White Star Farm Miniature Jerseys
Cleveland, Georgia 

Every single cow or bull we own is tested by milk or blood yearly for major cattle diseases, no exceptions. Calves born to our stock are not tested until they mature to one year of age or freshen with their first calf...then they are also tested even though they come from negative tested parents. We maintain a file of these results.   We want to do our best to raise truly healthy, disease negative, well adjusted cattle companions to others who seek what we do in our food...clean and healthy. 

        If cattle are infected with zoonotic diseases
                 (or possible zoonotic diseases), 

      BUT they are a2/a2 beta casein, what            have you accomplished for your health? 

        By disease "tested and negative", I               mean...do you know if the cow(s) you are      drinking or eating from has one or more of                      the following diseases?

  Regular or annual testing of cattle is the                    ONLY way to be sure!

PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY AND ASK FOR TESTING OR A      COPY OF THE             RECENT RESULTS FROM ANYONE YOU 
BUY CATTLE FROM!!            (including us!)               

1) Johne's Disease. (Pronounced Yoh-Nees)
  Investigate this and educate yourself of exactly what this disease is and what it does to the body of a bovine (and now found in certain humans). Basically, it atrophies the small intestines of the cattle, till they literally starve to death (and does the same in  humans). They eat everything in sight, but cannot absorb the nutrition from their diet...they get thinner and thinner till death occurs. Science has now proven that it is zoonotic and can infect humans from the animal carriers. In other words, if the cow that you drink from has it, YOU can possibly get it. There is a vaccine for Johne's in negative tested cattle, but the efficacy is very low.

In humans, it is known as "Crohn's Disease" or possibly "Irritable Bowel Syndrome(IBS)". The bacteria which causes Johne's in cattle is the same identical bacteria that causes Crohn's in humans..."Myco Avium Paratuberculosis" (MAP) and is found in humans who have Crohn's and IBS. Get the connection? 

2) Bovine Leukosis Virus (BLV).  PLEASE copy, paste and read these links:

      news.berkeley.edu/2015/09/15/bovine-leukemia-virus-breast-cancer/

    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134304  

People who tell you that Dr. So-and-So says BLV can't hurt you if you consume from a cow that is positive, needs to look at the current scientific research!  The internet is now replete with articles on this topic...you make the choice for your family!

Leukosis is blood cancer, period, whether in humans, cattle or dogs. This is far scarier to me, than most others since science is now linking this virus to human cancers.  It appears in acute cases as tumors and nodules (lymphosarcoma) in cattle, which are typically taken for slaughter before they show these physical signs or as soon as they appear. (And cows can and do appear healthy while being positive carriers of BLV.)  This meat culled from such cows is used for human food and many times their milk is consumed by humans unaware.  

While they say the tumors are removed from the carcass at slaughter in public slaughterhouses (and sometimes the whole carcass is condemned because the tumors are so prolific), who really wants to eat meat or drink milk from an animal known to be carrying a cancer gene in it's blood and muscle tissue?? Not us, we test. If our cattle were to ever come back positive (and they have never once in over 10 years of testing), we would immediately cull that animal and bury it...we would choose not to eat it, we most certainly would not drink it's raw milk nor sell it to another unsuspecting person!     This is our choice of how to handle a positive case if one ever appears on our farm.

Again, it has now been proven to be "zoonotic" to humans just like it was with Johne's disease, years after it's discovery. Why take the risk? Test your cattle to be sure!

I have reviewed several studies where particular Vets/Vet schools say that BLV has not been proven (yet), to be zoonotic, while other data says it is....and they used to say this same thing 20 years ago, about Johne's. Now the proof is in the pudding for Johne's, so to speak, and they know that Johne's is implicated in Crohn's, Colitis and IBS cases today...both having the same MAP bacteria in common.
Perhaps this is one source. I have found in my research that up to 80% of our dairy AND beef cattle in CAFO's and commercial dairies in this country are infected carriers. This does not mean that they are dying from this disease, but does mean that they are positive carriers of it.  When dairy bulk tank milk was tested, 100% of the milk had BLV present! (per Hoard's Dairyman)  Not trying to scare anyone, but DO THE RESEARCH and see what you find....then make your own decision.  

We have been blood testing our cattle (every one, every year) for over 10 years now and if and when we make purchase, we test those prior to bringing them to our farm. BLV in cattle is not curable.  It is passed on/spread by blood (tattooing, needles, calving, colostrum, possibly by untested semen from an infected bull and milk, etc).  It is thought that frozen semen may not carry the virus through the processing of the semen...so if you breed to a carrier or untested and negative bull, use frozen semen that has been tested and is negative. It is the uncertainty of it that concerns me and no scientific concensus one way or the other...and the fact that we drink our milk raw as well as most people do not know about it or do not think it is an issue.   

3) Bovine Viral Disease Virus (BVDV):
    This primarily affects cattle. I find no proof as of yet, that it has ever once transferred to humans. It is infectious to cattle from one to another by simple exposure and herds can become persistently infected (BVD-PI) which means that certain animals in the herd are infected all the time. In the mucosal form of this disease, it is found to always be fatal to the cattle. It is one factor in the cause of abortions in cattle especially between 5-9 months...as well as stillborn calves.  And cattle which carry this BVD in the mucosal form are usually persistently infected cattle and should be destroyed as their offspring will also be carriers. There is no vaccine or cure for BVD in cattle currently. BVD can infect other livestock species such as goats and sheep.

4) Rotavirus in young calves: 
    This virus can and does affect humans. It can kill young children (with compromised immune systems) and young calves as well. It typically only lasts a few days (fever, vomiting, lethargy, yellow watery diarrhea and cold extremities) if one is healthy otherwise.  There are vaccines for pregnant cattle to ward it off in newborn offspring, but it is contagious to human handlers as well as other livestock. It is a common pathogen in our environment, but special care must be paid when an animal has the symptoms (isolation and fluids). Early treatment tends to be the best at thwarting it and good hygiene in handling dairy cattle, milk products, equipment, etc,  as well as clean living quarters for calves, tend to be the best at deterrant.

5) Tuberculosis (Tb):
     Tb is contagious to humans by coughing and sneezing. It infects the lungs and can kill over time. Cattle carry it and humans can get it from infected cattle. We are all familiar with how TB works...just beware it is one more thing to educate yourself on and avoid.  Simple testing can detect any of the above so that you can avoid them all.                                                                                                                                                                           ***********************************************

I have not included every single disease that can and does affect us and our cattle. But these are the most prevalent and bothersome in my opinion. Again, I advise education in all areas of farming to be able to provide the healthiest choice of animals for our table and families. If you have further questions, please email or call and I'll guide you to the sources that I used to form my opinions here.

After you educate yourself, ASK QUESTIONS before the purchase of any cattle that you intend to eat from or feed your kids from. Know your sellers and request copies of testing, if not provided, have the tests done yourself before purchase. If the seller refuses to have this done (or allow YOU to have it done) WALK AWAY. 
It is cheap insurance to have the testing done prior to buying any cattle. Ask to see the proof for yourself, do not take my or anyone elses word for it. This is far too important to ignore. The very reason that most of us want our own dairy cow to begin with is for fresh, healthier food choices! You will be supplied with a copy of the most recent testing for any purchase from White Star Farm.

There is vast information available to us at our fingertips by just googling any of these topics and read to your hearts content! Not every source on the internet is accurate as you well know, but try to steer towards the university studies, not the slanted and biased opinions of the animal Pharmaceutical industry or those paid by big Pharma. 

      Education is the key to protecting                 ourselves and the ones we love!

It is our opinion and will remain steadfastly so, to consume dairy or meat from disease tested and negative cattle, above all a2 choices.  We will leave the choice of all cattle attributes up to the buyers who visit our farm.  

Still have questions? Please contact us anytime! We look forward to hearing from you.

    About the A2          Beta Casein           controversy...

With recent reports of "variants" concerning the A2 beta casein gene, we have opted to bow out of the A2 discussion.  This is our position and it has not changed:

As with many things in our world, follow the money.  We do not buy into all of the hype and limited scientific proof concerning this issue and do not believe that this affects many people, if at all, certainly not to the degree that is pushed by the A2 Corp...it has not affected our family after over 25 years of drinking from our disease negative cattle and we consume our milk raw.  We do know that after much prayer about this issue, God has given us a peace that we are doing exactly what He has called us to do...raise the best disease negative family milk cows that we can, and keep our eyes on Him.  He has not impressed upon us to change the plan that He set for us and our cattle over 25 years ago, long before A2 was even known about.  There is nothing new under the sun...only the way it is packaged and sold to the public.  We will continue to glorify Him and not chase after the world or its ideas.

We also believe that He created all cattle of our world in the beginning of time, to be exactly as they are, with no mistakes in their beta casein.  Each cattle breed was created to be different genetically, just as we humans are.  There is simply ZERO proof that cattle genetics mutated at any time in history to create this "new" change of beta casein.  The testing to distinguish the beta caseins is a relatively new thing...about 15 years old.  How do they know anything beyond this testing time period?  It is pure conjecture!  This is our opinon and we stand by it. Again, follow the money.

We feel that the Lord has shown us not to follow the ways of this world, therefore we will continue to consume from our a1a1, a1a2, as well as a2a2 cattle, with no preference, distinction or separation of our milk types,  just as we have done for years. You can do the research pro and con then make up your own mind about the A2 controversy.  The Holy Bible is a good tool for this also, you will not find the beta casein an issue there at all. 

We still maintain all choices of a1a1, a1a2 as well as a2a2 cattle that we sell from White Star Farm, males and females.  We will continue to breed for disease negative, correct dairy conformation, actual miniature cattle under 42" at three years maturity, excellent udders, homozygous polling, pet quality temperaments, and fabulous pedigrees using verified old lineages as often as possible by artificial insemination and live coverage by our superior bulls.

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   FUN FACTS ABOUT COWS!!!

**Did you know? 
Cows cannot look "up"?  Their eye muscles will not allow them to roll their eyes upwards, but they can turn or tilt their heads to see the skies!

**Did you know?
Cows and bulls which have very orange inner ears, will produce more and richer cream than the "pink" inner eared cattle.  (Willis P Hazzard, 1892, Breed for the Most Profit)

**Did you know?
All original Jersey cattle were horned?  The polling gene was introduced into Jerseys of all sizes by crossing with other homo polled animals.

**Did you know?
All full blood or purebred Jerseys have black noses?  Pink noses are the result of cross breeding with other breeds.

**Did you know?
Per WIllis P. Hazzard, a dairy cow judge from the 1800's, that one could also tell  the volume a cow would milk by observing the whorls of hair on the backs of her legs.  

**Did you know?
That even male calves are born with four teats.

         Page updated 08/05/18