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ByPatBailey Fresh, or raw, milk transported from farms to dairy processing facil- ities in tanker trucks con- tains a diverse mix of mi- crobes, which varies from season to season, report researchers at the Univer- sity of California, Davis. Microbes with the po- tential to cause disease are destroyed during milk pasteurization, but not all bacteria and their associ- ated enzymes are elimi- nated by that process. The remaining bacteria retain the ability to cause spoil- age and quality defects in dairy foods. Despite the diversity, a core community of mi- crobes remains constant through the seasons and across the various farms from which the milk is collected, the researchers found. Surprisingly, this core microbiota is quite vulnerable to change when the raw milk is transferred to large stor- age silos at the dairy pro- cessing plant. Identification of these raw-milk microbes and their abundance should help dairy processors de- velop new, effective san- itation procedures and process controls to ensure that the milk and result- ing dairy foods are safe and of consistently high quality. The study findings are reported Aug. 23 in mBio, the online, open-access journal of the American Society of Microbiology. "The level of bacterial diversity that we discov- ered in these shipments of raw milk was amaz- ing," said lead author and microbiologist Maria Marco of the Department of Food Science and Tech- nology. "More than half of the bacterial groups iden- tified represented less than 1 percent of the to- tal microbial content." Rawmilkand microbes Marco noted that the broad mix of bacteria could be due to raw milk's high nutrient content as well as the many poten- tial sources of bacteria as- sociated with dairies. The cows' skin, feed, bedding and aerosols; human han- dlers; and the equipment and containers used to collect, store and trans- port milk are all likely bacterial sources. Raw milk is known to harbor diverse strains of bacteria that strongly in- fluence shelf life, sensory qualities and safety of fluid milk as well as that of fermented dairy prod- ucts like cheese and yo- gurt. Analyzing tankers of milk The researchers sam- pled and analyzed raw cow's milk from 899 tanker trucks as they ar- rived at two dairy pro- cessors in California's San Joaquin Valley dur- ing spring, summer and fall. The samples were analyzed using gene se- quencing. The study revealed that milk collected in the spring contained the most diverse bacterial commu- nities with the highest to- tal cell numbers and high- est proportions of Acti- nobacteria, one of the largest known groups of bacteria. Within those diverse microbial populations was a core community of microbes that existed in all of the raw milk sam- ples. This core group of microbes represented 29 different bacterial groups and included high pro- portions of Streptococ- cus and Staphylococcus as well asClostridiales, bacteria frequently asso- ciated with dairy cattle. The researchers also found that the bacterial composition of raw milk stored in silos at process- ing plants was distinct from that of the tanker trucks. One group of si- los contained microbial populations similar in makeup to the milk from the tanker trucks, while the other group of silos had distinctly different microbial populations dominated by the Aci- netobacter and Lactococ- cus bacteria. "This finding demon- strates how the built en- vironment in food-pro- cessing plants can have significant but still un- predictable impacts on the microbial quality of foods," Marco said. California is nation's largest dairy producer The findings of the new study are particularly im- portant for California, which is the largest dairy producer in the United States, providing more than one-fifth of the na- tion's fluid milk produc- tion. The state also is the nation's second largest cheese producer, follow- ing only behind Wiscon- sin. In 2015, California dairy farms sold some $9.5 billion worth of milk, according to the UC Agri- cultural Issues Center at UC Davis. UC DAVIS St udy a im s to improve dairy food safety and quality The 7th annual Beef 'n Brew will be held in down- town Red Bluff 5-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 for the 25 beef appetizers and 30 businesses with 60 craft beers. Presale tickets are $20, available at The Loft, Plum Crazy, Suburban Propane, The Gold Exchange, Red Bluff Chamber of Com- merce and online at www. redbluffbeefnbrew.com or via PayPal. The tickets will be ex- changed for a wristband and a mini beer mug spon- sored by Dolling Insur- ance. Tickets at $25 will be for sale on Saturday af- ternoon at Bob's Tire on West Walnut Street, at Main and Oak by Remax and on Main across from the Plaza, as well as the traditional entrance to Cone Kimball Plaza. For those that don't drink beer, I-5 Tire is do- nating bottles of water that will be found at Cone Kimball Plaza. Celebrity pourers will be pouring cups of beer 6-10 p.m. as attendees en- joy the music of Northern Heat 7-10 p.m. for dancing and listening. Vic Woolery and crew will be grilling tri-tip for the beef wraps. Two awards will be pre- sented for beef appetiz- ers. The Judges Choice tro- phy will be selected by Ju- lie Kelley, president of Tehama County Farm Bu- reau; James Miller, Red Bluff Round-Up manager; and Tehama County Su- pervisor Bob Williams. Guests will select the Peo- ple's Choice winner by de- positing their ticket stub in the bucket or jar of the appetizer they liked best. Tehama County Cattle- Women and Downtown Red Bluff Business Associ- ation members have been meeting since June plan- ning the event. Cathy To- bin is chairwoman with Travis Dolling, co-chair- man. Renee Ewing is trea- surer, Linda Walker is do- ing publicity with Mandi Selvester-Owens, Bob Mc- Connell is the map maker for the special Beef 'n Brew supplement that Greg Stevens is coordinat- ing. Michelle Hickok has de- signed the flyers; other members of committee are Jeanne Smith, Joyce Bundy, Linda Borror, Rick Fitzgerald, Michelle Blunk- all, Jean Barton, Charlene Priest, Bernie Guffey. Memories of 1976 Many comments have been received about old events I have written about. This was from our Christmas letter of forty years ago, 1976. Highlights of the year has been the drought, low prices for cattle compared to our operating expenses, and it still isn't raining. January was bowl games and parades, plus going to Palo Alto for the East-West Shrine game on the 50 yard line. Half time featured the Royal Canadian Mounted Po- lice and lots of bagpipe music. The cows on the range were bothered by coyotes. Bill Glines was checking his cows in Tus- can Springs, and came upon 4 big coyotes circling a cow and newborn calf. He didn't have a gun with him; told us, so we shot at them, but calf was dead. Another new calf had its hind leg missing to the hock. Bill and I notice the cows chase the dogs if they jump off the pickup on the feeding strip this winter. We saw a couple big coy- otes when we put the cows on the range this fall. February — it snowed from Milford to Sparks, and nearly the whole time we were at the Nugget Bull Sale. The roads were icy, so we used cabs to go places. Enjoyed Rowan & Martin and LeRoy Van- Dyke at the Nugget. Even the bull sale was red, white & blue this year in- stead of gold. Got home from the sale, and the creeks in the bull pasture were dry, so we turned the bulls out with the cows. Bill, Uncle Hillman and I staked a fence line for a permanent pasture over at the folks place, with Fa- ther supervising from the car to make sure it was straight. That was the project all spring until completed. Bill started wa- ter on alfalfa on 11th. Took the Jr Cow Palace steers to Judging Expo and got them halter-broke. Al- len Maxwell, Jr; was Hi Point, and with Louie and Norman Andreini, our 4-H Club was top team. I bought Ball canning lids every time I saw them in the grocery store so I would have them when it came summer. Were 39 cents this year. Bill and I put the year- ling heifers and the red Angus bulls out on 7 Mile Creek on March 1st, and on 2nd it started snow- ing at 6 a.m. and snowed till 4 p.m. We got about 4 inches here, but out West they had about a foot. It was a welcome storm be- cause it gave us mois- ture for the cows on the range, and Salt Creek fi- nally ran under Hwy 99E for the first time this year. With so much snow on the ground the trees were alive with robins around our house. Took ten fat cows to Shasta Auction on the 26th, and they av- eraged 1433 lbs. Price was off 2 cents that day, but we still av. 27.75 cents a lb. on them. It's been two years, and still no word on our missing horses, Okie and Scottie, or the sad- dles from Leininger, or the Brusa truck that was sto- len. April, the south wind blew at our 4-H fair Horse Show in Corning. Linda rode D Bar, and was 1st showmanship, 2nd west- ern equitation, 3rd plea- sure. Kendra decided she wasn't going to ride, so she didn't! Things were getting desperate on the range with only a few pot- holes of water left, when it started to rain as the girls were getting ready for Jr. Cow Palace. It rained 1.65 inches while they were loading the tack on the truck. They put garbage bags around the bales of sawdust, to keep them dry. Mike Hall of Tehama Angus took the Tehama County beef down, so Ron and Karen Knight, Bill and the girls were soaked getting the truck tarped. Linda's steer Horshack weighed 1115 lbs, stood 3rd in Herefords, sold for 49 cents to Cow Pal- ace Foundation. Ken- dra's steer Barberino weighed 1135 lbs, stood 9th in X-bred class, sold for 48 cents to CPF. Karen Knight had Res. Ch An- gus, while Aaron Borror also had a gold. Linda's big thrill was when she made the expert show- manship class for beef and placed 6th. Bill was part of Lew Isabella's beef crew with Ralph Clark and Ossie Kreps. They paint and jaw branded 200 steers in 1 hr and 55 min. Not bad consid- ering one older exhibi- tor didn't like Harold Ar- endt's placing of his steer, so he wasn't going to sell. The rules say all must sell, so when faced with a F&E ban on fair show- ing the rest of the year, he changed his mind. The county fair steers went to 4-H Fair on May 1st, and got them hal- ter broke. Linda's Mu- hammed Ali, a cross- bred was well named. He kicked and fought ev- eryone. On the 2nd we shipped to Eagle Lake. The trucks unloaded at the airplane landing strip. After we got the cattle to the lake shore, the girls and I came to RB for an- other week of school while Bill checked to see that all were paired the next day. On the 5th, Bill and I shipped the Willard Creek and Susan River cattle, and officially moved for another year. We turned on the wa- ter and started the gas re- frigerator. Kendra went on an overnight back- pack trip into Antelope Creek canyon with the 8th grade. They didn't al- low horses, so I didn't vol- unteer to chaperon. At- tended Marie Lourence funeral. Tony and Marie were our neighbors in Su- sanville each summer, till they sold their sheep and no longer came up. Ken- dra bought a new saddle with her savings account. She was so proud of it; she used it on the Mallery cattle drive. She was chas- ing cows off a meadow; got in a bog hole, and got her new saddle all muddy. Bill was still baling oat hay, but helped Leland Davis ship his cows to Butte Creek. Over Memorial Day weekend Bill and the girls rode and checked cows at Susan River. Good thing they did, because a calf had a face full of porcu- pine quills. Next month they had to pull them out of Karadjet's nose. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEAN BARTON Memories from 1976 Christmas letter COURTESYPHOTO Sampling the beef appetizers at the Sugar Shack Cafe last year were Beef Appetizer Judges Malorie Bankhead, Dr Laquin Hencratt, DVM, and Sheriff Dave Hencratt at the 2015Beef 'n Brew. 3917N.MainSt,Cottonwood,CA 530-347-3793 Thankyoufor50wonderfulyears Shasta Livestock Auction Yard September 9 th Sale 2 1 /2% Commission September 6 th -12 th Specials at the Branding Iron Café! Celebratingour 50 th Anniversary! Patrick's Pumping SepticPumpingServices Red Bluff, CA Garet Patrick Owner/Operator 530-366-6899 4patricks@att.net Available 24/7 SmithFamily Farms LocallyGrownHorse Quality Alfalfa Hay $10 .00 per bale Grass Hay Beardless Wheat also available 945-9276 South of Red Bluff RUNNINGS ROOFING and CONSTRUCTION SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA.Lic#829089B&C39 Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate Shop Equipped With 4SmogMachines For Fast Service No appointment Needed FARM » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, September 3, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A10