Local dairy grows from one cow
GOTHENBURG - At 5:30 every morning, the cows are milked, the eggs are gathered and the other animals are fed. Although this sounds like a day from the 1950s, this is a typical morning for Malloree Barnes, owner of the Milk House dairy in Gothenburg.
Barnes grew up in Pueblo, Colo., training horses. She didn’t have any experience with cows until she moved to Nebraska and met her husband, Ty, a Gothenburg native. Ty owned a cattle operation where Malloree learned the ins and outs of the business. Every year, they inevitably ended up with several bottle calves and started looking for a better way to feed them. They found a nurse cow, a dairy cow that had enough milk to raise several calves at a time, in 2017. Her name was Gertrude and she was the start to a later thriving business.
The Barnes acquired more nurse cows every year until they found themselves with a surplus of milk. Several neighbors asked if they could have some of the milk for themselves. This led Malloree to borrow and later buy a milk machine to easily milk her cows and store the product. Word got around that she had milk and people kept wanting to buy it!
As her little business grew, she started looking to expand. An abandoned building at the neighbors’ place was moved and fixed up to become what is now the Milk House. It contains several refrigerators, freezer, sinks and all of the supplies Barnes needs to prepare the milk.
The process of getting the milk from the cow to the refrigerator only takes 20 minutes and is a simple process. Barnes starts by letting the cow into the milking stanchion and giving her some grain. Then she wheels her cart full of supplies next to the cow and begins cleaning her. The teats are dipped in iodine to clean and sterilize them and then washed with warm soapy water. Once the udder is clean, Barnes strips the milk, meaning she squeezes the teats a few times and lets the first of the milk go onto the ground. This ensures that any debris inside the teat gets washed out and only fresh milk is caught. Then the milking machine is attached to each teat and begins sucking. The milk stays in a closed system and goes into a jug to eliminate exposure to bacteria.
Once the cow is done milking, the machine is taken off and her udder is cleaned again. The next cow comes in and the process is repeated. It only takes about four minutes per cow from start to finish and each cow produces three gallons per milking. Barnes currently has four cows that are milking so shes collecting 24 gallons each day.
Once the milk is collected, it goes
At right, Malloree Barnes attaches the milking machine to the udder of a Jersey cow. Lower right, a gallon jar of fresh raw milk is cooled in the refrigerator at the Milk House. through a filter and then gets poured directly into glass jars and placed in the refrigerator. It’s never heated or pasteurized. When a customer buys a jar of milk, it’s always from the same day and doesn’t sit longer than a day in the refrigerator.
Any milk that isn’t sold on the same day gets collected and then used at the end of the week to make other products. The cream is skimmed off and goes into butter, ice cream, buttermilk and other products that are available in the Milk House.
Once a customer takes milk home, it will last one to two weeks in the refrigerator, but can last up to four weeks if the fridge is operating at around 34 degrees. When the milk begins to sour, it may not taste as sweet but is still healthy for consumption and is great for cooking. “You know that one lady that brings a dish to the potluck and everyone wonders what her secret ingredient is? She probably cooks with raw milk,” Barnes commented.
The most important aspect to the business is the cows themselves. “We’re not a factory dairy where the cows just get pushed through the process,” Barnes said. “I like to build a relationship with each one.” Most of the cows are born on the farm and are handled from birth. “It’s important that they learn how to stand still and be patient. I like to start their training from day one and have respectful and polite cows when they’re ready to begin milking,” Barnes explained.
The cows are separated into a spring herd and a fall herd so that there is milk available year-round. Most of them are Jerseys because they produce a lot of cream in the milk. Others are a Jersey and Brown Swiss cross. The Brown Swiss produces a higher volume of milk while still maintaining a good amount of cream.
When they’re ready to breed, Barnes artificially inseminates them with sexed semen, meaning it’s guaranteed to be a heifer calf. Any cow that doesn’t get bred that way gets bred to a Shorthorn bull. If she has a heifer calf, the calf will be used as a nurse cow and any bull calves will be grown for beef. When the cow gives birth, she gets to raise her calf for a month before the calf gets transferred to a nurse cow.
What started with just one cow has turned into a successful and growing business. In February 2021, Barnes sold 20 gallons of milk in a week. In the same week in 2022, she sold 40 gallons and in 2023 it was 80 gallons. “I was really surprised when my sales doubled in
2022, but I was shocked when it doubled again this year,” Barnes stated. There is a growing demand for raw, unpasteurized milk for many reasons. Because it’s never heated, all of the beneficial nutrients are available. Raw milk is full of enzymes, probiotics, vitamins and healthy fats. Not to mention its rich, creamy taste makes it ideal for cooking, baking or drinking straight from the jug!
The Milk House provides families with a healthy food, but for some it goes beyond the nutrition. “I have older customers that enjoy the milk because it’s what they grew up on,” Barnes explained. She enjoys taking the cows to nursing homes and milking them on the lawn for everyone to see. “I love hearing the stories of the residents milking when they were young,” Barnes commented.
Although milking cows on the farm isn’t nearly as common as it used to be, it’s still an every day occurrence at the Milk House. Barnes is able to provide her family nutrition and an extra income while doing what she loves.