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Melinda Olson has given her 12-year-old son raw milk for years. When he walked away virtually unscathed from a serious bike accident last year, she credited his healthy diet of raw milkdairy products.Matthew Caldwell fed his 2-year-old son, Owen, raw milk in the spring of 2010. The boy was hospitalized for 13 days, victim of an E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak traced to raw milk producer Mike Hartmann.The two parents’ stories are bookends to a debate that is on high boil in Minnesota. One farmer accused of breaking state law barring the off-farm sale of raw milk, Alvin Schlangen, is slated for trial in July. Hartmann was hit with the same criminal milk charge last month, and also faces a civil suit from Caldwell.Raw milk isn’t pasteurized -- heat-treated to kill pathogens. Advocates see it as integral to a superior diet, and decry what they see as heavy-handed attempts to limit its free flow and punish suppliers. “This is about the freedom to choose the foods we want for our families,” said Olson of Richfield.

BouMatic Engineers designed GlacierChill controls to respond to the slightest variation in milk load.

In a trial utilizing four pens of about 320 cows each, UC-Davis graduate student Nadia Swanepoel fed four levels of canola meal.

What matters in one of your team’s most valuable members.

A modest production increase in 2013 could help support prices, USDA says.

California dairy puts more emphasis on high-quality corn silage.

State imposed the quarantine May 10 after several people became ill from consuming the dairy’s raw milk.

Once again, western states led the surge in milk production.

Fifty-seven counties produce 50% of all Federal Order and California milk, down from 62 counties just five years ago.

Alfalfa export volumes surged 14% last year. But rising cow numbers and reduced alfalfa acres also played a role in rising hay prices.