COWS ARE RUMINANTS, natural grazers, and their four stomachs are exquisitely designed to metabolize grass. In nature, grains are a minimal part of a grazer’s diet. Feeding them grain throws their metabolism into high gear—thus they produce more milk, with more milkfat in the milk, just as feeding steers grain in the confinement pens called feedlots fattens them up for slaughter. Grass-fed cows don’t produce as much milk, but it’s better milk, with more CLA (conjugated linoleic acid, a beneficial fatty acid) and vitamins, and a richer flavor—as nature intended.

CLA protects against cancer in lab animals and shows promise against breast and prostate cancer in humans. Studies show that the more CLA in the milk, the less the risk of breast cancer in those who drink it. Milk from grass-fed cows has been found to contain five times higher levels of CLA than milk from cows fed supplements of corn kernels and corn silage.

The difference between conventional milk and organic milk from grass-fed cows is striking. I used to buy milk from a lady who ran a very small dairy in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania. You brought your own bottles and she filled them from five-gallon milk cans. Her cows were pastured except for the twice-daily milking. The milk was raw, unpasteurized, and not homogenized. I could skim the cream from the top of each bottle. But most of us do not have access to such a dairy, and I have not seen organic milk labeled “from grass-fed cows.” Until organic dairies start labeling their milk as grass-fed, about all we can do as consumers is to call our local organic dairies and ask them if their cows are pastured or confined and fed grains.

While the ideal of the happy cow grazing her lush green pasture is a pretty picture, it too often is an idealized one. When the National Organic Program was established, access to pasture for organic cows was written into the rules. This was to protect small dairy farmers and prevent large confinement dairies from taking over the organic milk business. It was also to promote the health of the dairy animals and increase the quality of organic milk and milk products. But the USDA, which has responsibility for enforcing the organic rules, is not enforcing the access to pasture rule because, it says, the word “pasture” is not defined in the rules—therefore they can’t enforce it. Whether the USDA is enforcing the access to pasture rule or not, most organic dairy farmers allow their cows to graze pasture anyway, at least in spring through fall. In winter the cows are in the barn and fed corn, silage, or hay.

Organic milk, especially milk from cows fed solely on pasture or hay, is a true success story. And not just because of 25 percent jumps in sales each year for several recent years, to about $300 million in 2004, while conventional milk consumption fell 10 percent in 2003.

A debate is ongoing in the organic farming community about the subject of grass-fed versus grain-fed dairy cows. You can keep up to date on this and other organic farming issues by visiting http://www.newfarm.org.

NUTRITION

The composition of milk varies with the breed of animal, the feed it gets, and the health of the animal. A healthy cow fed on pasture will give the highest quality milk.  ....read more