Blog Statement

Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

TDM CCN Header

April 1, 2011

Benefits of Testing Milk

Last night we attended the annual Dairy Herd Improvement Association's {DHIA} annual dinner and award presentation.  DHIA tests the milk from our entire milking herd on a monthly basis.

This is not a mandatory test, this is a management tool that some dairies choose to use. The testing tells us how many pounds of milk each cow produces, the percentage of butter fat and the percentage of protein in the milk and also provides information on somatic cell counts on each cow.

{This is not to be confused with the mandatory testing that occurs with each and every truck load of milk on a daily basis that tests for antibiotics}.

You can view how the milk is tested and read more about the benefits and why we test our milk on a previously written post, Milk Testing, Why We Do It, if you'd like.

Sixty-four dairy farms in the North Bay area of California participate in this milk testing program.  Within our North Bay area, out of the 64 herds, awards are given to the 'Top Ten Herds Milking'.


















And you can't have an award ceremony without some good food.  Appetizers were delicious!  Bryce was all over the fruit platter.













And when he finished with the fruit, he went for the garnish - kale- surrounding the fruit.











And then he went back for seconds and thirds of kale.....no kidding.


















Jimmy's Catering provided the food for the event and it was so good.












And after dinner, a little juke box dance party happened.












A late night for the kids, being a school night and all.  I guess once in a while it doesn't hurt.



I love to hear from you! To leave a comment, click on the “Post a Comment” link below. Have a peaceful day.


Pin It

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations!!

Shanae Branham said...

Very informative. I didn't know that they tested dairy farms and congratulations on the award. I'm glad I stopped by today and got to celebrate with you.

TexWisGirl said...

kale - cute! :)

farmer said...

Great news! Congratulations!
Now if all children would like kale,,lol

Michelle said...

Congrats to you and might I say that the food looks wonderful!

ann said...

Always nice to receive an award that says you are doing great job.

Sarah said...

CONGRATULATONS!!

www.thisfarmfamilyslife.blogspot.com

goatmilker said...

Congragulations!

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Congrats on the award! We like kale at our house too :-)

dairygran said...

From Ok great job!!!

Rae said...

6th place - that is impressive. Congratulations. The kids are so cute. Love their sweet faces.

Farmchick said...

Congrats..........and thanks for stopping by this morning. :)

Leontien said...

It looked great and CONGRATS!!!


Hope you win lot's more!

Leontien

Unknown said...

Congrats on the award! How do you get the kids to eat Kale?

Thanks for stopping by this morning, I see your comments are going through without any problems now. WHEW!

Amy K said...

Congratulations! As a fellow dairy farm family, we know what an honor this is...great job!

Misty DawnS said...

Major congratulations!

Man, now I am really craving fresh tomatoes after staring at those beautiful tomatoes on the appetizers!