Many of the decisions you’ll make about your raw milk operation involve facilities and equipment:

How and where the animals are housed.

How and where the animals are milked.

How the milk gets from the animals to the bottling/packaging facility.

How and where the milk gets packaged.

How and where the milk gets stored.

In a raw milk operation, these decisions are particularly important because you must take special care to reduce and prevent contamination. Separation and sanitation are two of the most important considerations when choosing facilities and equipment.

A raw milk operation needs facilities for both production and processing. Although a raw milk processing plant is located on the same site as the dairy farm, milk production and processing (bottling) activities should remain separate to reduce potential contamination.

For example, milking production equipment should not be stored or cleaned in the milk processing plant. Milk processing rooms designed as processing plants may have a milk tank installed. All other traditional milk house activities should be done separately (i.e., equipment cleaning). Also, it is highly recommended that the milk house is not used for storing or selling the bottled milk, in order to reduce foot traffic in the milk house and thus reduce potential contamination.

All farms vary in layout and design, but by building clear separation into the design of your facilities from the start, you can make it easier to prevent contamination.