Post by donnaclyde47 on Mar 20, 2015 11:24:06 GMT -5
My husband is putting together a bill in our state to make it legal to sell raw milk. They attempted to get it passed last year, but it only made it through the committee and the House, and narrowly missed passing in the Senate.
Last year's bill was 29 pages long, and he wants to simplify it. It needs to get done today, so if any of y'all have any opinions, please share!
He wants to know what is "reasonable" as far as required testing, particularly how often. I told him that for disease testing, it should be yearly, mostly since the people i know that sell under the table do not have closed herds and their cows are continually exposed to other cows in shows, and also buying auction calves. As far as pathogens, what is the norm? We don't test our milk for pathogens, but I think it would be important if selling it. Once a month, once every two weeks?
Here is the paragraph he sent me:
Raw Milk Institute standards -- testing frequency?:
** Raw milk shall not contain zoonotic pathogens including: Salmonella spp., E. coli 0157:H7, Campylobacter spp., and Listeria monocytogenes
** Raw milk testing for coliform bacteria shall result in a rolling three-month average of less than 25 coliforms per ml raw milk
** Raw milk testing for Standard Plate Count (SPC) shall result in less than 15,000 per ml raw milk
** Provide documentation and assurance that herds are tuberculosis (TB) free and tested one time per year or meet local TB requirements
** Provide documentation or assurance that herds are brucellosis free.
Our last bill's version on drug residue -- more appropriate frequency that 2x per 6 months?:
Drug residue tests on the milk shall be conducted at least two times during any consecutive six months. There shall be no positive results on drug residue detection methods.
Last year's bill was 29 pages long, and he wants to simplify it. It needs to get done today, so if any of y'all have any opinions, please share!
He wants to know what is "reasonable" as far as required testing, particularly how often. I told him that for disease testing, it should be yearly, mostly since the people i know that sell under the table do not have closed herds and their cows are continually exposed to other cows in shows, and also buying auction calves. As far as pathogens, what is the norm? We don't test our milk for pathogens, but I think it would be important if selling it. Once a month, once every two weeks?
Here is the paragraph he sent me:
Raw Milk Institute standards -- testing frequency?:
** Raw milk shall not contain zoonotic pathogens including: Salmonella spp., E. coli 0157:H7, Campylobacter spp., and Listeria monocytogenes
** Raw milk testing for coliform bacteria shall result in a rolling three-month average of less than 25 coliforms per ml raw milk
** Raw milk testing for Standard Plate Count (SPC) shall result in less than 15,000 per ml raw milk
** Provide documentation and assurance that herds are tuberculosis (TB) free and tested one time per year or meet local TB requirements
** Provide documentation or assurance that herds are brucellosis free.
Our last bill's version on drug residue -- more appropriate frequency that 2x per 6 months?:
Drug residue tests on the milk shall be conducted at least two times during any consecutive six months. There shall be no positive results on drug residue detection methods.