SCALLYWAG FARM

HERD SHARE

 

 

 

Please review all information BEFORE you sign the boarding contract and bill of sale!

 

 

 

HERDSHARE INFORMATION

 

Raw Milk

“Raw milk” is milk that has not been pasteurized, i.e. heated to a specific temperature for a designated amount of time. The purpose of pasteurization is to kill any potential viable pathogens (primarily bacteria) in the milk.

 

Raw milk has been the topic of much debate, and there exists an abundance of scientific as well as pseudo-scientific data and opinions.  People interested in consuming raw milk are encouraged to conduct due diligence from accredited scientific sources in order to fully comprehend and weigh all potential risks and benefits.

 

Regulation of Milk

Government regulation of milk began to build in the U.S. towards the end of the industrialization and growth from late 1800s through the early 1900s.  It was spurred by escalating outbreaks of milk-borne diseases, both in number and extent, at least partially attributable to increases in consumption/production, consolidation of dairy operations, and expansion of distribution areas.

 

The Standard Milk Ordinance was instituted in 1924, today called the Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO).  This Ordinance established standards for milking operations, dairies, transport, storage, and established grades of milk.

 

Regulations regarding raw milk currently vary by state; distribution in Colorado is legal and regulated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Pursuant to Colorado law (CRS 25-5.5-117) people may only consume raw/unpasteurized milk if they actually own a portion of the herd from which the milk comes.

 

For Scallywag Farm to distribute raw milk, individuals and families must become partial owners of the herd through membership in the Scallywag Farm Herd Share Program.

 

OUR FARM

Scallywag Farm is a small family operation milking less than a dozen goats by hand daily.  Keeping our herd small allows us to apply individual attention and care to maintain robust and healthy animals and to produce clean milk with high safety standards.

 

Milk testing is conducted monthly and data is available to herd share members on our website (www.scallywagfarm.com); we have never tested positive for any pathogens in our milk.

 

The contract below will allow you own a portion of our herd and contribute to a portion of the operating costs at Scallywag Farm, we milk the goats for you and you get to drink fresh, raw goat milk!

 

We have included our herd health plan and dairy operation standards to this document.

 

We also strongly encourage everyone to contact us and schedule a tour of our farm to learn about our animals and practices.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS

 Share our Herd!

 

There is a one-time fee of $25 for a lifetime share of the herd.

  Boarding Assistance

 

$10/week ~ Half gallon per week

$20/week ~ Full gallon per week

 

Since you are contributing towards the upkeep of our herd and not a specific quantity of milk, the above is our best estimate of what a particular portion of our herd will provide. There may be more or less available based on the herd production.

 

To reiterate: Because selling raw milk in Colorado is illegal, WE NEVER SELL MILK. You contribute to the boarding of your portion of the herd and we provide loving goat care and milking service for you.  The contributions are based on the share of milk you may receive each week.

 

MILK BOTTLES

There is an initial $3 fee per milk bottle. We ask that you bring back your empty, clean, rinsed-out glass bottle and lid every week and we will sanitize them and give you a new bottle filled with fresh milk!

 

In order to ensure we have enough bottles on a regular basis, bottles must be returned at each pick up or you will be charged an additional $3 per bottle.

 

Bottles may also be returned to our bottle drop-box on the farm.

 

PLEASE RINSE YOUR BOTTLES THOROUGHLY BEFORE RETURNING TO US

 

The best time to rinse a milk bottle is immediately after it is emptied!

Use warm water and shake vigorously and/or scrub all residual milk from the inside and outside of the bottle, including the threaded area.

Don’t forget to rinse out the inside of the lid as well.

We sincerely appreciate your help in keeping our milk bottles and caps clean.  In addition to supporting proper sanitation, thorough rinsing of bottles allows us to re-use them almost indefinitely and keeps costs down.

 

MILK PICKUPS

At the scale we operate we have somewhat flexible options for on-farm pickups by appointment, please contact us to see if we can set something up.  Regularly recurring pickup schedules are preferred, but ultimately we try to connect folks to their milk as is mutually convenient as possible. 

 

We are also working on potential milk drop locations in Boulder and will inform herd share members as they become available.

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HERD HEALTH PLAN

 

 

 

FEED AND NUTRITION

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Hay and Browse

The goats are rotated out in the pasture as much as possible, but we are still working on expanding our grazing capacity.

 

We acquired our farm in 2015 and have been working to improve soil conditions and vegetative vigor and diversity.  Building soils is a slow business and requires perseverance; we are putting a good deal of effort into this in order to build a solid foundation for a sustainable operation.

 

Our pasture is not yet highly productive. Still, a good deal our goats’ diet during the growing season is pasture grasses, forbs, a few legumes, and some woody species around the property.  They get hay year-round, less in the summer of course since we get them out to browse.  

 

Our hay comes from local growers, mostly orchard grass, smooth brome, and alfalfa, all grown under diverse conditions ranging from certified organic to biodynamic to scraggly small-scale fields.

 

The mineral content of our local soils produces hay well suited to goats, particularly from deep-rooted perennials.   Of course woody species are really the top-shelf stuff for a goat, and we would love to feed them as much shrubbery as possible.  Although our soils, hydrology, and scale present some challenges to this, we are always exploring novel approaches and hope to continue to develop a truly sustainable system.

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Minerals and Supplements

We do provide supplemental minerals free-choice for the goats, as well as herbal tonic for pregnant does, apple cider vinegar or molasses in their water on occasion (especially in hot water during the winter, mmm!) and various treats like raisins, carrots, and graham crackers, all organic.

 

Our does in milk also get a mix of certified organic grain, alfalfa pellets, and black-oil sunflower seeds.

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Water

We check on water buckets twice daily to make sure they have plenty of sparkly-clean water, an imperative in our dry climate.

 

BABY GOATS

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Goat kids receive colostrum from their mothers and are bottle-fed milk until about nine weeks of age, some of the smaller kids we may keep on milk as long as twelve weeks.

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MEDICAL CARE

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We will seek professional opinions and proper medical care when necessary, but we don’t want any medicine in our milk.  Milking does requiring medication will be immediately removed of the herd share milk distributions until offending medication can be reasonable assumed to be passed through the metabolic processes of the animal and therefore no longer present in detectable concentrations in the milk.  Our herd has been very healthy, and we will address health issues and assess potential milk contamination from medications on a case-by-case basis with the best available information.  

 

We maintain parasite loads by rotationally grazing, keeping pens as clean as possible, treatment with diatomaceous earth, and herbal de-wormers in the winter-spring.

 

We do vaccinate our goats for CD&T (Cl. Perfringens & Types C & D Tetanus).  We understand some may have objections to vaccinations.  Our view is that these are horrific and completely preventable diseases and it would be irresponsible to neglect to vaccinate our animals in light of the potential consequences and available evidence for vaccination safety.

 

OPERATIONS

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Facilities

We have just under than three acres of pasture we rotate the goats through.  We also have several pens where the goats have plenty of room to loaf about, with the barn or goat shelters to get them out of the weather.

 

Milking is performed in an enclosed, well-lit and ventilated milking parlor, which is a modified tack room in the barn with a cement floor and drain for washdown.

 

We have converted a room in our house exclusively for handling and storage of milk.  It is still under construction and primarily used for storage of milk and milking equipment currently; washing and sterilization still takes place in our kitchen.

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Procedures

Proper hygiene and sanitation are of utmost important and we take all possible precautions regarding equipment, environment, and personnel.

 

Goats are brought into the milking parlor from the barn twice per day for milking.  We give them a good brushing before washing teats with hot soapy water, followed by a wipe down with sanitizing teat wipes.  We use separate clean rags/wipes for each teat to avoid any potential cross-contamination.  The first three streams of milk are discarded into a strip cup, and the goats are hand-milked into stainless steel milking buckets.  After milking, each teat is dipped in a commercial iodine-based teat dip.

 

After all goats have been milked, the milk is carried in a covered milk tote to the house and poured through a filter into sanitized bottles. The jars are lidded immediately and placed into a refrigerator to chill rapidly to between 35°-40°F.

 

Jars are sterilized in a dishwasher up to three days prior to filling, and all equipment is sterilized one hour before use with a hydrogen peroxide solution and air-dried.

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Milk Testing

We send out milk samples for laboratory testing monthly, which includes standard bacterial plate-count enumeration and screenings for Salmonella, E. coli 0157-H7, Campylobacter, and Listeria. 

 

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BOARDING CONTRACT

 

 

THIS AGREEMENT is made to be effective by and between Scallywag Farm (2113 Blue Mountain Avenue, Berthoud, CO 80513), and name of Buyer as indicated by Bill of Sale (herein called “Boarder”).

 

RECITALS

Scallywag Farm owns a property at 2113 Blue Mountain Avenue, Berthoud, CO 80513 for the holding, caring for, handling and milking of dairy goats. Said facilities will be used for the boarding and milking on behalf of the Boarder of the dairy goats which will constitute the hereafter defined “Herd”.

 

Boarder is the owner of: An interest in shares in the dairy goat herd located at the Scallywag Farm facilities.

 

Boarder desires to board their portion of the Herd with Scallywag Farm and to have the Goat Dairy care for and milk the goats in the Herd and the Goat Dairy desires to take on the boarding obligation until such obligation is terminated by either party in writing.

 

Boarder grants Scallywag Farm legal agency to manufacture raw milk into cheese for use of by the Boarder. This means Scallywag Farm, as an agent, is legally authorized to act on behalf of goat-share owners, as principals, to make cheese out of the milk for goat-share members so long as goat-share members own an interest in the Scallywag Farm herd, have signed a legal Bill of Sale and are paying a boarding fee for their goats.

 

AGREEMENTS

The parties agree as follows:

 

Boarding

Shall mean having possession of, feeding, maintaining and caring for the Herd, milking the goats in the Herd and preparing the production of milk from the Herd as fluid milk or any other milk products as defined by the Food and Drug Administration, 21 CFR 131, including but not limited to: acidified or cultured milk, i.e. kefir; eggnog; yogurt; sour cream.

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Herd Management & Health

Scallywag Farm retains absolute control over how the Herd will be maintained and boarded to maintain optimum health of animals, the environment and our members.

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Boarding Fees

For boarding the Boarder’s undivided interest in the Herd, Boarder shall pay to Scallywag Farm a boarding fee equal to $5/quart share or $10/half-gallon or $20/gallon share of the Herd owned by Boarder. The parties agree the amount of the boarding fee is a fair and reasonable charge.

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Shares of Milk

Boarder shall be entitled to receive a portion of the milk production from Boarder’s undivided shares in the Herd. The amount of milk may vary week to week depending on the circumstances.

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Agency Agreement

This contract forms a legal agency agreement between Boarder and Scallywag Farm. Thus, Boarder is authorizing Scallywag Farm to act on the Boarder’s behalf by making cheese out of the Boarder’s milk share. This is a legal relationship between the Boarder and MFD.

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No Sales of Milk

Boarder and Scallywag Farm acknowledge that the sale of raw milk is prohibited by the State of Colorado. Under no circumstances shall Boarder or Scallywag Farm transfer the ownership or possession of any raw milk production from the Herd in any transaction that would constitute a sale of milk in violation of the statutes of the State of Colorado or the regulations of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

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Boarding Termination

This agreement will be terminated upon written notice of either the Boarder or Scallywag Farm.

 

 

 

 

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HERD SHARE BILL OF SALE

 

 This Bill of Sale is made by Scallywag Farm (“Seller”), to and for the benefit of (“Buyers”).

 

 For purposes of this contract, Buyer must be over 18 and is the agent of the family unit. When the Buyer enters into this contract, the entire family becomes the owner of a portion of Scallywag Farm herd (“herd share”) and therefore everyone in the family has legal rights to drink the milk from the herd.

 

In consideration of $25.00 (twenty five dollars), the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged and paid, Seller hereby sells to Buyer, of Seller’s right, title and interest in Scallywag Farm, located at 2113 Blue Mountain Avenue, Berthoud, CO 80513, to Buyer to have and to hold unto Buyer for its use and benefit.

 

By agreeing to the terms of service Buyers have executed this Bill of Sale effective as of the date written.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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