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THE DAIRY COWS ON
SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM ARE A HAPPY HERD; WITH GREEN
PASTURES, CLEAN CORRALS AND LOTS OF LOVE.
I'm passionate about cows, I love good cows.
In order to be a dairy farmer you need to really
love your cows and we love our cows, they're kind of
like family.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE FLUENT IN BOVINE TO
UNDERSTAND THAT LIFE HERE IS PRETTY SWEET.
NESTLED ON THE WEST PLAINS OF EASTERN WASHINGTON,
SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM IS HOME TO SOME OF THE
FRESHEST MILK IN THE NORTHWEST.
ESTABLISHED IN 2008 BY MIKE AND TRISH VIEIRA, THE
DAIRIES MISSION IS BLACK AND WHITE: TO PROVIDE
CUSTOMERS WITH HIGH QUALITY, LIGHTLY PROCESSED
MILK THAT IS DELIVERED JUST AS NATURE INTENDED.
ON SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM, MILK GOES FROM COW TO CUP
IN LESS THAN 72 HOURS AND TRAVELS JUST 20 MILES.
If you want to do it any better or any fresher than
that you have to have your own cow.
It is so creamy and so wholesome and I've had
children say that they don't need chocolate in
their milk anymore because Spokane's family farm milk
is that sweet, and it comes naturally that
sweet, but the taste alone usually sells our milk
right up front.
We have never had anyone ever say that it wasn't
awesome.
When you taste Spokane's Family Farm milk it's just
rich and creamy in a different way than I've
ever tasted before.
It tastes wholesome; it just tastes like real
food.
You drink a glass of this milk and you're like, oh
is this what milk is supposed to taste like.
MODERN MILKING MACHINES HELP THIS DAIRY PRODUCE
ABOUT 500 GALLONS OF MILK EVERY OTHER DAY.
BUT THE VIEIRA'S STILL TAKE A HANDS ON APPROACH
WHEN IT COMES TO MILK PRODUCTION AND CARE OF
THEIR COWS.
We renovated a farm that was built in 1937 hasn't
seen a dairy cow on it since 1962.
We milk in a flat barn I have to squat down to milk
every cow, I feed by hand in the parlor, so
everything's still pretty manual and hard work.
A typical day here on the farm, I get up at 4:30 in
the morning, I'm out here by 4:35 and I just go out
to the barn and I throw down hay for the cows,
walk through the cows get them all up and make sure
everybody's okay and up at the feed bunk eating
before I go into the barn and start setting up to
sanitize and getting ready to milk and about 5:05
It's time to milk and I bring the girls into the
barn and it takes me about an hour to milk and about
another hour to clean up when I'm done.
Every other day it's a little different, on my
bottling days as soon as I'm done I'm transferring
raw milk into the pasteurizer and getting
ready for bottling.
Meanwhile, I'm doing all my clean up out here, I'm
harrowing my corrals, I feed the cows one more
time at 10, then I usually have time to go get
cleaned up before I go into the bottling room, so
I'm in there for a couple of hours bottling and then
cleaning up and then that milk, I'll take it right
directly to the distributor and get back
at home in time to maybe grab a bite to eat and get
back out to start milking again for the evening
milking.
It's a long day.
I've been passionate for the dairy industry and
dairy cattle since my first visit to my uncle's
farm in second grade, and that's when I got the
itch, got the bug to have dairy cows, and got it in
my blood.
You know it's kind of like the old saying says you
can take the girl out of the country, you never
take the country out of the girl and that's kind
of me from the get go.
I was farming since a very little girl and just love
the critters.
STATE LICENSED AND FEDERALLY APPROVED,
SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM FOLLOWS STRICT GUIDELINES
TO ENSURE THEIR MILK IS SAFE, PURE, AND NATURAL.
BUT IT'S NOT ORGANIC.
AND THERE ARE 30 GOOD REASONS WHY.
Our herd's valuable to us, so we wanted to reserve
the right to use antibiotics in a life
threatening situation.
On an organic farm we can't have an antibiotic
on the farm where our philosophy was we'll just
take her out of the herd if we ever have to treat
them.
We're natural, we cannot ship any milk with any
antibiotics, we have a drug lab, cause have to
test every batch of milk for antibiotics and so if
we have to treat a cow she comes out of the milk
tank, we milk her separately and she gets
tested until she tests negative for antibiotics
and which at that time she can go back into the herd.
The milk components are kept very, very natural;
we do the best we can to keep it preserved as we
can as it just came from the cow.
It is only pasteurized for safety very lightly at 145
degrees then we do not homogenize so we skip that
whole step altogether so you get that wonderful
cream on top that cows are supposed to produce and
you get to do what you want with it if you want
to make butter with your kids or if you want to
drink it it's all good it's all personal
preference FIELD TRIPS AREN'T JUST FOR KIDS.
AND ON SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM, TOURS LET PEOPLE SEE
WHERE THE MILK THEY'RE DRINKING CAME FROM AND HOW
IT GOT THERE.
LAST YEAR ABOUT 8000 PEOPLE VISITORS STOPPED BY
THIS LITTLE HOUSE ON THE DAIRY.
We could actually come out to the farm and I could
bring my boys out here and actually show them where
the milk is coming from.
To actually have them be able to see the process,
it just makes it more than just the milk we drink.
I kind of like seeing all of the animals for the
first time just because like you see them on TV
all the time but then when you see them in person
it's just like you get to interact with them.
Here at Spokane's family farm I get the joy of
cooking for the people that come for my tours.
They have a choice of ending their tour with our
fresh milk with homemade cookies or they get to
have homemade ice cream.
The eggs that I use and the cream and milk comes
right off this farm they get to see it handled,
they get to see where it comes and they get to
taste the finished product and that just, you don't
get any better feeling than that.
That is just what we're about.
MILK FROM SPOKANE'S FAMILY FARM IS AVAILABLE RIGHT ON
THE DAIRY AND AT GROCERY STORES THROUGHOUT THE
NORTHWEST.
THE VIEIRA'S ARE SURE AFTER ONE SIP YOU'LL AGREE
THAT MILK FROM THEIR CONTENTED COWS IS THE
CREAM OF THE CROP.
Dairy farming is such a hard job, but you have to
love the cows, you have to love what you do and you
have to have that purpose when you go to bed at
night completely exhausted, it's an
exhaustion that just gives you a solid peace about
who you are and where we are in this world.
Trish and my name go out on every single jug of
milk its right there Mike and Trish, bottled by
Spokane's family farm.
It's a very small farm, a very simple farm, it's
awfully hard work but everything we do we do
with pride.