The U.S.Public Health Officials were here today, along with our milk inspectors, to do an inspection of the milk house and barn. This inspection rates the Co-op that we ship our milk to, so it's important that we do well.
This afternoon as I pulled in the lower driveway after a trip to the grocery store, another vehicle pulled in the upper driveway at the same time. When I saw our inspectors hop out, I went into the house and watched from the kitchen. (We're supposed to stay out of their hair when they come around)
The view from my window, minus the inspectors...
First, they went into the milk house. They're concerned mostly about milk surfaces...that they are spotless...inside the tank, inside the milkers, inside the pipeline, but everything matters, really. Then they walked through the cow stable, looking for general cleanliness. They stopped at the medicine cabinet which I could see from where I was standing. They look to see that antibiotics and/or other drugs are properly labeled, and are stored correctly for either lactating or non-lactating cattle. Then they disappeared into the milk house again for a little while before they pulled out the driveway.
The waiting began. I got a subtle "thumbs up" from our milk inspector as he walked around to hop in the truck, so I felt pretty confident that we did ok. About an hour later, the phone rang.
100% ! I wasn't expecting that, but we'll take it!!
Such a good feeling!
