We're getting fresh milk right out of the cow from our neighbor. How do we prepare it to be drank?!
Answers:
You can bring it almost to the boil (pasteurizing) then you turn off the heat, that should kill any thing harmful in it. allow to cool a little then strain into clean dry containers for the fridge.
A lot of the food safety issues can be answered by finding out if your neighbor's cow is milked in a milking parlor [i.e., milking machine with tubes running into cool-down tank, a closed system] or by hand in an open system. Clean is the watchword, and any old neighbor with any old cow [a hobby farmer rather than a pro] you'll need to boil the bejeezus out of the milk - look up on Google how to pasteurize small batches. Otherwise, just use the milk for slopping a hobby pig or make cheese out of it. Fresh 'raw' milk sounds loverly around a kumbayah campfire, but in reality it's nothing to mess with unless you do some smart stuff before using.
Childhood pals got undulant fever from old-line backyard cow's milk, they taught me a thing or two about commonsense handling of fresh milk. The more you know the less risk you run with your family's health. Just barnyard dirt & bacilli [cow-poop etc.] is enuf to give you a lifetime of woe.