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How cows grazing on rapidly growing spring grass results in a beige color for the milk and cream along with deep yellow butter containing the elusive animal form of Vitamin K2 crucial for longevity, fertility, and overall vibrant health.
If you are a pastured raw dairy enthusiast as I am, Spring is probably one of your favorite times of the year.
The reason has everything to do with the rapidly growing spring grass in the unsprayed pastures of local dairy farms.
Here, old-fashioned Jersey, Devon, or Guernsey (A2) cows are contentedly roaming and grazing.
Spring grass has nothing short of a magical quality to it.
Cows that graze on this type of grass produce the most nutrient-dense dairy of the entire year.
The cream and butter from this milk contain the critically important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2 (Activator X).
What is “Activator X”?
Activator X, now known to be the MK4 animal form of Vitamin K2, is perhaps the most elusive nutrient in the human diet today.
It was extensively described by Dr. Weston A. Price in his groundbreaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
By comparison, synthetic Vitamins A and D are artificially added to processed, commercial milk that is devoid of Vitamin K2.
Pastured dairy contains Vitamins A, D, and K2 in their natural, nontoxic form.
There is no need for synthetic fortification in this type of dairy.
This compares to the watery store milk coming from modern Holstein A1 cows who are confined and forced to consume unnatural feed, treated with antibiotics/hormones, and have no access to pasture.
At my local dairy pickups, I immediately know the spring grass with all its nutrient-dense magic has returned.
As soon as the crates begin to be unloaded, you quickly notice that something is different.
The milk, which has been an off-white color since the first Autumn frost is suddenly beige!
I wasn’t the only one who noticed…
Within moments, a Mom asked the farmer if there were any extra gallons available. This is in addition to the 19 she was already picking up for herself and two other families. She got lucky and snagged 3 additional gallons.
Of course, the large creamline is also beige from spring-fed milk.
Deep Yellow Butter
Butter churned from the cream separated from the milk of cows eating spring grass is a deep yellow unmatched by any “grassfed” brands at the store!
Some brands have such pale butter that manufacturers add “all natural” annatto food coloring. This makes the butter an unnatural yellow which can fool consumers.
Real Butter contains natural, fat-soluble activators including the elusive K2 that supercharges mineral absorption and synergizes the body’s utilization of Vitamins A and D.
This is the same type of butter that people living in isolated Swiss villages prior to World War II revered. They placed wicks in it and burned it on Church alters as a grateful offering for the healthy, cheerful, and intelligent children that were born to parents that consumed it.
I myself make homemade raw butter from spring cream and stock my freezer so it’s available year-round for my family.
A friend texted me just yesterday to tell me she had finally taken the plunge and made her own raw spring butter for the very first time and that she “couldn’t stop eating it” 😋.
These musings about spring butter don’t mean to suggest that fully pastured butter the rest of the year isn’t fantastic too. It’s just extra special in the spring!
So find yourself a local farm and sample the flavors and nutrient density of spring grass for yourself.
Has the wonder of rapidly growing spring grass returned to your farmer’s pastures yet? If not, it probably will be very soon!
More Information
Why “100% Grassfed” Doesn’t Always Produce the Safest, Most Nutritious Raw Milk
mmm… I wish it were spring here! We’re still have zero degree weather in the mornings…. not exactly conducive to rapidly growing grass. This will be my first spring drinking raw milk, so I’m excited to see the change!
Is there a smart way to skim off the lovely cream on the top of the fresh milk, or do you shake it up at all? I hate to use the best creamy stuff in baking, but can’t figure out how to get it out of the jug first?
You can use a fat skimmer .. those big plastic eyedropper things that folks use to skim the fat off the top of soups. They work great for removing cream off the top of milk.
Hi Megan, I freeze my butter for 6-9 months with no problem at all.
I’m just wondering. If the cows are grazing fields that have been used for dairy cows for many years, and the cows are pooping as they graze, how badly depleted would the soil be? It seems like it would be in fairly good shape.
Hi Sarah – here’s something I was alerted to by one of the farmers who currently sells the raw milk that we buy. The state department of agriculture had contacted her about something, and while they were on the phone, the man was saying to her, “I still don’t get how everyone believes grass-fed is so much better. Our soils are so depleted, it really doesn’t matter because those cows are not getting much more nutrition than the feedlot cows (and I disagreed here with him about that due to the fact that those cows are not in confinement and are out in the sunshine getting Vitamin D and beta carotene). But still, he has a point – our soils are so depleted. The farm where we used to get our raw milk (who are now having financial problems are currently not dispensing milk) which is certified organic does vastly things than the one we’re currently getting our milk from, such as they supplement their cattle with organic kelp and apple cider vinegar, and they enrich their soil where the grass grows and cows graze with organic nutrients. Our current farmer does not do this because she doesn’t have the means and is not, obviously, certified organic. Sure, it’s better than the alternative..but of course, since I’m an over-analyzer and worrier, this naturally has me concerned. I only want the best for my family, as do most people. What are your thoughts about that? I know the milk we’re getting now is inferior to what we were getting, but that’s all that’s available right now.
Hi Raine, I think the color says it all! The color of milk, cream of feedlot cows is white (as in paper towel white like in my picture in this blog) whereas grassfed milk is offwhite to deep beige indicating the superior nutrition.
This is not to say that our soils are not in terrible shape – of this there is no doubt. But, we have to start somewhere and rebuild and grassbased farms are where the soil rebuilding is happening. I know my farmer is actively working on his soil – these are the farms to give your business dollars to as they are the ones producing the most nutrient dense food for your family.
Well, I guess that confirms what I was saying about the soil and proper supplementation with foods like kelp – the milk and cream from our organic, grass-fed farm definitely has that golden color, whereas the milk and cream from the non-organic, not supplemented farm does not. The attention farmers give to their soil and the supplements they use DO make a huge difference. I long for the day the organic farm starts dispersing milk to us again!
really looking forward to the spring here in NYC. it’s been a very intense, dark winter with lots of snow and rain. the amazing thing is i was able to get my vitamin D levels up during that bleak time! thank you to Radiant Life for their D3 serum as well as my farmers for their beautiful lard. I sauteed all my leafy greens in lard this winter (4x a week), increased my raw egg yolk intake and implemented the D3. what a difference! We get our milk from farmers in Pennsylvania so the spring batch of butter will be starting in about 6 or 8 weeks. very exciting! thanks for getting me all lit up about what is only weeks away! enjoy your delicious milk and butter.
Not yet. We live in the north so it’s still schizophrenic weather. We’ll have snow one day, and 60+ degree sun the next. So the grass isn’t really growing well yet. It will in a month, though.
I keep waiting, wondering. How much longer?! I can’t wait. And I am CRAVING milk like crazy now because I am pregnant. I drink it almost everyday. (Or have yogurt made from it or something.) Hmm…stockpiling butter. Oh, I might have to! I don’t know if I can buy enough raw milk to skim the cream to make butter for any length of time. What would I do with the remaining milk?? It’s the cream I really want, lol.
What do you think about local, grass-fed, low-temp-pasteurized cream? I DO have access to half-gallons of that, just the cream. (Because silly people want skim milk!!) Worth it to make a lot of butter from that??
Hi Kate, yes I would say that the low temp grass fed cream is a wonderful alternative. I buy it myself sometimes when I need cream for cooking or baking purposes.
How long is the window for stocking up on spring butter? Also, is it true that freezing destroys vitamin E? How long will butter stay fresh in the freezer?
Thanks! Love your blog, I’ve learned so much.
Down here in Florida, the window is about one month. Of course, weather changes affect this greatly but generally speaking, one month is about right. Not sure how long the window might be elsewhere.
We are not so patiently waiting for our cow to calf. There is still snow on the ground here so it will be at least a month before the grass really starts growing but I can’t wait to make my own butter again. Today we are making pens for the goats(two does with their babies) that we are getting so I am hoping to make butter and cheese with all the spring cow milk and drink the goats milk.
My children and I noticed the same change in the raw milk we get from our local farmer! We like to purchase extra cream so we can make up our own butter and freeze it to cut down on the cost. I love, love, love that my kids notice the difference, “Why is that milk so white?” (asked when we ran out of raw milk and had to buy from the grocery store). And “Why isn’t that butter yellow?” Such excellent teaching opportunities! Blessings!