high presence of these cells continues after the invaders have been
killed (either by other WBCs or through antimicrobials) to get rid of dead
bacteria cells, dead mammary cells, damaged milk components, etc. This can take
weeks, when the active infection only lasted for 2-5 days.
So here’s some more facts for
you:
- (Without going into a lot of math detail about geometric non-weighted means vs milk-weighted geometric somatic cell count means): Data from 46.5% of all milk produced in the US in 2011…. the average somatic cell count was 259,000 cells/ml
- In 2012, there were approximately 58,000 dairy farms in the US.
- There are only approximately 780 dairy farms in the US that have more than 2000 cows.
- Those 780 dairy farms with more than 2000 cows produced approximately 34% of the total US milk in 2012.
- There are approximately 950 operations with 1000-1999 cows, which accounted for 16% of the total US milk in 2012.
(Feel free to
verify these numbers with the National Ag Stats Service).
So, in short, that means that
half of the milk in this country is being produced by about 1700 farms of the
58,000 farms still in business, and these 1700 farms have more than 1000 cows
each.
So now you’re thinking that the
BIG, SCARY, FACTORY FARMS ARE FULL OF COWS THAT HAVE HIGH SOMATIC CELL COUNTS AND
TONS OF PUS WHICH IS HALF OF OUR MILK SUPPLY!!!??? Right? You know that’s what
you’re thinking.
Again, you’d be wrong. Here’s a
pretty table for you to look at with real data and statistics…
(It was taken from this article:
Yes, this is an industry publication, but the data set is one of the most complete and well respected sources in the entire industry. This article focuses on Western
dairies – because let’s face it, the average herd size out west is bigger than
other states.)
The data indicates that larger farms
tend to have lower somatic cell counts! Lower somatic cell counts means
lower rates of mastitis infections. Say it ain’t so!? Yes. It is so. So, stop
blaming large farms for your bad lot in life.
Back to my bazillion “pus” cells
in milk. Where did I get that number from?
Since 100,000 somatic cells (or
white blood cells) per ml is considered an uninfected cow (remember if a cow
has 0 somatic cells per ml of milk…she’s a dead cow), we’re going to use that
number.
There are 3785.41 ml per 1 gallon
of milk.
(3785 ml/gal) x (100,000 SC/ml) =
378,500,000 somatic cells (WBCs) per gallon of milk.
Let’s go with 200,000 SC/ml,
because that’s close to our national herd’s average somatic cell count, and
what we in the industry practically consider “mastitis free”….
(3785 ml/gal) x (200,000 SC/ml) =
757,000,000 somatic cells (WBCs) per gallon of milk
So, when you hear that there are
millions of “pus” cells in your milk. Be glad for it. You know that those white
blood cells are from a healthy cow!
If you have a real question or
concern, I will entertain it. But realize I have a day job and some of this
info is technical and scientific and I have to look it up because I’m not an
encyclopedia. However, I will analyze it and decide if it’s real science or junk
science….or just 98% bullshit with sprinkles of truth on top. Sprinkles will
get your attention and make things look yummy, but you still don’t want a piece
of that pie. Trust me.
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