The First Batches of Milk at Rowdy Cow Creamery

Rowdy Cow Creamery, our new on-farm milk bottling plant, is officially operating! We’ve been constructing, installing equipment, purchasing supplies and planning for a year and last week we bottled the first batches of milk.

The creamery ready for action

Fresh milk is pumped into our vat minutes after it leaves the cow’s udder. The milk is low temperature vat pasteurized in small batches.

Fresh milk is piped into the creamery

A small batch of white milk in the vat pasteurizer

Chocolate milk mixing in the vat

We bottle milk in half gallon and pint size containers. All the labels are put on the bottles by hand.

Half gallon bottles are ready to be filled with whole, white milk

My son, Garrett, helps label and organize the bottles before going into the filler

Milk is pumped from the vat to the bottler to fill the bottles.

Pint bottles filling with chocolate milk

Pints filling with white milk

Chocolate half gallons being filled

Orange Cream half gallons filling

Our product line includes a variety of flavors; white, vanilla, chocolate, mocha, strawberry, orange cream, root beer, and cookies & cream.

Orange cream pints filled, capped and ready for the cooler

Lad loading bottles into crates that will go into the cooler

Taylor taking the filled crates to the cooler

Our first two batches of milk in crates in our walk-in refrigerator.

Bottled milk chills in the refrigerator

Our milk will be on local store shelves soon. I’ll post updates on the Hastings Dairy & Rowdy Cow Creamery website and Facebook page to let people know where this delicious milk can be purchased. 

The finished product; creamy, tasty fresh milk!

Check out the Rowdy Cow Creamery website for more information about our milk.

The Creation of our On-Farm Creamery

We’re in the process of building and equipping an on-farm creamery to bottle milk from our cows for retail sale. There is an interested in purchasing products directly from the farmers who produce them. Our creamery will allow people to purchase fresh milk from a local farm.

We will produce small batches of non-homogenized, whole milk in white and flavors. The creamery is located just steps away from where the cows are milked. You can’t get any fresher than that! Very few dairy farms in Ohio, or across the country, make products on-farm for retail sale. We’re excited about this new adventure!

We remodeled a portion of office space in the barn for the processing room. Here are some pictures from the construction of the Creamery which started in February. . .

The office space before becoming a Creamery

A local Amish family remodeled this space

The room with it's new ceiling

Me in the Creamery after the walls were complete

Experts from Burton Carpet carefully install the tile floor

Preparing the concrete mix for the Creamery floor

The tile floor during installation

The 250 gallon vat pasteurizer being delivered

Lad moved it with the loader while I watched nervously

Lad moved the pasteurizer onto the front porch with the skid steer

Moving the vat pasteurizer into it's new home

Discussing the next steps to installing equipment in the Creamery

We plan to sell milk at the farm, at local retail outlets and restaurants. We hope to be producing milk for sale by mid-June. For updates, check this blog or the Hastings Dairy Facebook page.

Cow’s Milk vs Non-Dairy Imitation Milk

The dairy case is very crowded. Today, cow’s milk is competing for shelf space with imitation milk alternatives. Cow’s milk is naturally superior. It has about twice the protein of other so-called milks and contains the most absorbable source of calcium.   

Cow’s milk is a key ingredient to overall health. It strengthens bones, improves muscle function, increases energy levels and promotes good vision.

Regardless of variety in fat content, a cup of cow’s milk is packed with eight grams of protein, 12 grams of carbohydrates, and 300 milligrams of calcium (that’s almost one-third of our daily recommended value). Milk is also naturally high in many other minerals and vitamins such as potassium, phosphorous, and B vitamins. 

The ingredient in whole milk is milk. Period. Low-fat and non-fat milk are fortified with vitamins A and D. Simple and natural, milk contains nine essential nutrients; calcium, potassium, protein, phosphorus, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, riboflavin and niacin.

Imitation plant-based milks, like soy, almond, rice, coconut and hemp, are highly processed containing many added ingredients. These milk alternatives use fortification to mimic the nutrient profile of cow’s milk.

Cow’s milk is naturally superior to non-dairy imitations. It’s also an excellent choice when compared with other beverages. If you have difficulty digesting lactose, try delicious lactose-free cows’ milk. 

 Looking for a healthy, natural, nutrient-dense beverage? Cow’s milk is the best choice!