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that's a poser, isn't it?

one thing that ppl need to remember though, is that unlike horses or
other farm animals, cows are specialists when it comes to food. they have
four stomachs, specifically to digest grass and hay. while they do tend
to love oats, it causes horrible bloat, and like horses, too much can
lead to death. farmers tend to keep their oat supply far away from their
cattle and only feed oats to their horses, who's stomachs are better
equipped to handle a small amount.  another thing that is important to
remember, is that cattle only have teeth on their lower jaw.  they
couldn't eat the hard grains like wheat and barley even if they wanted
to.  and wheat stalks are straw, they've no desire to eat them, it's used
for bedding the stalls. now...*if* a cow was to wander into a green wheat
field, her only interest would be the grasses, not those nasty, hard to
chew grains, and even if some got ingested, i would have to wonder
whether the gluten would have developed yet.

and *if* one of farmer johnson's cows wandered into the wheat field, all
of her milk is mixed with all the other milk on the farm, putting the
contamination to the nth percentile.

i think this is why ppl don't have a reaction to gluten in milk, it's
pretty safe to say, there *is* none. personally, i would worry more about
the hormones given cattle to increase milk production, rather than
anything the poor beasties may have eaten.

raised on a farm,

elizabeth


>     3) Obviously gluten can pass into the mothermilk.
>
>     Does this mean that if Old McDonald gives his cows
>     some wheat or oats to munch on, we can't drink their
>     milk?