Homestead Creamery has a plan to urge customers wary of dairy to try drinking milk again.
A few years after launching its first line of so-called A2A2 milk, thought by some to be easier to digest, the Franklin County company is going all in. Each of the dairies it works with has fully transitioned its herd to cattle with the A2A2 gene.
It won’t change the taste or the nutritional value of the product, but it could draw in new customers who in the past have experienced digestive discomfort after drinking milk.
“We started getting testimony where A2A2 milk really made a difference. We’ve been reading some science, and we believed it,” said David Bower, co-owner of Homestead Creamery and the owner of a dairy that provides some of its milk.
A decline in milk consumption — USDA data show per capita fluid milk consumption at 247 pounds in 1975, compared to 141 pounds in 2019 — coupled with the growing popularity of alternatives like almond or oat milk, were factors in the decision to move in this direction, said Kasey Kohl, Homestead Creamery’s president.
The hope is that A2A2 milk will help in “bringing people back to the dairy aisle,” said Rose Jeter, the creamery’s marketing director.
Cow’s milk generally contains two types of beta-casein proteins: A1 and A2. Some cows have one type, while others have a mix of the two. A2A2 milk comes from cows that naturally produce only the A2 protein, said Chad Dechow, associate professor of dairy cattle genetics at Penn State.
Source: martinsvillebulletin.com
