Big Food...Cheap Food....Good Food?

We had news today that the man who we got Katie from is giving up. He is selling out and will no longer have a dairy. The loss to him will be horrible, he is 3rd generation Dairyman and has bred champion Jersey cattle for most of his life. He is just a bit younger than Ralph.

Why has he made this decision? It was not by choice.

Walmart has decided to drop the food company that bought Mikes beautiful Jersey milk. They are going to be teaming with a Monolithic dairy called Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks milks 40,000 cows. They play the Big Food game with finesse. Walmart wants to be able to sell milk for 98 cents a gallon. Only the biggest corporate farms can make money with milk prices being so low. Fair Oaks has actually made a tourist side business with their operation in Indiana. You can take tours of the dairies, watch milking, feeding and even calves being born. You can shop attheirgift store. Government environmental subsidies fuel Fair Oaks Milk tanker trucks because Fair Oaks uses methane produced by the manure to make fuel. Yes it’s admirable they do that, Ralph and I see the Ruan Trucks with their special methane fuel tanks behind the cabs, hauling milk from Fair Oaks along Interstate 64. Hauling milk all over the country. The economy of scale gives them such advantages, they produce so much that their profit margin can be low.

So I sit in the sun on our back deck and watch our cows graze and I wonder what is going to happen to so many small dairies. Mike milks 75 cows, owns and manages over 300, young stock, replacement heifers, bulls, and cows in various stages of production. He has infrastructure to support his cows and a lifetime of experience. He loves his Jersey’s and is so proud of them. He told us he was so glad we bought Katie. Jersey cows are long lived and produce into their teens with good care. The job of a family cow is perfect for his older girls who’s production was slowing a bit. It also opens up room for his young first fresheners. He finds is frustrating to see more of the  modern Amish shy away from milking a family cow, it’s so much easier to buy milk. As to people with acreages....they would rather mow lawn.

Big Food is winning.....cheap food is overwhelming the population. We follow blogs and v-logs of people that do have a cow and they love the milk and advantages a cow can give you. It is however not CHEAP MILK. Too few people really understand the entire picture of a family cow. It is easier to buy cheap milk.

We enjoy every tall, cold, delicious glass of milk we drink, we know where it came from, what Katie ate, we know there are no hormones, chemicals or additives to this milk. It is not processed in any way to alter the cellular structure of the milk. It is easy to digest. Katie has not been given shots of oxytocin to increase her milk production. The milk travels from the barn to the house, as fresh as it can be.  She has her non gmo grain for breakfast then ranges on grass, lays in the sun, ruminates and just lives like a cow should. Her milk costs us about 7.00 a gallon right now.

We think it’s a deal. I love milking her. She stands for me without even a halter on. She comes when we call or even when we don’t. The time we took to get her used to us was well worth it. How many food sources are also therapy and entertainment?

She eats grass we would have to bush hog. She is feeding our future beef with her extra milk. Supplementing the cats food and even the chickens share the bounty.

The small dairies that have been hit by the loss of someone to buy their milk [20 of them in this area alone] have families, mortgages, pride in their dairies. They are fanatical about the milk they produce and it’s quality. All across the country this is happening. Our feed guys spoke of 5 Amish dairymen he knows in New York State that have been forced out. All milking under 200 cows. I have friends in Ohio that are selling out. The company that bought their milk went into receivership after Walmart decided to go bigger. They milked 175 cows. Their oldest daughter is training to be a vet. These are just a few but any farm community in any state of the Union is being affected. The numbers are disturbing.

Why not become organic you ask, or grass fed, hit the niche markets? Some areas simply do not have the right kind of population. If Mike was close to Louisville or Lexington that might be an option but in rural Kentucky it’s simply not a possibility. So many small dairies are in the same situation.

People are getting smarter about food but are we learning fast enough?  Will there still be an option? Will there be any small local dairies left, Dairies that produce milk that doesn’t travel hundreds of miles before you get it. Dairies that are run by families that are proud of what they do, families that are part of the community not faceless corporations.

So I think and to be honest worry, not for Ralph and I, we have a food future in place here on the farm. I worry for the children who are raised expecting easy, cheap food. Food they are told is safe  but food I think is making this country terribly unhealthy.

I think I’m going to walk down to the pasture and talk to Katie. She always makes me smile. A sweet Jersey Cow is a special treat too few people are blessed with.

Take care and be safe. God Bless you all.