History of Idaho Guernsey Raw Milk Dairy
Pleasant Meadow Creamery is a North Idaho Guernsey raw milk dairy, milking cows since 2011. We moved to North Idaho from Colorado in 2004, have been farming in the Dufort Valley since 2006.
We are a family business. Paul, Debra, the adult and young kids all pitch in, day in and day out, to achieve the mission!
Mission
The mission of Pleasant Meadow Creamery is to glorify and honor the God of the bible. We work to be faithful and diligent stewards of His resources in order to produce amazing dairy products for our local community including three counties – Bonner, Kootenai, and Boundary. We continually strive to produce great milk, great cows, healthy organic fields, and well-paying rewarding work for body, soul, and spirit.
There are other raw milk dairies in North Idaho.
None are committed to producing a premium product like we are. None are committed to glass. None are as committed to grass. None are committed to the best-tasting milk.
Only Guernseys produce the best-tasting milk. We are the original Guernsey dairy of North Idaho and now there are several imitators.
Only glass preserves the taste and freshness. Only grass/legume hay and pastures assures you of premium quality for your health and the earth.
We challenge you to side-by-side compare our raw Guernsey Goodness against any milk you can find on an Idaho supermarket shelf, including other raw milks, and we are confident Guernsey Goodness is incomparable in every way.
It is premium for your health, for your family, and for the environment.
Idaho Guernsey Raw Milk
Pleasant Meadow Creamery is an Idaho Guernsey raw milk dairy committed to providing you with wholesome 100% grass-fed, non-GMO based raw Guernsey A2A2 cow milk as God intended milk to be.
Care for the “Ladies”
For Guernsey cows to produce the most wholesome, healthy, and great-tasting milk, their diet is very important.
The cows are out on irrigated pasture, eating fresh grass, clover, and alfalfa for six months every year. They have fresh grass, shade under trees, fresh air, and plenty of fresh water and exercise. These cows live a bucolic life like you would imagine a small family dairy should be. These are not “factory cows” (though we think there is a certain place for large dairies within the greater ecosystem).
When conditions are not ideal to be outside, the girls eat mixed grass and legume hay and haylage, and sleep in a planer shavings-bedded pack bedding barn. They have outdoor access every day, and in fact spend probably half or more of their waking day outside during the winter.
They are not on concrete, and do not sleep in little stalls. Rather, they live a natural cow life on the pack and on the snow, freely milling about with each other.
They do not eat TMR – total mixed ration. Instead, they eat whole stem hay and haylage (a fermented hay that is baled soon after cutting and is almost like feeding fresh grass in the winter). We don’t put additives in their grasses. They get an OMRI approved certified organic mineral mix to keep them balanced and healthy.
During milking, we feed the girls certified organic grain. It contains lentils, peas, barley and wheat from Eastern Montana. We feed OMRI listed free choice salt from Redmond Agriculture. This salt is mined in Utah and provides important trace minerals that may be lacking in the local grasses/soils and helps the ladies keep up with all the nutrients going out into the healthy Guernsey Goodness they produce.
All of this – the best food, air, water, exercise, and rest – helps the girls keep up with their energy and physical needs while producing high cream, high quality Guernsey Goodness.
We do not feed corn or soy.
Our goal for each cow is that they live long and productive lives. We don’t push production, and we don’t push having calves. We let each one’s individual bodies dictate what they give us and we make the best of each. This is called good stewardship of what has been entrusted to us.
How we care for the farm
The farm has a creek running through it and has two high output wells that bring very pure water from 300 feet deep in a gravel layer beneath us. These wells are used to water the stock and to keep the pastures green throughout the summer. This way, the cows are always eating the best, while we have the opportunity to really make a lush cover of the ground to out-compete weeds, build up soil organic matter, and even provide a home for a plethora of worms!
We do not use synthetic fertilizers, and we definitely do not use synthetic herbicides. Additions to fields include gypsum, lime, elemental sulfur, and manure.
We compost all manure on the farm for a season, after the winter pack is done, and we spread this compost on the pastures and hay fields every late fall just before snow flies. We work to continuously increase topsoil and make this land far healthier through the years than how it was when we began our stewardship of it.
We use chickens, ducks, and wild turkeys to sanitize the pastures after the cows graze them.
Bees are allowed to flourish, and pesky pests are controlled by swallows we encourage to live here by putting swallow houses in the eaves of every building.
Your local Guernsey dairy
We are a local dairy – selling at retail stores in Bonners Ferry, Ponderay, Sandpoint, Oldtown, Athol, Rathdrum, Hayden, Post Falls, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
We appreciate your support of our efforts.
Guernseys Make the Best Milk Ever
Did you know that Guernseys have always been preferred for taste and quality of their milk? Guernseys are making a resurgence, especially in direct marketing dairies and specialty dairy products.
Please check out our Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/paulherndoncpa
Jake
Hi! We are new to the area and would like to try your raw milk. Do you sell it from the farm itself or only at the retail groceries listed? If the farm has a stand, what are the hours?
Thanks!
Paul Herndon
Jake, we sell only thru the retail stores listed on our website. There is no farm stand at the farm.
Susan
Do you sell real cream? What stores in in Hayden, Coeurdalene and Post Falls carry it?
Paul Herndon
We do sell cream Susan. Currently we are on a temporary hiatus while we wait for some cows to calve though. When we do have it, Pilgrim’s Market in CDA is your best bet for finding it. Athol Super 1 and Rathdrum Super 1 are sometimes delivered cream as well, but we’re not as consistent in those stores.
Meggan
Hi! Are you back to selling cream and is Pilgrims still the best place to get it? We want to make butter with your amazing product!
Paul Herndon
We deliver cream to the following stores on the following days:
Monday afternoon:
Pilgrim’s Market in Coeur d’ Alene
Yoke’s Fresh Market in Post Falls
Saturday afternoon:
Super 1 in Oldtown
Winter Ridge Foods
Super 1 in Sandpoint
Winter Ridge and Pilgrim’s both get the higher quantities versus the other 3 stores.
Chris Anderson
Pleasant Meadow milk is absolutely the very best A2A2 raw milk you can buy! Delicious creamed topped milk that never disappoints.
Chris
Pleasant Meadow milk is absolutely the very best A2A2 raw milk you can buy! Delicious creamed topped milk that never disappoints.
James Howell
Does your organic feed contain soy or corn?
Paul Herndon
Soy and corn free certified organic dairy grain from Big Sky Organics in Fort Benton, MT. Primary ingredients are wheat, barley, peas, alfalfa pellets, that sort of thing.
Naomi
Hello.
I just found this Q&A page today.
Thank you for selling cream. We are interested in purchasing when the cows are done calving.
We have looked far and wide for people who sell the cream.
We were interested in the cream from your cows but hadn’t seen it at any of the above stores for awhile. It is good to now know the reason why. (Thank you to the person who asked!)
We are thankful for your cows and all the work you do.
Betty Stitzel
I am needing to purchase an A2A2 Guernsey cow! Thank you
Paul Herndon
We recommend you contact Debra Lakey at the Wisconsin Guernsey Breeders Association. A Google search will help you get her contact information.
Bettu Stitzel
I am looking to purchase an A2A2 Guernsey heifer. I live in Elko, NV and am able to travel to pickup.
Thank you.
Paul Herndon
Your best bet would be to contact Debra Lakey of the Wisconsin Guernsey Breeders Association. She can easily be found via Google search.
Jennifer Carmouche
Greetings,
Do you allow visits to your farm?
Paul Herndon
Hello Jennifer. We do not currently do farm tours because it would require a dedicated employee and we don’t have anyone available at the moment. We are considering some type of organized group tours in May, possibly starting next year.
Jackie
I live in Bozeman, can you ship frozen milk?
Paul Herndon
Raw milk cannot be shipped across state lines. You could buy it in Idaho and take it back to Montana with you.
Hunter
I will be in Sandpoint on October 4th. I seen some comments about being on a hiatus, could I expect to find milk in one the stores there listed on your website at that time?
Paul Herndon
We are definitely on no hiatus. The only thing that is not being bottled and sold currently is cream. Cream will resume in late October. Otherwise, we are at full production and are well-stocking the stores.
Nikki S
We just bought a half gallon jar at Super one in Atholn we currently drink/use raw milk, but it is not A2/A2. I’ve always wondered the taste difference. There’s definitely a difference. I actually could now drink a glass of milk. Also, so awesome to see raw milk sold in stores. We are from ND & we just got it passed to be able to sell raw milk at places like farmers markets, in person etc…. without needing cow shares. Refreshing to see Idaho having more freedom.
Nikki S
We just bought a half gallon jar at Super one in Athol, we currently drink/use raw milk, but it is not A2/A2. I’ve always wondered the taste difference. There’s definitely a difference. I actually could now drink a glass of milk. Also, so awesome to see raw milk sold in stores. We are from ND & we just got it passed to be able to sell raw milk at places like farmers markets, in person etc…. without needing cow shares. Refreshing to see Idaho having more freedom.
Paul Herndon
Thank you for the comment, and we agree – it is good to see raw milk in stores and it SHOULD be there. Hopefully you will one day enjoy that in ND!
Gail Davis
Do you ever make Raw Kefir?
Paul Herndon
We do not.
Randy Ulrich
Wow! From a Californian who used to sell raw milk in my Health Food Store. Looooong Ago!
I always thought it was the Feds who stopped it. I’m guessing the CA dairy folks lobbied the CA crooked politicians to stop it. Imagine that! Thank you for what you do and for your dedication to Christ JESUS! ❤️
Paul Herndon
The King of kings and Lord of lords!
Valerie Schumacher
What stores near to Spokane are you in?
Paul Herndon
Yoke’s in Post Falls and Super 1 in Post Falls are the closest stores to Spokane.
Shannon
Hi there! Do you have heavy cream available? I own an organic caramel business in Post Falls and am looking to source my cream locally.
Paul Herndon
We do not produce cream for the wholesale market. This summer, we will regularly have cream for retail in the grocery stores.
Brant
looking to purchase a guernsey cow, or heifer. anyone know where I can get one?
Paul Herndon
We do not have any for sale. You would need to contact Guernsey breeders or look at national auctions. American Guernsey Association can maybe point you in the right direction.
Diane
Are there “checks” or “tests” done to pasteurized milk to make it “safer” then raw milk? Are there downsides to raw milk in that way?
Paul Herndon
Once milk goes to a processor and gets pasteurized, there are generally no further tests done with it. There may be multiple tests done to it before pasteurization, including standard plate count and coliform count, the same tests we perform on raw milk before it is bottled and sold.
Mandy
Do you guys sell bottle calves? Very interested in purchasing some
Paul Herndon
We do sell bottle bull calves when we have them.
Robert Hahn
Hello we are blue dreams guernseys. Highland, wis. Sold our a2 milk cows last year. Have 12 a2 guernsey heifers that we will breed then sell as springers. Phone 608 566 3368
Thomas Yellich
I wanted to know if you sell manure to the public?
Paul Herndon
We do not. It all goes onto our acres and acres of hay fields.
Wayne Newman
Do you sell outside the state of Idaho? Watching the you tube show “the rancher and the wife “. He mentioned your raw milk
Paul Herndon
He lives right down the road from us. We are not able to, by FDA rule, transport unpasteurized milk across state lines for sale. If a person buys it in Idaho, the buyer can take it across state lines.
Stephanie
Hello, my family and I love your product! I just have a quick question regarding all the media attention surrounding the bird flu being in cattle in Idaho. It’s being said the pathogen can be transmitted to humans through raw unpasteurized milk.
My question is are you testing the ladies to make sure they’re healthy and not carrying the pathogen?
Paul Herndon
The symptoms of this disease when passed to cattle are obvious and are the following:
Sudden loss of appetite
Decreased production
Thick colostrum-like milk
Tacky or loose feces
Fever
We have protocols in place all the time to monitor for disease in cattle, looking for symptoms such as these, which also can be symptoms of pneumonia or mastitis, and if any cow were to present with symptoms that affect milk, her milk bypasses the pipeline that goes to the cooling tank and ends up scrapped. Therefore, we are confident no milk containing any pathogens makes it into the food supply for people.
Besides all that, so far, aside from the original outbreaks in the southwest, the known cases are from cattle being transported from infected herds. Currently, we have a closed herd and practice biosecurity in regards to vehicular traffic.
William
Hello, do you ever sell any of your heifer calves?
Thank you!
Paul Herndon
We do not currently sell any cows or heifers.
John Herschel
Is your raw milk safe to make clabber with? …essentially leaving it out at room temperature to create a healthy cultured milk.
Paul Herndon
What would make it unsafe?
Jessica Wilkie
Hello,
Any chance you have any bottle calf bull calves available? Or in the future 🙂
Thanks
Paul Herndon
Every bull calf born here gets sold within 1 week to any willing buyer.
Kristina
Do you recycle the glass bottles or refill them?
Paul Herndon
Glass bottles get returned to stores. We pick them up there, wash, and reuse.
Dan
Where do I take my empty glass bottle at yokes
Paul Herndon
Return to any store that sells our product.
MARK KALLSTROM
Wow , you guys are doing ”dairy right ” . We were a several generation dairy farm family , having milked cows in Mt Vernon , Port Orchard & Ephrata , Washington . We know if you take care of your cows they will take care of you ! What a great job your doing , your cows will last a long time , praise Yeshua give glory to Adonai . Mark Kallstrom with Kallstrom Sweet Corn here in Ephrata , Washington