Raw milk for human consumption is ILLEGAL in the state of Tennessee. 

Selling raw milk cheese without a
herd share agreement is also ILLEGAL.

Our farm is NOT inspected by the state of Tennessee nor considered "Grade A."  

Why we choose NOT to be a Grade A Dairy farm...

Fun fact -- raw milk for human consumption is 100% illegal in Tennessee.  The video below explains how we are able to LEGALLY distribute raw milk for human consumption.  However, raw milk CHEESE, aged over 60 days is perfectly legal if your dairy is considered "Grade A."

We tried to get our farm approved for Grade A dairy production so that we could sell raw milk cheese, aged over 60 days from our farm without customers being under a herd share contract.  Here are some reasons why that will never happen:

🚫 We would be required to pour BLEACH down our well. Despite having an independent laboratory test showing the water is safe, a UV Sterilization system in the milk barn "just in case," and running our own e.Coli and Coliform testing periodically, we would still be required to pour bleach down our perfectly safe well.

🚫 The regulations required for the bulk tank: They read in part... "A hose port shall be installed in the Milk Room/Tank Room wall for transfer of milk from bulk tank to milk tanker. The hose port shall be fitted with a tight door which shall be kept closed except when in use. Concrete slab at least 32 square feet provided outside Milk Room/Tank Room and under hose port." Our milk tank is 15 gallons. No milk tanker is ever going to pick up milk here. Our tank is not designed to be used with a tanker truck. We just wanted to use our own milk to make cheese for sale to the general public. None of this matters. We would be **REQUIRED** to construct all of this anyway.

🚫 Temperature recording requirements.  "Bulk milk tanks manufactured after January 1, 2000, shall be equipped with a recording thermometer. Producer shall maintain recording chart records for a period of six months." We monitor the temperature of the milk in our tank. It just makes good sense to have an alarm on it should the cooling equipment fail. Our monitor will alert our phones if the milk is out of temperature range and maintains well over 6 months of temperature data. Is it good enough? Oh NOOOOO. We'd need to buy a $2000, antiquated PAPER CHARTER (it looks kinda like a seismograph!). That silly thing will not send alerts if the milk temperature is out of range -- it only records the temperature. Talk about NOT using technology to one's advantage...

🚫 We'd need a holding pen. "Holding pen to be constructed of concrete with a minimum 8” curbing and sloped downward away from barn." We're milking four cows as of this writing. At the extreme end of the range we might milk ten (unlikely). We don't NEED a holding pen.  Too bad.  To be Grade A, it must be constructed anyway.

🚫 Manure management:  "Solid waste storage and manure handling facilities to be constructed and maintained according to PMO regulations." Our cows are on pasture 100% of the time with the exception of the literal minutes a day it takes to milk them. During that time, they've been trained not to relieve themselves in the barn. No matter. We must construct manure handling facilities that are completely unnecessary in order to be Grade A approved.

🚫 Antibiotic residue testing: "All [milk], regardless of final use shall be tested for beta-lactam drugs prior to commingling or before the milk is processed." We would have to bear the the cost of a DAILY unnecessary test.  Why do we deem it unnecessary? Simply put - if a cow requires the use of antibiotics, we do not milk her for the remainder of that lactation.  For us, it's not worth the risk. The state says we can be trusted to test the milk on farm daily, but we can NOT be trusted to pull a cow for the remainder of the lactation should she require antibiotics. 

We questioned if there was leeway for micro operations and were told (copy/paste direct quote):

"Tennessee has adopted the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO) in full, and it is the regulatory standard under which all Grade “A” dairy farms must operate, regardless of size. This means that even micro-dairies—whether milking four cows or 400—must meet the same requirements if they intend to produce, sell, or process Grade “A” raw milk or raw milk products for public consumption." ~ Paul Wadham, Milk Rating Officer, Tennessee Department of Agriculture

So despite these things being 100% absurd and completely unnecessary for a micro-dairy operation, they are still REQUIRED.  This is why our farm can only sell aged cheese under a herd share agreement. Thank you for understanding.

So how do we "sell" raw milk???