My uncles own a dairy farm they bought/inherited from my grandparents. I also have cousins and an aunt and uncle who own and operate a dairy farm. They are very very careful to keep all of the important equipment and parts germ free. Cows are relatively messy creatures some of whom are too lazy to get up to poo. Dairy farmers are required to keep up to health standards. It is illegal where my relatives' farms are for them to mix milk from a cow on antibiotics with the rest of the milk. Dairy farmers must keep all the milkers and the udders the milkers attached to spic and span (they use colored iodine so they can keep track on the cows). A sick cow or "new" mother gets milked but the milk is put into a relatively small milk canister separate from the large tank and either fed to the new calf or dumped into the manure trough. Farmers are required to keep with health standards and a small sample is taken by the milk man collecting milk every visit. If the milk is not safe, the farmer has to buy the whole truck's load. The dairy farmers I know will take a pitcher out to the big tank, open a spigot, fill the pitcher directly from the tank of unpasteurized milk, bring it back to the house, and pour it directly on their cereal (or in a glass to drink). The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland used to have their own dairy because of the milk scares that used to sweep the East coast before pasteurization became commonplace. They closed their dairy to save $0.25 a gallon in August 1998. I suppose the school administration rues that decision since milk prices went up, huh? ;)