Song Haven Farm — South Nashville’s Raw Milk Source!
Song Haven Farm is located at 6035 Pasquo Rd, in Southwest Nashville – about 2 minutes from the Loveless Cafe. It’s operated by Cathy & Jack Williams. Their family cow, Snooki is a gorgeous red-headed 75% Jersey/25% Holstein cow who produces many gallons of creamy milk every day. As they are unable to drink all of the milk she produces (even after sharing it with her calf!) Song Haven Farms is now offering you the opportunity to buy a share in Snooki, so that you can get your own share of her yummy raw milk.
She has access to free choice minerals and to as much clean water as she wants to drink. She gets a certain amount of grain each day now that we are milking, in order to keep her in good shape, but her diet consists primarily of good quality mixed grass hay that she uses to produce her creamy milk.
The idea is to feed as little grain as possible to maintain a higher proportion of healthier unsaturated fatty acids in the milk and to reduce the likelihood of acidosis. However, as a high producing Jersey/Holstein cross, Snooki needs some grain to maintain condition while milking.
Snooki is milked using a Nupulse bucket milker system that helps prevent hair and dirt from getting into the milk. Before milking, Snooki’s teats are cleaned using antibacterial teat wipes and pre-dipped with an iodine-based teat dip. After separately drying each teat, a small amount of milk is stripped from each quarter before placing on the inflations.
After milking, each teat is treated with “Fight-bac” to prevent mastitis. The milk in the enclosed bucket is taken directly into the house where it is filtered into sanitized glass jars and cooled immediately in the refrigerator. The milk bucket is cleaned and sanitized immediately after each milking.
Snooki has tested negative for Johnes and BLV. She is a local cow and Tennessee is a Brucellosis and TB free state. Song Haven Farm uses Arbico Organics fly predators to reduce manure flies and an organic spray mixture of essential oils that include citronella, clove, cedar and tea tree oil for fly control. Song Haven Farm also periodically submits raw milk samples for microbial analysis, to ensure that their sanitation practices are effective.
By buying a share in Snooki, you will know exactly where your milk is coming from and that the cow producing it is living a happy, artificial hormone/antibiotic-free* life.
* If Snooki were to become sick and required antibiotic treatment from a veterinarian, it would be administered and the relevant withholding time for milk observed: you would be informed if this were the case (as milk shares would have to be temporarily suspended).
How does the cow share program work?
You start out by buying a one-time $50 non-refundable “share” in Snooki and become a part-owner of the cow. Then, you pay a boarding rate of $30 a month per share for every month that she is producing milk and for each share that you own you get a gallon of milk per week. If you want more than one gallon of milk per week, you buy more shares and pay a higher boarding rate accordingly.
They provide glass mason jars with plastic lids to transport/store your milk. They will provide you with five half gallon jars per share (i.e. enough for two per week and one spare in case you haven’t finished one of your jars at the end of the week).
The cost for five half gallon jars is $16. It is your responsibility to rinse out the milk containers and return them after use. Cathy will clean and sanitize them prior to refilling.
You will arrange a day of the week to pick up your milk from the farm on Pasquo Road. There is a refrigerator on the carport (from which you can also buy fresh free range eggs!). Your milk will be labeled with your name and the date on which it was collected. Note: most of the time, you will get milk from the previous day, but there may be exceptions.
You are welcome to visit the farm and the animals, but we do ask that you call ahead to make sure that the time is convenient. Cathy works full time off-farm, Monday through Friday, so she’s not always available.
Who am I buying my cow shares from?
Cathy has a PhD in Oceanography and has taught/researched marine science, worked in a private environmental laboratory, for the State of Tennessee Department of Agriculture, managed the Franklin Farmers Market for a year and is currently Chief Scientist and Compliance Officer for a small pharmaceutical company in Brentwood.
Any other questions?
Drop her a line – she can answer questions by e-mail, chat on the phone, or arrange to meet either in town or at the farm.
Cathy Williams
e-mail: callen022471@yahoo.com
cell: 615 972 4106
About Shawn Day
A health consultant, speaker, and copywriter, Shawn Day is also the president of Tennesseans For Raw Milk and the Nashville/Brentwood/Franklin Chapter Leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation. She is a consultant and nationwide influencer for people on health and wellness issues and has been in the industry for more than 20 years.
