Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Let them drink milk

We went on a tour of a local dairy recently, and my children loved it. I am considering starting home delivery for milk, but the big thorn there is that a gallon is probably usually going to be about twice the amount we would pay at the store. Of course, it is delivered to our door, and there is the aspect of impulse buying, where you go out for milk and come back with $50 of additional purchases, but I'm not a big impulse buyer. (Please note that I said not a big impulse buyer--I have been known to indulge in the occasional non-necessary and totally extravagant small purchase(s). ) Hence, the impulse buyer aspect wouldn't necessarily make the milk pay for itself in our case. But the fact that we would have a local supplier if there was disruption in the milk supply/food transportation industry makes the home delivery option somewhat tempting, plus we like to support our local economy when possible....

Anyway, I was thinking, non-farmer that I am, that even in an emergency cows would have to be milked, so it should be available, given that you had the means to preserve it. Thing is, during a guide's informational talk, it came out that every cow provides 9 gallons of milk per day, and to do so, every cow drinks 60 gallons of water a day. As you may have noticed from my last post, I have been worrying about water storage lately, and this didn't really do anything to make me feel better about it.... If you have dry milk, you will still need water to drink it. If you think that you may get your hydration from fresh milk from a local supplier as part of your storage plan, it might be good to know that the cows need water too, and a bunch of it. Since they won't even let me raise a chicken where I live, I hadn't given much thought to the needs of larger livestock. Quite eye-opening, for me at least.

There are other options for milk--evaporated and condensed come to mind--but if part of your plan for your circle of responsibility is to "let them drink milk", please consider how much water must come into the equation to do so. I know I am...

6 comments:

Joshua Tolley said...

Holsteins and other dairy-specific cattle will give 9 gallons of watery, thin milk a day, but other varieties not so over-bred will be hardier and provide a more reasonable 3-4 gallons per day, peak. The milk will be richer and more nutritious. There are those who live exclusively on milk, or nearly so, so if you can manage to sustain a cow, though it will make a large dent in the stored water (not to mention any animal feed you may have to store) it will mean you need less food storage.

Marie said...

Joshua--I did not know that about milk production of certain cows--thanks for the information. You make a lot of good points, and I appreciate your comment. It's funny how the more I learn, the more I usually find out that I didn't know--thanks!

HermitJim said...

Like they say..."knowledge is power!" and now days we need all the information we can get!

Don't feel too badly! I didn't know all this about milk, either!

Learn something new every day!

Marie said...

HermitJim--Glad I wasn't the only one--and I couldn't agree more that we need all the information we can get... Thanks so much for your comment!

Anonymous said...

I am not including milk in my food storage plan. It is expensive and not necessary. I like milk and I recognize it is a great source of nutrients especially for children. But if having milk means I cannot afford an extra six months of food then it stops making any sense.

Marie said...

Anonymous--Milk seems to be expensive in any form, or at least the ones that I've seen. Trying to get a balance can be tough when it comes to storage, and trading a lesser amount of milk for six months of storage doesn't seem like the best trade-off... I do think that I would always want to have some milk in storage in case I found myself really needing it for an infant, though, because you never know who you might find yourself caring for in an emergency, regardless of who you know you will be responsible for right now.... thanks so much for your comment!