{"id":31523,"date":"2017-09-22T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=31523"},"modified":"2017-09-21T13:45:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T17:45:38","slug":"dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a perfect world, meadows would be green, days would be sunny, and cows would always have something fresh to eat. But life is tough. It rains, it snows, and in much of the United States, fields lie dormant in winter. The challenge of the dairy farmer has long been a challenge of weather: how to harvest hay when it\u2019s just abundant enough, nutritious enough, and dry enough not to transform into a pile of moldy, unappetizing mush.<\/p>\n

In the late 19th century, farmers welcomed a new trend that promised to help. Though touted as modern, the system\u2014called \u201censiling\u201d\u2014was based on an ancient practice: fermentation. Here\u2019s how it works: High-moisture hay or grain is placed in an oxygen-free environment. Over several weeks, naturally present lactic acid bacteria consume sugars, creating enough acidity to preserve the forage for years if unopened. Think of it as a kind of sauerkraut made from hay\u2014nutritious, delicious, and probiotic. It caught on\u2014in rainy regions of Europe and the US (like New England), fermented feed, or \u201csilage,\u201d is now the norm for dairy cows.<\/p>\n

But on an unassuming back road in rural Craftsbury, Vt., something very different is happening. Dave Thomas, manager of the Randi Albert Calderwood Cropping Center, flips a switch. A humming noise begins, which quickly turns into a roar\u2014like a spaceship about to launch. He\u2019s just fired up a super-powerful furnace that propels 104-degree air into an adjacent room with 50 moist hay bales. The hot air circulates in and out over several hours until the bales\u2019 moisture level drops substantially\u2014from as much as 60 to under 12 percent. When Jasper Hill Farm built this contraption in 2015, it was the most modern hay drying facility in the US\u2014a staggering feat for an artisanal cheesemaker. So what motivated the massive investment, given that silage is such a nutritious and convenient option?<\/p>\n

When made with milk from silage-fed cows, certain cheese varieties are susceptible to damage from mischievous microbes.<\/h3>\n

Take Alpine styles, like Jasper Hill\u2019s Alpha Tolman<\/a>: Normally the wheels are tawny and smooth, with a dense, evenly textured paste. But picture them punctuated with horizontal cracks\u2014\u201clike somebody blew bubbles inside them,\u201d says sales and marketing manager Zoe Brickley. That defect is caused by bacteria in the Clostridium genus. Found naturally in the soil, the microbes get swept up in hay during harvesting. Anaerobic silage provides an environment in which they thrive, and their spores can travel into cows\u2019 milk. In firm, aged cheeses like Alpha Tolman, the bacteria begin noshing happily on carbohydrates, metabolizing them into rancid-tasting butyric acid and inflating carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

That \u201clate blowing\u201d defect is one reason that name-protection regulations for many European cheeses\u2014including Parmigiano Reggiano\u2014prohibit the use of fermented feed. To satisfy the demand for dry feed among Reggiano producers, German company AgriCompact Technologies has been building hay dryers in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy for decades\u2014but the Jasper Hill facility was the first the company built in the United States. According to Sabine Zastrow, AgriCompact\u2019s managing director, dryers make the most sense \u201cwhere there\u2019s a real challenge in weather conditions.\u201d By protecting the forage not just from rain, but also from the bleaching power of the sun, \u201cwe are able to preserve the color and aroma of the hay,\u201d she says. For that reason, \u201cwhere there are cheesemakers, there should be hay dryers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"alpha<\/a>

Alpha Tolman from Jasper Hill Farm.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s not just Alpha Tolman that matters to Jasper Hill. The farm is using milk from its dry hay\u2013fed cows to make all its unpasteurized cheeses, from Bayley Hazen Blue<\/a> to Winnimere<\/a>, and for good reason: Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterial culprit, also found in soil, usually can\u2019t survive in highly acidic, anaerobic environments\u2014but if a little bit of oxygen is present, it does just fine. In silage, accidental holes in plastic wrapping or poor compacting of hay bales can increase the likelihood of slow but steady listeria contamination. No cheesemaker wants this pathogen getting into their milk, as it can cause sickness and even death in humans.<\/p>\n

Many makers deal with this type of pathogenic threat by pasteurizing milk\u2014a quick way to eliminate \u201cbad\u201d microbes\u2014but the process also wipes out the complex ecosystem of microflora unique to the milk. Instead, Jasper Hill has adopted a more comprehensive strategy: preventing unwanted microbes from entering the milk in the first place.<\/p>\n

After teaming up with microbiologists, the farm began screening the microbial content of its milk in 2011\u2014not only the sheer bacterial count, as many makers do, but the actual proportions of beneficial, spoilage, and pathogenic bacteria. \u201cYou could have less than 1,000 total bacteria (in your milk),\u201d says Jasper Hill co-owner Mateo Kehler, \u201cbut if 900 of them are listeria, well, that\u2019s not good.\u201d Years of study\u2014plus building an on-site lab in 2014\u2014have allowed the team to link shifts in microbial populations to different practices at the farmstead. One conclusion? Dry feed, Kehler says, has helped the farm eliminate listeria completely from its milk supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe microbial ecology of raw milk is the sum of the practices on a farm,\u201d says Kehler. \u201cHow you feed animals, how they\u2019re bedded, the milking protocols, how you clean your equipment\u2026the actual design.\u201d And so that massive dryer set in Vermont\u2019s backwoods is just one small part of a broader philosophy, he says: \u201cOur commitment to raw-milk cheese and the practices required to produce delicious, safe product.\u201d<\/h3>\n
Featured Image: Bob Montgomery Images\/Jasper Hill Farm<\/i><\/strong><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drying hay helps Jasper Hill Farm shape the microbiology of its cheese. Dry hay has helped it eliminate listeria completely from the milk supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1330,1325,1327,1104,1329,1326,1328],"coauthors":[290],"class_list":["post-31523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-iq","tag-alpha-tolman","tag-dry-hay","tag-hay-fed-cows","tag-jasper-hill-farm","tag-microbial-ecology","tag-raw-milk-cheese","tag-soil-microbes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDoes Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese? - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Drying hay helps Jasper Hill Farm shape the microbiology of its cheese. Dry hay has helped it eliminate listeria completely from the milk supply.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-22T14:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Molly McDonough\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Molly McDonough\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/\",\"name\":\"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese? - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-22T14:00:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/9fedbbc18a92d5789240f28dbb7e16d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"dry hay\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cheese IQ\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-iq\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/9fedbbc18a92d5789240f28dbb7e16d0\",\"name\":\"Molly McDonough\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b7c03bea2790b14885b23e4d503c3eb1\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/photo-6-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/photo-6-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Molly McDonough\"},\"description\":\"Former Senior Editor Molly McDonough worked for cheesemakers in Switzerland and the US before earning a Master's degree in Agriculture and Food Science at the Ecole Sup\u00e9rieure d'Agriculture in Angers, France. After spending a year in Romania working on rural development projects with Heifer International, she returned home to Boston and joined the culture team in 2015.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/molly-mcdonough\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese? - culture: the word on cheese","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese?","og_description":"Drying hay helps Jasper Hill Farm shape the microbiology of its cheese. Dry hay has helped it eliminate listeria completely from the milk supply.","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2017-09-22T14:00:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Molly McDonough","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Molly McDonough","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/","name":"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese? - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-22T14:00:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/9fedbbc18a92d5789240f28dbb7e16d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/HayDryer-20160706-0036.jpg","width":750,"height":368,"caption":"dry hay"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/dry-hay-mean-safer-raw-milk-cheese\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cheese IQ","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-iq\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Does Dry Hay Mean Safer Raw-Milk Cheese?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/9fedbbc18a92d5789240f28dbb7e16d0","name":"Molly McDonough","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/b7c03bea2790b14885b23e4d503c3eb1","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/photo-6-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/photo-6-96x96.jpg","caption":"Molly McDonough"},"description":"Former Senior Editor Molly McDonough worked for cheesemakers in Switzerland and the US before earning a Master's degree in Agriculture and Food Science at the Ecole Sup\u00e9rieure d'Agriculture in Angers, France. After spending a year in Romania working on rural development projects with Heifer International, she returned home to Boston and joined the culture team in 2015.","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/molly-mcdonough\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31523"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=31523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}