Dark Secrets of Farms

Dairy People Care!

A common theme of the animal rights movement is to promote that today’s farms are full of dirty dark secrets.  I grew up on a dairy farm, live on a farm and have had the privilege of being on hundreds of dairy farms around the world – including some around Plain City, Ohio. The crap you see on the heinous videos from animal rights activists, like the one being released by Mercy For Animals about a Ohio dairy farm, is not what’s happening on every farm. Based upon personal experience on the dairy side of agriculture, I’d like to offer a bit of a perspective check on the “dark secrets of farms.”

• Calf Care: Dairy calves are given colostrum in their first couple of hours of life to be sure they’re healthy and because farmers want to give them the best care possible. Calves are not thrown around, nor are they mistreated – farm families often care for calves the same way they do for their children (and sometimes better). Calves are typically given their own home to thrive in and provided a formulated diet, along with a vaccination program comparable to your child’s. Some groups would lead you to believe that it’s cruel to take a baby calf from the mother, but this is done for the health of both the calf and the cow. If you’ve ever breast-fed, you don’t need a lot of explanation about what a 100 pound calf can do to mammary tissue.

• Healthcare Handling: Cattle are typically put in “chutes” for treatments to keep both the animals and humans safe. This does NOT involve beating an animal, poking it with metal or prodding it cruelly. Nose rings are sometimes used to calm an animal who’s throwing its head around (similar to arm restraints for a human). For example, if I see a cow is going to hurt herself in a chute, I try to restrain her with the halter first to calm her down and then, if necessary, will use the nose ring (which does not puncture the nasal tissue).  It’s not  a torture device, it’s a safety device.  If a cow doesn’t like a needle, hoof trimmer, veterinarian examination or other necessary practices to keep her healthy, we still have an obligation to keep her as calm as possible. That’s not always pretty with 1500+ pounds, but people who have worked with animals their whole life have special techniques (mine is talking to the animal a lot, if you can imagine!).

• Milking Parlor: The parlor is where cows come to do their business – give milk – and they are usually happy to do so. Today’s technology means milking equipment is streamlined to cow comfort and milking efficiency (which typically happens 2-3x daily). Cows are habit driven; once in a routine, will come to be milked in roughly the same groupings, but it can be a bit of a challenge to get a new one into the right habits. However, I’ve yet to meet a dairy farmer who uses a pitchfork to stick a cow in the parlor. If cows are beaten, they don’t release their milk, which kind of defeats the purpose of the parlor, don’t you think?

• Drugs: Cows are NOT pumped full of drugs. ALL of the milk you buy from the grocery store is antibiotic free; it’s been tested about 9 times between the cow and you.  Any label that suggests that some milk has in it antibiotics is false (if it’s sold as Grade A).  And all milk has hormones – it always has. Udders are not pumped full of hormones nor are calves fed hormones. Hormones exist in living things. Check estrogen levels in soybeans and cabbage if you don’t believe me.

• Nutrition: Did you have a dietitian plan out your last meal to meet your energy needs, adapt your meal plan to changing seasons, check your manure and then look at your body condition? Cows do. Professional nutritionists evaluate all the components of a cow’s diet, test the available ingredients and provide a complete “ration” (think casserole with all the best ingredients) to help dairy farmers keep their cows healthy. Most cattle eat better than I do!

Above all, please know these videos represent a few bad actors and are an insult to those of us who have worked with cattle since we were old enough to be in the barn. Are all babysitters or teachers bad because there are a few who abuse children?  No – and the same holds true for farmers. Regardless of whether the video was staged or real, the individuals who treated animals with such disrespect should have been reported to the authorities immediately. Agriculture has a responsibility to be very clear that such behavior is unacceptable.

Dairy farmers don’t milk cows because they plan to get rich; they do it out of love for the cows and the dairy business. It’s a tough job that requires 365 days of work – and the bottom has fallen out of the milk market in the last couple of years. They’re not asking for your sympathy – they just want you know that animal rights videos don’t represent how much their family cares. And, speaking as a dairy person, seeing such cruelty makes me want to cry and keeps me up at night. Thankfully, I can go out to our barn and down the road to where our cows are milked to see animals that are treated with respect. If you haven’t had the same opportunity , I’d encourage you to visit a modern day farm – and talk with the family working to care for the animals.

 

Faces of “Factory Farms”

Corporate agriculture. Land profiteers. Factory farms. CAFOs.  Uncaring. Pundits of “big agriculture” espouse the downfall of our food system while pointing to greedy corporations.  After all, they’re looking to only get rich from subsidies, have no pride in the craft of agriculture, abuse animals in horrific conditions and pour chemicals on the land in an effort to make more money. Right?

 

Singing and Tweeting on the Tractor

Sing a little song about your daily work, even when it smells . Make your message fun. Upload to YouTube from your smart phone. Share it with the world.  A family dairy farmer down in Alabama has developed quite a following for his work and his cows doing just that.  Will Gilmer, also known as “The Singing Dairyman”, creates “Moo Tube Minutes” to educate people how their milk is produced and give a voice to dairy farmers.

 

Inspiration

People often ask me where my passion for agriculture originates. After seeing me gladly stand up against pundits pointing fingers at farmers, many likely think it’s the anti-ag groups that fuel my fire. While it’s true that each piece of misinformation fans the flame, it’s really the people behind the food plate that give me the greatest inspiration.

 

Reflections in Your Thanksgiving Plate

As Americans sit down to the gluttonous feast known as Thanksgiving, I hope that you’ll reflect on your plate before it’s loaded with food.  Look closely and you may even see reflections of the faces behind your food.  The people engaged in the 1.5% of the U.S. population raising food deserve gratitude as we celebrate the heritage of our country. While most Americans have lost sight of our agrarian roots, I believe it’s only fitting to say thank you to each person who grows enough to feed 155 people.

 

Dear Mr. Pollan, Farming Is Not A Story

The University of Wisconsin – Madison employed author and journalist Michael Pollan to speak about “In Defense of Food”  last week, as a follow-up to the  book’s highly controversial selection as the first literature on the “Go Big Read” university-wide reading list. According to Feedstuffs, Pollan received $25,000 for his appearance. Does this figure seem more than a little ironic when dairy farmers are losing roughly 50 cents for each gallon of milk they produce?

 

Agriculture in Prime Time

Thousands have lost their jobs to water in an area known as the U.S. breadbasket

Last week agriculture saw a rare opportunity; a major farm issue was showcased during prime time, complete with celebrities sharing food and farm facts. I asked Barbara Borges Martin, one of the thousands of farms impacted by California’s environmental over-regulations, to share her experience at the live filming of the Hannity on Fox show on September 17. This is important regardless of your state or residency; these types of environmental over-regulations may be precedent setting, people standing in food lines were receiving carrots from China and nearly 12% of U.S. food production comes from the San Joaquin Valley.

 

From Farmers’ Mouths – and HEARTS

One of the greatest rewards of my work is seeing people in agriculture effectively tell their story.  This week’s posting features some excellent examples of ways agriculturists can make a difference – and need to.

 

Antibiotics in Food?

If you’re in ag, this headline likely made you roll your eyes after a few trying weeks of threats to the use of antibiotics.  If you’re not a part of agriculture, you likely have some concerns about about antibiotic usage in food production. Where’s the disconnect?  I believe that the different perspectives come from varying life experiences – remember that 98.5% of the U.S. population have no direct connection with farming.

 

Producer Profile: The Value of Tours

Kelsay Farm, a modern dairy farm just south of Indianapolis, IN, has done an excellent job of helping more people understand food production. I recently asked Amy Kelsay to share her passion educating others about where their food originates.   As the first of several producer profiles, I am sharing our interview to showcase those who are championing agriculture on their farm.

Describe your farm tour business and why it started: Our family had been giving farm tours for over 30 years; however in 2005, I quit my job with Purdue Extension to stay home with our daughter and found myself becoming the tour coordinator for the farm! This is a role that I absolutely love! I especially love educating young people and I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to share our 6th generation family farm with them. It’s a perfect fit for me!