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