We farm so you don't have to

"Everyone of us that is not a farmer is not a farmer because we have farmers" Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

Check out this video link below, this is an excellent speech from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack!

https://www.facebook.com/Sustainvc2016/videos/554520281403988/?pnref=story

This speech from Sec. Vilsack came across my newsfeed this week and it had me thinking about the small portion of people who are trained, experienced and qualified to raise food for the people of this country.  It's truly impressive the small number of people who rise food for so many and in places where food shouldn't grow we are using technology and conservation practices to make it grow.  It's astounding!  Going to the grocery store is something generations of people have taken for granted.  Consumers have the convenience of driving a few minutes to the nearest store to pick up anything they might want for supper as compared to having to raise, plan, store, and preserve food for their suppers.  By having their food that simple and cost effective, consumers are free to have more time to do their other jobs and taking care of their families. 

I attended an on-farm meeting this week where a banker in attendance had a young woman with him.  This young woman was the banker's intern for the summer and he was taking an opportunity to show her the inner workings of a dairy farm.  When we were leaving the meeting I approached the young woman and thanked her for her time as well as asked her what she had learned from attending this meeting.  Her words have stuck with me ever since we talked.  "I will never take for granted my next glasses of milk! Wow! These people are truly tirelessly selfless! They do things I could never do and get up at crazy times of the day just to do work that they obviously love!  I am truly floored!"  That right there is exactly why we need to tell/share our farming stories, because it is so important that the consumers of today have the ability to see how and where their food comes from.  If we just open our doors and minds, and listen to the concerns our consumers have we can make a priceless impression, just like this young woman. 

This reason is also why I decided to spread my wings a little and agree to do an interview with a local fitness blogger.  She wanted to interview a farmer who is using fitness in her life and as a result we had a good conversation about what I hope consumers learn from my work and the work of many other great farmers and ranchers.  We want you to know we CARE!  Feel free to check out the link below for Tough Muddette's blog, it's a good one!  And expect me to keep telling me dairy's story!

http://toughmuddette.com/awesome-interview-dairy-woman-strong/

Heirloom Flowers, Family Traditions

I come from a long line of green thumbs.  Both of my grandmothers were gardeners, each specializing in their own specific flowers and my mother is also an avid gardener, both with flowers and vegetables.  I developed my love of flowers as a young 4-Her.  I had quickly learned that I had an eye for floral design both in arrangements and in the garden and I loved to grow my flowers.  I rose to the challenge of flower gardening through the 4-H project and that project evolved into my own personal garden which mom let me design and plant.  Every where I have lived and farmed since those early years, I took my flowers with me.

My Grandma S had the most beautiful peonies and roses on my home farm.  Those roses could withstand the harshest of Minnesota winters and the peonies would make Grandma S smile every time that she visited the farm in the late spring.  I took some transplants of those roses with me when I got married and moved to our farm, I wanted that piece of Grandma S with me and now that she is gone I smiled with a tear in my eye, every summer when they bloom.  I know that is Grandma S smiling down on me. 

Grandma D had these glorious irises that she planted all over her home site.  Those beautiful flowers came in pretty colors of purple, rust, yellow, pink, peach and white.  I also took a transplant of these flowers with me when I moved, first from Grandma D's garden and then from Mom's garden.  Grandma D also had a long fence line down her driveway.  There she planted these beautiful dahlias and gladioli!  These flowers quickly became my favorite flowers to grow for 4-H county fair shows.

Mom had lilies in her gardens.  Gorgeous, dramatic lilies in reds, oranges, yellows and whites.  She taught me to transplant bulbs.  In the spring she had these beautiful tulips of red and yellow in the front of her house.  I believe her love of tulips inspired me to plant tulips at every place that I have ever lived.  I have tried so many colors but my favorites will always be Mom's.

Mom trusted me enough to let me have my own garden. I started my garden with Grandma S's roses and Grandma D's irises.  My inspiration from both grandmothers and mom led me to plant hollyhocks along my dad's pasture fence.  For several years we had beautiful hollyhocks along the whole length of fence by the highway and several sales reps made comments on how pretty it looked.  It took a little weeding to keep the fence line clean and later when I wasn't at the farm anymore, my brother mowed them down.  Mom saved a few seeds and replanted them by the garage.  Some day I hope to plant another fence line of holly hocks on my own dairy.  In the meantime I am in awe of their beauty at my parents' farm and I am thankful for my genetic green thumb and heirloom flowers!

Hollyhocks at my parents' dairy, a legacy from my 4-H years at the farm.

Proud Daughter/Sister Moment!



Dairy Star reported the state list, including my family, Autumn Breeze Dairy.

I can’t even begin to express how excited and proud I am of my dad and brother!  This week they received their notice that they were among the top dairymen and women in the state of Minnesota for milk quality, producing milk with a SCC below 100,000 for the year. 

Here’s a little science education on milk quality:  every time the milk truck comes to a dairy, the milk truck driver collects a sample of milk to be tested for a variety of quality measurements, including SCC (somatic cell count).  Somatic cell count is a measure of the white blood cells in milk.  Yes there are white blood cells in milk.  All of the nutrients that a cow needs to make milk in the milk making cells of her udder need to get carried to her udder via blood.   Contrary to popular belief by the anti-milk crowd, milk does not contain actual blood because there is a blood/milk barrier in the udder (milk making cells filter out the nutrients that they need to make milk proteins and fats and send the blood back to the heart) but the occasional white blood cell will slip through because it is a protein based cell.  These somatic cells are an indicator of overall cow health and levels of mastitis (infection) in the cows’ udders.  When the measurement is low, the cow herd is healthy and when the level of SCC is high, this is an indication that there is a problem with the cows, environment, equipment and management.  Healthy cows in a good environment will produce milk with a SCC of 200,000 or less.  Milk produced at a high level of SCC is considered illegal and processors will not accept this milk.  Stress like a cold or flu can cause SCC to rise in addition to poor animal handling or bad ventilation.  SCC quickly becomes the measure of overall quality care of the cows.  It doesn’t matter which type of housing, whether grass fed, organic or conventional all of these different management styles are capable of producing safe, wholesome, high quality milk.  So now you know the science….here’s why I am so incredibly proud of my family……

It wasn’t always this way.  It wasn’t always easy to produce high quality milk and give cows the best that they deserve.  These things cost money, take time and planning, and they take patience.  Things like new barns, concrete to keep cows out of the mud, better education and management, testing individual cows, and yes culling out cows that just couldn’t produce high quality milk (some of SCC is definitely genetic).  Decades ago, I remember when my dad was producing the occasional tank of illegal milk, we had to dump milk, and we were at risk of not having a place to sell milk to.  It wasn’t dad’s fault the cows went swimming in the mud after a rain but it was dad’s responsibility to make sure that milk that he sold was safe for consumers.  It was then that my dad made a commitment to improve his milk quality and keep working on that.  I would say my dad became down right anal.  “If it wasn’t perfect, we pitched it.” 

The first steps were improving cow comfort in our tie stall barn, adding more bedding and making stalls larger.  Dad poured concrete in the yard to reduce mud and he made sure that cows didn’t go out to pasture unless it was dry out.  My brother went off to college and came home to farm in partnership with my dad.  My brother took it one step further by implementing DHIA (Dairy Herd Improvement Association) testing, where each month each individual cows were sampled and checked for SCC. 

DHIA testing monthly helps my family make sure each cow gets individualized care.

 

 

Cows with high SCC were sold, while others were treated with antibiotics and allowed to heal.  My brother added milking detachers to make sure cows were never overmilked, which can cause damage to cows’ teats and increase SCC.  Within a couple years the cows were housed in a much more spacious state of the art sand bedded free stall barn.  Those cows went from a cozy Super 8 to the Hilton.

 

Cows rest comfortably in the new sand bedded free stalls.

Finally this winter my brother completed the last step in improving milk quality and cow health: the milking parlor.  With new equipment with a better design, cows are able to milk out quickly, comfortably and completely.

The new double 8 parlor helps milk cows gently, completely and quickly.

 

Keeping SCC low is easier, cows are more comfortable, and making perfect milk is almost effortless, but it didn’t come easy.  This was years of dedication to achieve this goal.  This was never losing sight of the fact that cows’ health is important and making sure the consumer deserves the very best dad could offer.  This was the result of tough decisions and trying times.  This achievement didn’t come easy.

I hope dad can look back and see how far he’s come.  I hope he knows how proud I am of how hard he worked to achieve this.  I hope my brother knows how much I respect him as a dedicated dairyman and peer.  But most of all this Father’s Day Weekend, I hope they both know how amazing they are as dairymen, husbands and fathers!  #prouddaughter #proudsister

 

4 generations of my family: my dad, my nephew, my brother, my grandfather, celebrating 100 years of farming on the same farm as well!

 

Dropping Milk Prices, Emotional Stress

If you don’t know by now, consider this your notice, milk prices on-farm have been dropping for months and currently are at the lowest point they have been in almost 7 years.  The last time financial impacts like this hit the dairy community there was a mass exodus of producers, many of which wish they didn’t have to sell their cows but they couldn’t provide for their families anymore.  This is our current reality.  Today I read articles about record cheese inventories in the United States putting pressure on milk price to drop even lower.  I heard from fellow dairy farmers that the exodus has started again, dairy farmers are being forced to sell their herds and even land in order to pay off debt and save themselves.  This dip in prices will have long lasting effects on the dairy community, no matter the size of the farm.  It does not discriminate.  So as a reader, why should you care?  What is my purpose in sharing this with you? 

These dairy farmers work tirelessly for their families, their cows, their farms, and yes you the consumers.  They are experiencing emotional stress that you can’t even describe.  These dedicated farmers wake up every morning fully aware that they are literally paying admission to milk their cows.  They are not receiving income from their farms, but paying just to keep them.    Many farms are accumulating thousands and even millions of dollars of debt just to feed and care for their cows.   But it isn’t the financial situation that concerns me the most.  What concerns me the most is the emotional and mental health of these amazing people.

These men and women will most likely sacrifice everything they have to give to keep doing the one thing they know and love, milking cows.  I talked to a dear friend in Ohio who has a small herd.  He told me he will farm until he’s completely broke and go to a food bank for himself and his wife before he sacrifices his cows.   That’s right, he would sacrifice for his family before he would sacrifice for his cows.  He’s not alone, I know many just like him.  I know of farmers trying to make cuts to the budget, but they refuse to compromise their soil, water, and cows’ well-being.  These passionate men and women believe in a hope that is impossible to describe, because many believe if they keep pushing forward through the hard times that good times will soon follow.  Their perseverance pushes them to keeps them fighting for their calling.   Crops were planting this spring and hay is being harvested, farmers’ optimism continues, but at what price?  I can see the stress on their tired faces.  The worry is in their eyes: how will they feed and clothe their families, how will they pay even part of their monthly bills, how long will this last and can they make it that long? 

What can you do to help farmers?  Keep drinking milk, eating cheese and enjoying yogurt.  Dairy foods are some of the most local foods we have available, with the average gallon of milk traveling no more than 100 miles to the grocery store from the nearest dairy farm.  By drinking milk, you are helping your neighboring dairy farmers.  Please help these amazing farmers provide for their families and yours, by doing something as simple as making sure you and your family enjoys 3 servings of dairy each day.  And while you’re at it, please pray for these hard working heroes, they need all the love and support they can get!  Thank you!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom

In order to properly give recognition to my mother this weekend, I thought it was time that I did a blog post dedicated to her.  So here’s my Mother’s Day Dedication to my Mom.

I am the oldest of 4 children.  I have 2 other sisters and a brother.  My mother and I have bucked heads since the earliest memories I have.  I am an independent spirit, I am passionate, I am head strong, I am willful, I am just as much my mother’s daughter as I am my father’s daughter.  If she doesn’t realize it, she should now.  I can remember the fights with her in kindergarten when I wanted to wear my favorite purple corduroy pants for picture day and she wanted to put me in a flowery and lacy dress.  I won that fight, and I stood proudly in the back row of my class picture.  I remember demanding to grow my bangs out in 5^th grade and the awfulness that came after that.  I was a tom boy and my mom was hoping for more of a little lady.  I wanted to tag along with dad doing chores, milking cows, riding in tractors and getting dirty. 

When I hit my teen years I really challenged my mother.  I wasn’t too much of a trouble maker, but every time she gave me a boundary that I thought was unrealistic I challenged it.  I tried shorts that were too short and speeding tickets to football games.  These were not my proudest moments and I know I am responsible for more than a couple gray hairs, but my mother remained firm.  Every time we fought, I apologized and tried to do better.  I knew my mother was being firm out of love for me.  Now as a 30-something woman, I look back and see how much of blessing she was for my siblings and me.  Those boundaries helped keep me from bouncing too far off the straight and narrow path.  When there was an injustice at school, mom went to bat for us, meeting with the principle to make sure our lives were fair.  Her love for us was so passionate at times that it came out as frustration when we made choices she knew were less than our ability.  She taught her daughters the value of modesty and respecting ourselves for more than our appearance.  She encouraged us to travel and try new things, but at the time seemed like she was just bossing us around.  She taught us the value of a dollar, hard work, and how to save and sacrifice for something we really wanted.  She gave her time to drive us to school events making sure that we experienced the arts, sports, and community service through 4-H and church. 

Most of all mom led us in example of how she treated our father.  She has always worked to care for dad: doing cooking, cleaning, laundry, running errands, serving him lunches in the fields.  She ended her career to stay at home and raise 4 children, while helping my father farm.  Dad often says that was one of the most wonderful things mom ever gave him…4 beautiful children.  Their marriage like so many others faced hard times, and it wasn’t perfect but it worked for them.  Mom prayed with dad and shared that faith with us.  I’m sure more than once she said a novena on my behalf.  To this day I will default to praying the rosary in times of crisis or severe weather thunderstorms; that is all mom.  Mom made sure we knew that you could argue in a marriage and make up, that you could work through the conflicts.  So much that mom did for us while we were growing up, I feel like I took it for granted at the time. 

I see women especially, that didn’t have a mom like mine, and I see how much they struggle in life trying to find out who they are.  If it wasn’t for the hard boundaries and lessons in faith and self respect from mom, I don’t know if I would be half the woman I am today.  I see now how important her example was in who I am today.  Yes we still buck heads but we can handle conflict because of how she taught me to handle conflict.  I know at the end of the day, when mom gets really passionate about something, it is because she loves me so much and only wants the best for me.  On this Mother’s Day weekend, I say thank you and I love you to the best mom I could’ve ever imagined! And God Bless you always and forever!