Frequently Asked Questions

We have a farm stand where you can purchase our fresh dairy products, as well as other local products like beef and eggs.

Our dairy farm is located in Melba, Idaho... a small country town in the southwest corner of Idaho, in the Treasure Valley, approximately 25 miles southwest of Boise, the capital of Idaho. You will find our farm stand just off of Highway 45 on the west side of the road as you head out to Melba from any of the Treasure Valley towns. 

We are getting ready to open our farm stand that will have Whole Fresh Milk, as well as cheese from our cows, espresso made with our milk, ice cream from our cows and a few food items that feature our farm fresh products as well! 

We accept cash, credit/debit cards, and electronic payments.

We are SO EXCITED to open to the public and are getting everything ready as soon as possible. We are busy still running our dairy, homeschooling and farming our ground as well... but our goal is late Spring 2024. 

YES! We love to do farm tours. Our tour season is typcially April through October. Simply email us at info@coppercowcreamery to schedule a dairy tour for your school group, community group or family! 

Once we open, we will be open daily from 6am to 11am and then again from 4pm to 7pm. CLOSED SUNDAYS

We will be selling our milk in glass bottles. Glass keeps the milk colder and fresher longer. In addition, it keeps your cost down as you will not be having to pay for the plastic bottle over and over again. We will have a set price for our glass bottles and if you return them rinsed out and dry, there will be a discount for your next purchase so you will just be paying for the milk. (More similar to a coupon than a deposit). 

Our conventional dairy farm currently milks just over 1,000 cows and believe it or not, this is considered quite a small dairy farm in this part of the United States! 

We milk 100% Jersey cows. They are the golden brown ones with long eyelashes and docile personalities... thus our name "Copper Cow Creamery"! We also have a little bit of love for sweet scottish highlanders and have started breeding them as well! 

Holsteins actually originated in Friesland, Holland. (Fun Fact: this is actually the province that my mom grew up in!) while Jersey cows originated on the Isle of Jersey off the coast of France. Holsteins are about 30% larger, give more milk, eat more and have a very different personality as well as face shape. In addition, Jersey's milk is about 30% creamier. 

Our cows have free feed available to them 24 hours a day and are able to eat at their own leisure. Different types animals are used for different purposes and have a different genetic makeup. Beef cows are used for meat and genetically are bred to have a lot more muscle on their bodies. Dairy cows, much like Olympic athletes are lean because all of their energy goes into having healthy pregnancies and producing healthy milk. They are bred for dairy character over muscle. Similar to a cross country endurance runner, thin but in peak physical condition. Built exactly for the job they are doing. 

Rest assured though, an unhealthy dairy animal will not be able to produce milk because all of the nutrients she consumes first go to her calf, then to her body and finally to her milk production. Dairy farmers would not be able to make a living if they were depriving their cows of any nutrients or food. In fact, each dairy farm has a paid nutritionist that checks on the cows daily to make sure they are fed properly, given proper nutrients and taken care of well, in all physical aspects, not just nutritionally. That's more than I can say for my kids! 

Cows will typically live for about 5-10 years on dairy farms depending on breed, health and lifestyle.

Cows are actually pregnant for 9 months, just like us! We calculate their gestational time frame based on days. Full term is 283 days.

Organic milk comes from an organic dairy farm. Organic dairies have to follow different regulations in order to sell their milk. These rules regulate what feed the cows are allowed to eat, how the crops are farmed and if the farmers are allowed to treat their animals with certain medicines. Milk from organic dairies is delicious and healthy. People are willing to pay more for organic milk because they are told it is healthier.

Conventional milk is milk that comes from a "non-organic" dairy farm. These dairies ALSO have regulations in order to sell their milk. They too, have regular inspections from the state and restrictions on what they are and are not allowed to do. Conventional dairies have less regulation concerning what types of medicines they are allowed to use on their farms but are (like organic dairies) completely restricted from selling any type of milk that has antibiotic residue in it and must either dump that milk or use it on other areas of their farm. Conventional milk is delicious and healthy.

Raw milk is milk that is not heated to the point of being "cooked". It contains healthy gut bacteria that aids in digestion as well as cultures that you can find in yogurt, kefir, sour cream and buttermilk. Raw milk goes bad much faster and can contain harmful bacteria in addition to the good stuff. Raw milk, when fresh and stored properly, is also delicious and healthy!

Yes, and no. It depends on your definition of raw. We actually DO pasteurize our milk and have chosen to do this for many reasons, but in order to understand how we preserve all the good bacteria and keep our milk "uncooked" you need to understand how pasteurization works: 

There are a number of different ways to pasteurize milk and each process depends on the length of time and the temperature milk is heated to. 

Vat pasteurization, the original process, and standard during Louis Pasteur’s time, is called Low Temperature Long Time (LTLT). It heats milk for at least 30 or more minutes to 145° F. This is now largely used to create starter cultures for cheese, yogurt and buttermilk, as well as pasteurize some ice cream mixtures. By using this method, you are not "cooking" the milk and therefore able to preserve a lot of the healthy and good bacteria in milk (as shown by still being able to glean the delicious and good cultures for buttermilk, cheese and yogurt). This is the more rare pasteurization process that we have chosen for our creamery.

The most common process for pasteurized milk in the U.S. (and most widely debated) is High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurization. It raises the temperature of cold raw milk to 161° F for at least 15 seconds. Then, it’s rapidly chilled back to 39° F, its original temperature. This is what most commercial creameries use when they pasteurize milk. It gives milk a slightly different texture and flavor and is only one of 5 of the steps the milk goes through before is it sold to the consumer. (The others are homogenization, standardization, packaging and distribution.) Each step alters the product more. Most of the good bacteria do not survive this method of pasteurization. 

Another form of pasteurization heats milk to 280° F for just two seconds. This is called Ultra-High Temp Pasteurization (UHT) and creates a shelf stable container of milk that does not need to be refrigerated. The flavor and bacteria makeup of this type of milk is by far the most altered (while the nutrient content is not, it is STILL HEALTHY and good for you) and therefore tastes quite a bit different than farm fresh milk. However, It is an excellent source for shipping milk to other countries or overseas military so that folks can still receive the nutrients and high quality value of milk without having to keep the product cold or fresh. 

Whatever process of pasteurization you use, each process works to kill potentially dangerous bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella and listeria, which can cause dangerous food borne illnesses.

I know that this is a controversial subject and I am not writing this to convince or alter anyone's opinion...simply to inform the public on a very confusing topic with lots of misinformation out there. Ultimately, though, whatever type of cow's milk you choose to purchase and consume in your family is going to be great, healthy and packed full of nutrients!  

All milk from mammals comes from females giving birth to their young. This is not able to be done without healthy and natural hormones, therefore all milk contains small amounts of the natural occuring hormone called bovine somatotrophin (BST). 

There was a season when dairy farmers could give their cows more of this hormone to regulate growth and produce more milk, however, since 2017... almost all creameries in the US have refused to purchase or sell milk from cows given this artificially produced hormone, even though when tested, it is identical to the rest of milk and the FDA has deemed it safe to drink.

No. We do not. See the "OUR MILK" page on our website for more detailed information about exactly how our milk gets from farm to you!