Goat's milk: Have you herd the benefits? - Wanganui Chronicle

 

Phil and Bryanne Weber aren't given to blasphemy, but they swear by goat's milk.

They have a lifestyle block on Mosston Rd and milk a herd of 50 goats twice daily. While the family takes what it needs, the bulk of the raw milk is fed to calves.

Now they are watching with interest the next move from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), which is seeking the public's views on whether to continue farm-gate sales of raw milk.

Current regulations let farmers and people like the Webers sell a daily maximum of 5 litres of raw milk per person from their farm gate.

"The idea of being able to sell from our gate has real appeal as long as the Ministry doesn't put to many regulations in our way," Mr Weber said.

But the Webers want to educate the public about raw goat's milk and its benefits.

"The interest in getting the milk is there but a lot don't understand its values," Mrs Weber said. "It's far superior to cows' milk and is great for people who have all sorts of allergies."

With that many goats, the family has never had to buy milk from the supermarket and, having tasted store-bought milk, she said she could never drink it.

The Weber farm is a hobby farm, so they were not reliant on the milk as their staple income.

Their family of seven sons and a daughter have all been brought up drinking the raw goat's milk and their parents say they are so healthy, the doctors don't even know them.

"Their teeth are perfect. While Phil and I have got a mouthful of fillings, the children have hardly a filling among them," Mrs Weber said.

Mr Weber can attest to the values of the milk, too, because as a child he suffered from severe eczema: "I scratched myself constantly, and the doctor told my mum to get me on to goat's milk. She bought a goat and once I started drinking its milk everything came right. So when our family came along, we decided to have a goat and the herd's just grown."

Goat's milk is known to have less fat, less lactose, fewer allergens, different proteins and more minerals than cow's milk.

"There has been a recent study done by scientists at Massey University which looked into the dangers of consuming raw cows' milk. That study showed there was very little risk because of today's hygiene standards in milking sheds and the general health status of farm animals," Mrs Weber said.

GATE SALES

MAF called for submissions on whether to continue farm-gate sales of raw milk and these have now closed. Current regulations let farmers sell a daily maximum of 5 litres of raw milk per person from their farm gate.

The three options proposed were:

to maintain the present legal position

to make some amendments to the conditions of sale and retain the requirement for a risk management programme (RMP)

to make some amendments to conditions of sale, and exempt farmers from an RMP for farm-gate sales but still require them to meet some animal health and hygiene requirements and keep records of sales (this is MAF's preferred option).