- How long does a dairy cow provide milk?
Cattle are two years old before they are able to become pregnant and enter the milking herd. They will remain in the milking herd as long as they are able to provide enough milk to cover costs, typically between six and nine years.
- What does Cabot do to ensure the proper treatment of its farmers herds?
Cabot and our parent cooperative, Agri-Mark, go to great lengths to ensure the safety, health, and happiness of our cattle. Fourteen of the fifteen members on our Board of Directors are active dairy farmers. Our farmers all rely on each other to provide high quality, safe milk that is in turn converted to various world class cheeses and other dairy products, and they know you can only achieve top notch results if your cattle are healthy and happy. What exactly do we do?
We are enrolled in program called FARM, Farmers Assuring Responsible Management, whose goal is to demonstrate and verify that milk producers are committed to the highest standards in animal care. As part of this program our twenty field representatives, who visit our farms every day, are trained to ensure that there is no mistreatment of any animals on our farms.
- Do your cows have access to pasture?
Our cows are raised in different ways. We are a cooperative of more than 1,200 family farms where each farm is independently managed. Each farm is different in terms of herd size, landscape, soil makeup, etc so practices differs among farms. We know that the majority of the 1,200 farm families pasture their herd during the late spring and summer months when weather allows. Others allow their cows to go out and get fresh air but do not pasture them. When the cows are not out to pasture they are in free-stall barns that provide plenty of space for eating and exercising. Bedding is changed frequently every day.
- Do Cabot products contain antibiotics?
No antibiotics are in any Cabot products. Tests for antibiotics are conducted on all milk before it enters our plants according to all federal and state laws and regulations. There are serious penalties and consequences for our farmers if they were to ship milk from an animal on antibiotics. Testing throughout the milk handling process ensures that no mistakes can be made.