A Bielefelder Thread !

[DesertChic]

In Germany you have to register all livestock to the national Livestock Insurance Fund and do a proper vaccination. With my menbership in our club all expences are paid for vaccination and registration. Every 3 month we do our vaccination against NC and Brochitis and most breeders vaccinate against salmonella,too.
Oh, and we don't wash and cool eggs, nobody does not even the big poultry farms and we air cool the meat birds after slaughtering and we have al lower rat of salmonella infection per capita then the US... as far as I know.... and this rate didn't raise for years, now.
Many small dairy farmers now have small free ranging chicken flocks b/c for two years or so the don't make any money with milk and so you can see mobile hen-homes popping up all over the country. The farmers sell milk and eggs, sometimes chees.. in little huts... and yes, it is raw unskimed milk and I never heard that someone catched an illniss from those huts.

This here is a quite typical set up
http://www.milch-automat.de/41333.html

Very interesting! I would love to be able to drink raw milk, but our government has proclaimed it toxic to human health. Unless we own our own cow or goat, or know someone else who does and is willing to quietly provide us with some for a "financial donation", we just can't get it.

I'm afraid that here in the U.S., our food system is run not only by massive agricultural conglomerates, but also by chemical companies and now, pharmaceutical companies. Here, they can cause the disease via improper animal management and pollution of the land with chemicals, and then sell us the pharmaceutical treatment for the symptoms for each disease (but never the cure). It's quite a scam, and all sanctioned by our government.

 

[Bine]

I think, the law that makes it possible for the Farmer to sell raw milk on their own property was just a relict til recently. But when the price for milk went under 20 EuroCent per liter, many small Farmers searched for something.... everything that would help them feed the cows and some engeneers came up with a solution how to cool the milk and prevent contermination with germs. O/c all Milk-Huts have a sign that says, that you should boil the milk bevor you drink it.
Here many farmers are under a lot of pressure by the Supermarkets and the Food Industry plus our environment standards. Aldi is fine if you live on a small budget, but it drives down the prices and some Farmers try to get out of the spiral that made them produce more and more by earnig less and lesser. So they try to go new or better old ways. Some Families still have the right to fattening cows and pigs in the common woods. A right that some cities had simply forgotten to abolish. Now more and more Farmers try to revive the old tradition and sometimes they win over the lokal authorities.

 

[Faraday40]

Interesting!

A friend of ours found a loophole to purchase raw milk in the US. (2 of her children have Asperger syndrome & they simply do better with raw unprocessed foods.) Basically, they purchased part of a cow. Because they now technically own part of a cow, they can pay the dairy farmer for maintaining & milking their portion of the cow on his property. They meet up every other week at a parking lot to pick up their frozen raw milk. The farmer also takes their orders for other organic meats, eggs, & produce.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes, my MIL has also shared such articles & simply won't eat eggs unless they come from a store. (Actually she eats fake eggs in a carton - that processed egg-white stuff.) In many of the articles the salmonella comes from people housing chicks in the kitchen where their is being prepared. Handling any animal & then eating w/o washing hands is a pretty efficient way to get sick. Washing poop-crusted feeders/ water bowls in the kitchen sink is another. A little common sense goes a long way.

Of course with the way our commercial eggs & meat are grown & processed in our country, it's no surprise to me that salmonella is on the rise.

I wonder if the Salmonella worriers stopped to take into consideration that fruit also carries Salmonella on the skin surface -- a cantaloupe can house a lot of germs in it's groovy skin. I always keep an organic veggie wash on the sink to wash produce both from the store or from my garden before cutting. For most people these common bacteria are not dangerous but if someone is sensitive to digestive tract disorders I recommend a good veggie wash. My Mom used to wash meats in a cold water pan before seasoning and roasting -- I don't know why but it's a habit I continued. I do find small bone chips sometimes in the meat when I wash so that's one less danger of a chip getting stuck in my teeth when I chew LOL!

 

[Sylvester017]

I was hoping to get your thoughts on my Niederrheiner. He's about 8 months old with a wonderful disposition and looks like a good specimen to me but I may be biased lol

There are a couple nice Niederrheiner BYC threads where breeders might offer some expert opinion. As for me that knows very little about Niederrheiner bodies, he looks extremely full-breasted and feathered as a meat bird -- A Lemon Cuckoo?

 

[Bine]

Hi! He is a handsome guy. Do you have some pics of him standing still? B/c the in this pics I can not see the "lines". Unlike the Biels a Niederrheiner should have a more a U-Line in its body.
Maybe this vid helps al little

 

[Honora]

Here are a couple pics of my pullet, Ida, with some of the other chickens. She is 6 months old, not laying yet.





The last pic needs a caption I think, haha! She is hanging out with her new buddy, the 2 month old chocolate EE.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Here are a couple pics of my pullet, Ida, with some of the other chickens. She is 6 months old, not laying yet.





The last pic needs a caption I think, haha! She is hanging out with her new buddy, the 2 month old chocolate EE.

She is beautiful, and they are BFFs!

 

[Bine]

Raw milk tastes very different and if you drink it the first time, don't drink a gallon. The texture of the fat and the enzymes in it is not easy to process for a unlearned stomach. So many people get light diarrhea from raw milk the first time. The body doesn't know what to do with it and tries to get rid of it, especially if your mom hadn't the chance to breast feed you as a baby.
But many people say that it helps against health problems like ADS, b/c the cows produce a natural and mild sedativ to make the calf quite and content. And after a while you will notice that raw milk is great if you have problems to sleep or if you are stressed or nervous.
I know it sounds like a conspiarcy theory but think of all the money people spend for pills that help them to sleep or to calm down. And now think about the money farmers could make selling raw milk to those people and the only side effect is that you have to go to the bathroom if you overdose.

 

[Faraday40]

Raw milk tastes very different and if you drink it the first time, don't drink a gallon. The texture of the fat and the enzymes in it is not easy to process for a unlearned stomach. So many people get light diarrhea from raw milk the first time. The body doesn't know what to do with it and tries to get rid of it, especially if your mom hadn't the chance to breast feed you as a baby.
But many people say that it helps against health problems like ADS, b/c the cows produce a natural and mild sedativ to make the calf quite and content. And after a while you will notice that raw milk is great if you have problems to sleep or if you are stressed or nervous.
I know it sounds like a conspiarcy theory but think of all the money people spend for pills that help them to sleep or to calm down. And now think about the money farmers could make selling raw milk to those people and the only side effect is that you have to go to the bathroom if you overdose.

I never had raw milk myself, but I heard from many people that our current pasteurized milk is bad for us in many ways. I was told that milk has enzymes in it to help it be digestible. The pasteurization process kills those good enzymes along with harmful bacteria, so many people have stomach issues &/or inflammation after drinking milk. Is this true? If I lived in a town where goats were not illegal, I'd certainly want to taste some. A friend grew up on fresh warm goats' milk daily. In fact, she never had cold cow milk until moving to college. (She hated it & still won't drink it today.) LOL