Flat Branch Farm Newsletter - November 13, 2025 - Vol. 13

Hey there Reader!

Thanks so much to those of you that took a few minutes to let me know what you think about our newsletter contents. It's funny... when I ask for feedback it's always surprising because the things I think people will enjoy get lukewarm reviews, and the things I think people won't really care about, they end up liking. For example, I love quotes - always have. And out of a dozen or so responses, I think only one other person said they like that part of the newsletter. 😂 I guess that's why it's good to ask!! If you didn't have a chance to take the survey, it is still open, and I’d love some feedback.

Dairy Cows

We've been doing lots of "testing" lately... pregnancy testing, milk components testing, quality testing, etc... and here are the results of that:

Three cows went to the vet and two are confirmed bred.

I sent off samples for two different cows and both are confirmed bred.

I sent of milk samples to have components (butterfat, protein, lactose, milk solids) and somatic cell count checked. Here are those results:

• Butterfat 4.8%
• Protein 3.5%
• Lactose 4.5%
• Solids 5.7%

Just for comparison, these values are percentages based on a 100-gram sample. Most of us are used to seeing nutritional information on food labels, which - for milk - are usually based on a 1 cup serving size. If you'd like to learn more about how our milk compares to milk from the store, check out this new blog post: What's Really in Our Raw Milk?​

On the Blog

(same links I shared above in case you missed them 😜)

​What's Really in Our Raw Milk?​

​How We Health Test Our Dairy Cows (And Why It Matters)​

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Recipe Share

You are going to want to print and save this one!! I'm adding shredded zucchini to anything I can right now because we have a ton of it frozen. This recipe originally called for 4 cups of potatoes instead of the zucchini. To be honest, I threw this together very last minute because I had cooked/frozen ground beef in the freezer and waited until the last minute to think about supper. But it was really good!

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Re-Quoting

“The difference between good and great is what you do when you're already tired. That extra hour when you're already empty... that's where greatness lives."

Things We're Loving

I didn't do much "fall" decorating this year other than a mum or two around the porch. But we did get some pumpkins given to us and they keep the goats busy and out of trouble for a little while, anyway. I also saw this the other day and thought it would be a fun kids' project. We are going to try one or two of these this weekend. We have probably a dozen bird feeders around the yard and by the pasture and everyone at our house enjoys watching the birds (and chickens) at the feeders.

If you know of someone else that would like to join our little-but-growing community, feel free to forward the newsletter to them. Anyone can join here . Just remind them NOT to click unsubscribe in your forwarded email...because that will actually unsubscribe YOU instead of them.

Talk soon,

Lori

P.S. You can go back and see all of our weekly newsletters here . I also have a handful of “freebies” available - a Raw Milk Cheat Sheet, Benefits of Yogurt download, and several collections of recipes.