What Makes our Milk Different?

We, as you might think, run a dairy farm. In a sense this is true, but first and foremost we are grass farmers. A better term would be forage farmers, because cows do not eat only grass. Cows really like a mix of all different plants, which includes grasses, legumes, and herbs. Why do we than have dairy cows? The cows convert the minerals, vitamins and nutrients from the plants into milk, which in turn nourishes our body.

Nowadays, everything has to be bigger and faster. Oftentimes, ‘better’ goes on the back burner. We have gone a step back into history and looked where everything really takes place. It is not the cow or the feed that we feed them, it is the soil where it all starts. This might sound strange but ‘soil really is the life of the nation’. We cannot live without soil.

Modern farming uses all sorts of chemical inputs which destroys the soil. At Vital Green Farms, we use only natural, organically approved, soil amendments to balance the soil. For example, manures, organic molasses, sugars, calcium, liquid fish, and other minerals. With this in place the plants can take up the nutrients to feed the cows, which in turn make our delicious milk.

Because our processing plant is on the same location as the farm, we can pump the milk through a pipeline, which eliminates the need for a truck to haul the milk. This, and the fact that we only distribute locally (in Alberta) makes for very low food miles on our products.

Our milk is pasteurized at a low temperature, which is the minimum required by Canadian law. None of our products are homogenized, giving it the rich taste it has.

The farm as well as the processing plant are certified under the CFIA’s Canada Organic Regime(COR). Every year the farm and the processing plant are audited by Pro-Cert Organic, one of North America’s foremost national certifiers of organic products.

What does it mean to be organic? In short, organic is a claim referring to methods of agricultural production and food processing that minimizes disruption of the natural environment and encourages the health and vitality of the soil, promotes humane animal management and preserves ecological integrity.

 

In other words, organic means:

  • No synthetic pesticides
  • No synthetic preservatives
  • No chemical fertilizers
  • No hormones or antibiotics
  • No genetically modified organisms (GMO’s)
  • Humane treatment of animals
  • Preservation of ecological integrity