We have our program all but finalized — just waiting to hear from BC Corporate Registry that our new class of shares has been approved.

To summarize: we are already a co-op. But to be sure not to run afoul of Canada's draconian anti-raw-milk thugs, we added a separate class of shares to the co-op, the proceeds of which ONLY support the dairy herd.

Our "Frequently Asked Questions" page that explains things in general:
http://www.EcoReality.org/wiki/Dairy_herd_share_FAQ

Our pricing structure:
http://www.EcoReality.org/wiki/Dairy_herd_share_fees

Our application form:
http://www.EcoReality.org/wiki/Dairy_herd_share_application

The actual contract:
http://www.EcoReality.org/wiki/Dairy_herd_share_agreement

Hope this is helpful!

We've had people want to transfer the milk into their containers, but we won't do it. The only time we did, they complained because they said it went bad quickly. Well, DUH!

The only milk we put in plastic is for freezing. If we get way ahead on milk, we'll freeze some of it in one gallon plastic juice jugs. We then often sell it to a wildlife centre who feeds it to orphaned fawns, or we'll make it into cheese, but we prefer not to consume it once it's been in plastic.

Here is what we ask our customers to do with their bottles. It is important to do a vigorous cold water rinse as soon as the bottle is empty:

http://www.EcoReality.org/wiki/Cleaning_milk_bottles

Thanks for sharing; I'm always so pleased to hear that another person realizes the value of farm fresh milk – a complex liquid with many aspects. I'm pretty sure that a portion of milk's behavior is dependent on the types of bacterial interactions happening at different temperatures and pH

My farmer uses plastic for the same reason yours does except that his customers wanted it instead of him. My fellow WAPF Chapter Leader always decants her fresh milk immediately into half-gal. wide-mouth glass jugs and puts them into the walk-in cooler of her restaurant. And she complains that too much of her milk goes sour before she uses it up. The farmer and I have postulated that the aeration during the pouring is part of the issue. It could also be the jars are not properly sterilized before the milk goes into them.

Ironically, the milk I get from the same farm within hours after it's milked, has kept for up to 30 days in my storage refrigerator in the original plastic jugs it comes in. This has been my experience for 3 years now. It goes through a lot to get to me – by car and by boat or snowmobile.

I have just recently been researching the diet of patients at tuberculosis sanitoria in the early 1900′s. It was heavily weighted with dairy, eggs, and broths. I found out that homogenization was originally called aeration, and one of the reasons it was instituted was because it mitigated the pastured flavor that patients objected to that can sometimes be in summer milk. This caused the milk to go rancid very quickly necessitating the need for pasteurization to get the product even to a market that was just a few miles away. Of course, it also obliterated the cream line – an important quality marker.

Best to you,
Lynn

So I agree, something fishy in the Alaska testing.

http://www.realmilk.com/does-raw-milk-kill-pathogens.html

It has been noted that individual small farms are targeted more than small farms within a larger group of community supporters. The negative publicity generated plus a supportive local network for the farmer when a neighbor is accused seems to influence which farms are targeted.

There is a wealth of info at the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund(http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/) website including a free briefing on raw milk safety. This organization provides legal services at no cost as well as payment of the many thousands of $$ of filing & court fees so that small farmers can continue with their crucial tasks. Unfortunately these unnecessary and, patently harassing suits continue to increase.

Support your local farmer in all possible ways, folks, whether they grow fresh produce or care for food-producing livestock. We need one another.

This is a definate read, EVERYONE who drinks raw milk should know thee facts.

"The data collected at Organic Pastures was quite different from that found at other dairies. The typical conventional milk tank had either salmonella or E. coli O157:H7 detected about 30 percent of the time. In comparison, Organic Pastures has never had one pathogen—ever. "

This is tested state dairies not necessarily raw milk dairies of which Organic Pastures is on. He is not clear here on that point.
[PDF] Outbreaks in North America associated with the consumption of raw milkwww.bccdc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/…/RawMilkOutbreakTable2000_2010.pdfFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – Quick View
Feb 14, 2011 – E. coli O157:H7. Raw milk. Goat share. 30 illnesses. 2 children hospitalized. The Denver Channel … 9::NO::F2400_P1202_CHECK_DISPLAY,F2400_P1202_PUB_MAIL …. California. Campylobacter jejuni. Raw milk. Cow-share …

that is where i looked at the data, which looks imprssive until you study it.

also Chris Martin and Mary Tardiff, the two most notibale cases on the internet of e. coli infection leading to serious illnesses. All of these can be traced directly back to a lawyer who represented them.