An observation of popular demand. A2/A2 milk. We first heard of the A2/A2 milk protein at a Acres USA conference probably 12-13 years ago. None of my family has ever had problems with milk allergies so it really didn’t make a difference to us. But since we sell milk cows, it’s been a common question for the past 9 years. “Is she A2?”. The vast majority of cows we don’t test. It’s rather a hassle. For example, the lab received our samples on a group of heifers five weeks ago. Yes, five weeks. Still no results. Fortunately these are heifers so I don’t have to milk them every day. But, they still need feed and care, I’ve still waited to advertise them for over a month in prime market season. When you rely on farm sales for income, a month’s delay is a big deal!
A common misconception of milk consumers is that lactose intolerant people can consume A2 milk. That simply doesn’t make sense. Lactose is a milk sugar, a1/a2 is a protein. a2/a2 milk has all the normal lactose volumes of any other fresh milk. I have a brother-in-law that truly has trouble with lactose. a1, a2, goat, sheep, cow milk all give him digestive upset. Cream and aged cheese however, are fine for him. Cream has very little lactose in it, and good aged cheese shouldn’t have any.
Yes, we’ve started testing more milk cows and heifers than we used to. I will only test the top quality cows. An a2/a2 cow with a clean disease test is easily worth $3000+. The cows I choose not to test are not necessarily sick or a1/a1, they’re just not tested. And they’re priced much less.
Please don’t ask me to test, untested cows. I’m not an incompetent farmer that doesn’t know what a2/a2 is, I know how to draw blood and send a sample. I’m not inexperienced, I’ve handled dairy cows for 26 years. If I feel she’s worth testing, and have the time to wait, I’ll test her on my own terms.
Cool, I learned something.