I read an article about a book called "Devil in the Milk," and what it described is that there are proteins in cow's milk that have long strings of amino acids in them, 209 to be exact. In A1 cows number 67 is something called a histidine instead of a proline. This mutation creates a very complex problem which may lead to some people having difficulties digesting the milk. It also interferes with the immune system and research has shown a correlation between A1 milk and serious health concerns. Obviously, we want to ensure that our cows are A2. Being that they are Jersey cows, the odds say that they are A2, but we're going to confirm this by testing.
Getting the cows together for testing |
Picking some tail hairs from the switch that are clean |
Now they need about 20 tail hairs for the test and the tail hairs must contain the roots. So what you do is grab about 5 tail hairs, wrap your fingers around them about an inch from the bottom, and yank quickly. This seems like it would hurt but the cows didn't flinch at all. Repeat until you have 20 tail hairs that have the roots attached.
Pulling the tail hair |
We downloaded and printed a form that was emailed to us and there were some very specific instructions on how to pull the samples and attach them to the form.
Taping the tail hairs to the form |
We tested Daisy, Rosie, Maggie, Lili, Amy and Bully for A1 A2. The instructions were specific in having you wash your hands between taking samples of different animals and sealing each sample in an envelope to avoid cross-contamination.
Ready to seal and send off |
The American Jersey Association will run the tests and send us back results in 10 days to 2 weeks. We're hoping for A2/A2 results, but if not, it is not the end of the world. Research is not conclusive (yet) that every person is affected by the mutated gene. And our raw, non-homogenized milk from grass-fed cows, with no hormones or antibiotics added, is certainly better than store-bought milk, regardless!
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Thanks for reading Jhon mac! It is so interesting to learn about this stuff...
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