Rare Belted cows do it raw

Posted Thursday, August 17, 2006

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NORTH BRANCH — You have to buy the cow to get this milk for free. This is a tale of two rare breeds: one born with a tail and the other a man making a living giving away milk on Fish Lake Road.

Kevin Hicks is a farmer and breeder of cattle on the critical list of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Dutch Belted are, quite literally, the former stock of kings. Hicks is making his living milking these nearly extinct bovines and giving it away.

The Dutch Belted Cattle Association says the cows genetically are all descended from cattle bred in the Netherlands in the 17th century by the nobility who decided cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits and goats might look better with a broad white stripe around their midsections.

These ‘belted’ animals were kept in royal hands for hundreds of years before the commoners were allowed ownership. Importation of Dutch Belted cows was prohibited by aristocrats in Holland until 1838 when U.S. Cousul of Holland, D.H. Haight, was allowed to bring Dutch Belteds back to his home in Florida with the proviso that the cattle would never be bred or shown. In 1840, P.T. Barnum, the self-proclaimed, “World’s Greatest Showman,” was able to procure a breeding pair and established the cattle in America.

Hicks happened upon the Belteds after a series of unfortunate events. “I stumbled on ‘em,” he said. “In 1992 I lost all my cows in a barn fire. A guy was here doing some work for me with a torch near the big dairy barn we built in 1980.” Hicks was off the farm when the fire started. By the time he came home all was lost.

“I let the dairy farming go for a while there then I started looking for Jerseys or some of the older breeds,” he said. “I found the Dutch Belted. They are just a ‘back to basics’ cow.”

Back to basics on the Hicks farm means certified organic. “I was certified in 1997,” he explained. “I’m registered with the state as an organic farm.” And he sells shares of his cows so his customers can get raw milk. “It’s illegal in Michigan to sell raw milk,” said Hicks. “So I sell a tenth of a cow for $240. That, plus $12.50 a week to board and you get two and half gallons of raw milk a week.”

Milk that is not pasteurized — heated to kill bacteria and prolong shelf life or homogenized to break down butterfat into smaller curds — is considered to be ‘raw.’ This unprocessed or raw milk comes from cows certified organic that graze on fresh grasses.

“Because we feel cows are made for grazing,” said Hicks. His cows also are fed natural foods and do not get hormone injections to produce more milk.

“The Dutch Belted gives a milk that is higher in butter fat, easily digested, almost naturally homogenized milk.” Hicks, his girlfriend, Jenny Samuelson, and his brother, Craig, work 200 acres of farmland and a herd of 70 or so head of milking stock. And then there’s one registered Dutch Belted bull, Andy, one of only 200 registered purebred Dutch Belted bulls.

“They are a curious breed. They’re more social, with more personality. They make more milk and put on more beef with less grazing than Holsteins and with them we are getting by. There’s never enough cash, but it’s stable. It’s slow growth, but we see better growth with the Belted.” Hicks has no other job to sustain his lifestyle. He is a small farmer making a living on 200 acres and that, in 2006, is a rarity.