Includes everything you need to know in order to successfully produce nourishing, healthy, farm-fresh milk! Whether for home use, direct sale to the consumer, or sale to an artisanal cheesemaker, high-quality raw milk is a delicate, desirable product. Successful and sustainable production requires the producer to consider and tackle many details, ranging from animal care to microbiology to good hygienic practices–and, for those with commercial aspirations, business plans, market savvy, and knowledge of the regulations. Applicable to keepers of cows, goats, or sheep, The Small-Scale Dairy offers a holistic approach that explores the relationships between careful, conscientious management and the production of safe, healthy, and delicious milk. A historical overview offers readers a balanced perspective on the current regulatory environment in which raw milk lovers find themselves. Included are options for designing a well-functioning small dairy, choosing equipment, and understanding myriad processes—such as the use of low-temperature pasteurization where raw milk sales are prohibited. Whether you have a one-cow home dairy, a fifty-goat operation, or are simply a curious consumer, The Small-Scale Dairy is an accessible and invaluable resource for achieving your goals. "For both producers and consumers, The Small-Scale Dairy is a must read and a valuable contribution to a growing movement.” —Sally Fallon Morell, president, The Weston A. Price Foundation, and founder, A Campaign for Real Milk Many an urban or suburban dweller has dreamed about producing milk that comes not from a bottle but from one’s own animal, be it cow, goat, or sheep. Launching such an operation may daunt, but, as Caldwell details, it’s far from an impossible challenge given the proper resources, knowledge, and pluck. Even a few animals can produce enough milk daily to bottle one’s own, or process it into salable secondary products such as cheese or yogurt. Selecting, feeding, and sheltering dairy animals are complex processes to get actual milking underway. Local and national governments closely regulate production and distribution of dairy products with an eye to protecting the public from all manner of transmittable diseases. Learning about these regulations and regional variances is critical to commercial viability. With burgeoning interest in locavorism, this book may prove to have a much larger audience than one might anticipate. --Mark Knoblauch "Many an urban or suburban dweller has dreamed about producing milk that comes not from a bottle but from one’s own animal, be it cow, goat, or sheep. Launching such an operation may daunt, but, as Caldwell details, it’s far from an impossible challenge given the proper resources, knowledge, and pluck. Even a few animals can produce enough milk daily to bottle one’s own, or process it into salable secondary products such as cheese or yogurt. Selecting, feeding, and sheltering dairy animals are complex processes to get actual milking underway. Local and national governments closely regulate production and distribution of dairy products with an eye to protecting the public from all manner of transmittable diseases. Learning about these regulations and regional variances is critical to commercial viability. With burgeoning interest in locavorism, this book may prove to have a much larger audience than one might anticipate.”— Booklist "Whether you’re considering opening a small commercial dairy, daydreaming about adding a couple of miniature milking goats to your urban homestead, or just curious about the hoopla over raw milk, Caldwell ( Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking ) has the lowdown. She can’t repress her own lifelong passion for dairy animals and milk—she was raised from birth on raw milk from a neighbor’s cow and kept her own 4H cow before her current ownership of a goat’s milk dairy farm—but her hardheaded, gritty descriptions of the realities of keeping dairy livestock will filter out all aspirants but those most suited to what Caldwell calls a '‘lifestyle business’ rather than a growth or investment business.' She offers comprehensive advice about business plans and licensing; choosing and caring for animals; building and managing a dairy; and maintaining impeccable dairy hygiene. She also profiles a variety of appealing small dairies; but perhaps most fascinating to prospective milkmaids, artisanal cheese eaters, and quotidian milk-drinkers are her chronicles of the checkered history of small dairies and extensive coverage of the biology and chemistry of that precious, astoundingly complex white liquid called milk.”— Publishers Weekly “What a pleasure to read a book about milk production that is at once engaging, nonpolitical, and full of level-headed advice on how to start a small milking operation. I love the practical information on everything from pecking order to water troughs to animal nutrition to finding markets outside the commodity-processing system. I can se