As we enter the month of September we have six of our dairy cows dried off (not milking) so as to regain body condition for calving. Combining that issue with the unusually hot and dry weather at and once-a-day milking our raw milk production is at a multi-year low point.
After accounting for milk going to our longtime herdshare members and Farm VIP Loyalty Member milk allocations, lately we have had only a few gallons to sell every morning online. And with dozens or possibly up to 100 customers frantically trying to purchase those few gallons, we are left with a lot of unhappy people on our website every morning coming away with no milk.
Online Milk Sales Temporarily Suspended Beginning Tuesday, September 5th
To address this challenge we have decided to temporarily suspend online milk sales until our production improves to the point where we have a fair amount to offer online. That may be in a few weeks after we have some new calves and therefore new mama cows joining the milking rotation. Or it may be late October. Either way we will send out a note to our newsletter subscribers announcing the availability of online milk sales again.
We know this leaves many raw milk customers without any supply. Unfortunately our neighbors in Wisconsin have also dried off a number of their cows in preparation for calving and they do not anticipate having any extra milk for another 6-8 weeks.
A couple of other producers in Northern Illinois that also have a raw milk permit:
Precious Pastures - west of Chicago near Rochelle - (815) 762-6867
Kilgus Dairy, LLC - south of Chicago near Kankakee - (815) 692-6080
Visit this page of the IDPH website for a full list of all eleven Illinois raw milk permit holders. Many on the list only offer goat milk. There are of course a number of small farms in Illinois selling raw milk that do not have a permit, many of these can be found on the realmilk.com website.
For those enrolled in our Loyalty Program and achieving the Farm VIP Level ($5,000 in annual purchases, or averaging $100/week since joining the program), we will continue to honor requests for raw milk reservations received via email sent to info@allgrassfarms.com. Please give us a few days advance notice of when you would like to reserve milk so we can get you on the schedule, and if you are flexible on your pickup days even better.
We are hoping to get our milk production up to a point where we can open up online sales again in the near future.
Graze On,
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team