Mixed Livestock Farm
Welcome to the Farm
Cattle
Cattle: Guernsey, Cattle: Holstein, Cattle: Jersey
Bulk & Shares
Herd Share, Subscription
Online & Ordering
Online Ordering
Prior to getting milk we will need to have a signed contractfrom each person or family. Please review the “Cow Bill of Sale.” Send your completed Cow Bill of Sale to us at P. O. Box 208, Byers, CO 80103 (this is also the best address for payments). After we receive your contract, we can get you set up in Farmigo, our online ordering and share tracking system, and you can begin receiving milk. Each cow share you purchase entitles you to a gallon of milk per week. We do offer half shares as well, since the milk comes in half gallon jars. One full share is $50. A half-share is $25. This is a one-time fee. It is refundable, transferable, and sellable; and we try diligently to return this fee to anyone who decides to discontinue their share. There is also a second one-time fee of $10 per share, to cover the cost for glass jars. This fee is not refundable. Board and delivery fees are billed weekly when products are delivered. These fees total $11.95 per half gallon jar of milk. There are no other fees for board and delivery (a jar of milk). We also allow “vacation holds” so that you do not pay for milk you do not receive. This actually generally makes our milk more affordable for many folks when compared to farms that charge monthly boarding fees since you do not pay when you do not receive a delivery. These fees will deduct weekly from your Farmigo account balance. When you sign up in Farmigo, you will be asked to pay $40, $100, $250, or $500 into your account. You can actually send any amount, but you must choose one of these to sign up. Here is an example: If you are buying one share (one gallon per week), you owe $50 for the share, $10 for jars, and you decide to put $100 on your prepaid Farmigo account for product to deduct from. So, you would send $160 to the farm. Currently we accept checks via snail-mail, made payable to Ebert Farms. Mail payments to P. O. Box 208, Byers, CO 80103. Many shareholders have sent auto payments through their bank and this is fine. Electronic checks can also be set up through Farmigo for both one time and auto replenish account payments. We send out reminders as needed when the balance in your Farmigo account reaches zero. As with share fees, we will refund any prepaid account balance if you discontinue getting milk. After the initial sign-up you will be able to log into the online store to order additional one-time items. The store is open from 2 a.m. the morning after your delivery until 2 p.m. the afternoon before your delivery. Anytime the store is open, you can login to Farmigo to see your account history, view your prepaid account balance, and add vacation holds. Products are billed to your account during the night after they are delivered. If your account is on hold, nothing will be sent and you will not be charged for anything. Changes to your standing order “subscription” must be made by the farm. You should notify us of changes via an e-mail. We will reply to confirm that we have made the changes. We can also set up every-other-week subscriptions.
Our cows are milked once per day in a closed milk system. The milk is stored in a 400 gallon, cooling bulk tank. The milk is bottled unpasteurized and unhomogenized, thus raw. Once bottled in glass jars, the milk is stored in large coolers in a walk in cooler. The large coolers are loaded into a delivery van twice per week and transported to various distribution points. Our herd is about 85 percent Jersey cows. We run a Jersey bull with the cows for breeding. A few of our cows have a bit of Holstein or Guernsey mixed in. We are currently, and plan to maintain a closed herd, meaning we do not plan to introduce cows form outside the herd, but rather raise heifers to replace other cows. The only exception is changing the breeding bull as needed. We are running an A2/A2 bull and have been actively culling out the cows that have the A1 gene. Getting to a 100% A2/A2 herd takes some time as we have about 55 total milk cows. Our milk is currently at 97% A2. The Eberts do not allow the use of any hormones on the cows and the cows at Ebert Farms are not vaccinated. The Eberts very rarely use antibiotics to treat cows with serious mastitis or health issues. Milk is always withheld from customer consumption after a cow is treated with antibiotics. Jars used for bottling milk are sanitized in a commercial dishwasher with food-grade hydrogen peroxide instead of traditional chlorinated products. While the dairy is not Certified Organic, the farm ground is. The cows graze all year round on about 640 acres of native grass pasture. The grass would definitely meet organic standards. To entertain the cows during milking, a feed ration is ground at the farm. It contains 85% certified organic alfalfa, 7% palm oil, 5% molasses, and 3% mineral. This ration makes up a small percentage of the gals diet. The rest of their feed comes from native grass pasture which is grazed in both the summer and when possible, the winter. During the winter months, we supplement with certified organic alfalfa that is purchased from neighboring farms. The cows are not fed any grain, ever. Milk Testing The Eberts are performing monthly tests on milk collected from the bulk tank. The have adopted the following standards: Standard Plate Count less than 15,000/ml Coliforms less than 50/ml Camphylobacter – zero The herd will be tuberculosis tested every three years. Any new cow entering the herd will be tested for tuberculosis, brucellosis and Johnes.
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Beef
Dairy
General Practices
Pork
Poultry & Eggs
Self-reported practices. This farm has provided information about their practices, but they have not yet been independently verified by Bhumi.
Practices