Western Courier

Issue date: 4/21/04 Section: News

Media Credit: Randl Besse

Everyone needs three servings of dairy each day according to the Got Milk? Web site at www.Got-Milk.com. The site also states a big squeeze can break people's bones if they are weak‚ but dairy is a good source of calcium and helps prevent weak bones. Juice drinks and soda contain no calcium, according to the site.

"Cows provide 90 percent of the world's milk supply‚" the Web site states.

To keep that supply going‚ Tony Huls helps by owning a dairy farm. But it is not just any dairy farm - it's organic.

Huls' farm, located between Carthage and Macomb, is Illinois' third organic dairy farm. He said organic farms do not use pesticides‚ chemicals or hormones and that the farm's cattle are not confined.

Huls said he grew up on a dairy farm‚ but he did not want to use chemicals‚ so he bought the organic dairy farm in 2000.

Huls said many things differ between organic dairy farms and conventional dairy farms.

"(The milk) tastes like it used to‚" Huls said. The milk is not homogenized so the consumers see the cream on the top of the milk‚ which they can take off. According to Huls‚ this is because the milk is only pasteurized.

Got Milk? states homogenization is the process where butterfat particles in milk are broken down‚ making the milk creamy. Pasteurization is the process of heating liquids to high temperatures to kill bacteria.

Huls said milk from an organic dairy farm has a longer shelf life, is fresher than ordinary milk, and has less rBGH, a possible cancer-causing agent.

He also said the milk is 30 to 40 percent more expensive than ordinary milk‚ but that the health benefits are "110 percent better."

Even though cows on organic dairy farms produce less milk than other cows‚ organic dairy farmers still make a profit - less money is invested in a cow for it to produce milk‚ according to Huls.

Huls said he now takes his milk to a conventional processing plant because Illinois does not have an organic milk processor.

However‚ Huls said he hopes one day to be a milk processor‚ with his own on-farm processing plant. These would both be state firsts.

Huls also said he wants to put a store on the farm. Huls can do this with his certification by the United States Department of Agriculture; the certification process takes about three years.

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