United Dairy Industry of Michigan

The United Dairy Industry of Michigan put on their annual meeting. There were many things to love about it. The top ones for me were:

- Our CEO Dwyer Williams invited her family to see her at work. They were also going to visit a dairy farm for the first time!

- A class from WMU won a contest against other schools on coming up with the best campaign for milk. They spoke and were so great. Made me proud of my undergrad alma mater.

- A dance troupe finished out the meeting. They promised it would end with a bang, and it did.

- Dairy farmer Tim Hood retired after 17 years on the board. He very briefly said, we make the best product in the world. It shouldn't be hard to sell! : )

Enjoy your dairy...

National Dairy Quality Awards

I am so proud of Kris and our team members for winning a national milk quality award!

Our farm was named a Platinum Level winner of the National Dairy Quality Awards - one of six in the country.

Thanks to Britti Tucker of MMPA for helping with the long application process, our vets, our team, to the NMC for the competition, and congrats to all the winners!

The Hoard's Dairyman article above isn't online yet, but a link to a Michigan Farm News article is here:  Michigan Dairy Producers Dominate in National Dairy Quality Awards Recognition

This week we went to Orlando, Florida to the NMC meeting to receive the award.  They had a really nice ceremony, and it was great talking with all the other farmers, sponsors, and conference attendees.  It is really such an honor, and we feel so fortunate to have such a great team and wonderful support.

School, Uganda, New Orleans, Snow, and Thanksgiving

Nearing the end of another year! This one, by far, was the wettest year we have ever had. When we were at Thanksgiving dinner last night, my mom commented on how much corn was left in the fields. I made a joke about "Hashtag Things Farmers Say," but it is sad and true. Let's hope for some solid ground soon.

I had the delightful opportunity to go to Mrs. Damon and Mrs. Austin's classes at St Joseph Catholic School, like usual!  That same week I hosted visitors from Uganda.  Courtney Ross from GreenStone Farm Credit Services brought two members of the MSU Professional Fellows Program - Piloya Innocent and Kevin Atimango.  Both women are working on promoting and improving agricultural production and marketing, including direct sales, in Uganda. As a result, their questions were different than most visitors - much more on the business side, and incredibly interesting. They came for a farm tour on one of the coldest, windiest days.

Kris attended the National Milk Producers Federation joint meeting in New Orleans, and I tagged along. The meeting always has a dairy bar, and I took full advantage of trying all the different pizzas and milk flavors!

We got snow early, but now it's gone. It makes everything at the farm take longer...but it's so pretty.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We ran the Turkey  Man Trot in Lansing and had dinner with my parents. It was all fantastic. We are especially thankful for our hardworking team.

Here's a story...three nights ago Kris got a call that there were some cattle in the road. We were just about to eat dinner, but I hopped in the truck with him to go help. We found them where cattle normally are...four of them in a group, by the feed, trying to get back in. They went in easily as soon as we opened the fence. (Easy for two people - hard with just one!)

I told Kris there are no animals I know as well as cows. They are pretty predictable. Just like people in a kitchen...everyone likes to hang out right next to the food!

Tomorrow is December. Here's to a wonderful holiday season with lots of butter, cheese, whipped cream, more butter...and standing right next to it.

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Doctors - pay attention. Humans aren't affected by bovine hormones & mammals drink milk.

After very wet Agri-Fit Challenge race!

I got an email from my friend -

"I took my son to the dermatologist yesterday. It was his first time ... trying to help his skin out. The doctor said that he needs to drink skim milk at the very least - and he would prefer organic milk due to the hormone content.  We drink skim from Moo-ville (which tastes more like 1/2% to me) or 1% from Meijer.  I thought I remembered you saying in a blog that it wasn't true that organic was better, but I wasn't sure if that was due to hormones or antibiotics.  Can you clarify this?"

Rest assured!

First of all, in Michigan, farmers don't give their cows hormones to help them produce more milk.  (We never have on this farm, either.)  When farmers did it in the past, there was no way to tell the synthetic hormone from the natural hormone, because cows already produced it.  (So there was no test for it.)  But when consumers didn't want it, farmers stopped using it.  In Michigan, that happened in 2008.

All milk - organic and conventional - has hormones in it, because it is coming from a lactating mammal.  Organic and conventional have the same.  BUT!  And here's the important part that the dermatologist didn't know ...

Humans do not have receptors for bovine hormones.

It's not me saying it - it's scientists.

Dr. Terry Etherton: “There are zillions of protein hormones in both plant and animal foods. They are digested in the stomach, which kills their ability to have any biological activity." Best Food Facts

Another way to put it, from Science Blogs: Aetiology by Tara C. Smith, is:

“Studies have shown that human and bovine milk normally contain small amounts of growth hormone. After ingestion, growth hormone as any other protein in milk: it is digested into its constituent amino acids and di- and tripeptides. There is no data to suggest that BST present in milk can survive digestion or produce unique peptide fragments that might have biological effects.

Even if BST is absorbed intact, the growth hormone receptors in the human do not recognize cow BST and, therefore, BST cannot produce effects in humans. … Overall studies show recombinant growth hormone cannot be absorbed intact through intestine and even if small amounts get absorbed, there is no receptor for bovine growth hormones in humans.”

Or from the American Cancer Society:

"Neither natural nor synthetic BGH has been found to affect human growth hormone receptors."

Let me also add that these are naturally-occurring hormones, which all milk has, because it comes from lactating animals.  Hormones aren't just present in milk - they're present in all types of food. For instance, look at this chart about estrogen from Allen Young, Utah State University Extension dairy specialist and associate professor:

                                                  

So, my answer to my friend was that skim and whole have almost exactly the same amount of hormones, but it didn't really matter anyway, because humans aren't affected, since they're digested. This obviously is not a hot topic in dermatology classes.

*****

Second!  A pregnant (and ag) friend texted me, "Just had OB tell me I don't need to drink milk ... ever.  That it had as many calories as ice cream and we're the only mammals to drink it after weaning ... it was all I could do to smile and nod."

(She is obviously much more agreeable than I am, since I would have to switch doctors after that.)

First, milk does not have as many calories as ice cream unless you're eating super crappy ice cream. Get the full fat ice cream.  It tastes a lot better. (Scan in my house - Calories: cup of skim milk 83, cup of whole 148, cup of ice cream 286.)

Second, the whole 'humans are the only mammals to drink milk' makes me laugh every time I hear it.  Anyone who says this has never seen cats waiting in the milk house for the waste milk.  I've seen cats drink milk my entire life.  If you look online, you read things about the "red billed oxpecker, a bird that can perch on the udders of an Impala and drink its milk.  Elsewhere, in Isla de Guadalupe, feral cats, seagulls, and sheathbills have been observed stealing the milk directly from the teats of elephant seals."

But what I find humorous even more is ... we're doing things lots of mammals don't do.  Like farming fields.  Should we all only forage for food?  Shopping in grocery stores.  I NEVER see a tiger at the checkout.  Making pies out of fruit and vegetables like rhubarb that are only tolerable when sugar is added that a human grew in a field of sugar beets, packaged it, and sold it in a store in a bag. Using the internet, writing books, driving cars ... I NEVER see mammals doing these things.

Why aren't other mammals doing these things?  Because they would find it very difficult to hook up the milker.  These opposable thumbs are amazing.

*****

Of course, we all know and love and need doctors, but it doesn't mean that they are all experts on everything all of the time.  It's always nice to do your own research.  I wrote this while eating ice cream AND drinking milk.  My skin is clear, my stomach feels great, and I am one happy mammal.

Previous blog posts on these topics:
Does milk make girls develop faster?  No.

What's the difference between organic and conventional milk?  Process, not product.

Why does organic milk have a longer expiration date?  It's heated up hotter.

Sources:
American Cancer Society
Best Food Facts
Dairy Council of Utah & Nevada
Science Blogs

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Milkers milking milk

My lovely friend Lindsay brought her niece and nephew to see the farm.

We were in the parlor with Dave (who I've known my entire life) and his son Ryan (and I've known him HIS entire life.)  Not only has Dave milked on our farm for a long time, but he also has his own dairy farm.

Obviously, Dave likes cows and milking.  But you know what he doesn't like?  We were talking and he said, "I don't drink milk.  I mean, I put it on cereal when I eat it ... like twice a year."

"You don't drink milk?!"  I said, incredulous.  "Do you like all the other dairy products?"

"Oh yeah, cheese, ice cream, butter ..." he said.

"I don't drink milk either," Ryan volunteered. "But I like the rest."

I was so surprised.  Kris came into the parlor and we relayed our conversation to him.  They were all amused that I was so surprised.  But I was!  First of all, because I love milk and rarely go a day without having it, and second, because they're farmers.

One of my first jobs was at an ice cream parlor.  My friend had worked there the summer before, and she said to watch out - she'd eaten so much ice cream that she got sick of it.  I didn't want that to happen ... and it didn't.  I ate ice cream or frozen yogurt there all the time and I NEVER got sick of it.

But you know what I don't like?  I'm not fond of cheese.  Another friend doesn't like ice cream.  Kris doesn't like sour cream.  So, just because we're all dairy farmers doesn't mean we have to like EVERY SINGLE dairy product.  After all, we're producing, not doing all of the consuming.

So, eat and drink merrily today!  Whatever you want.  You know, as long as it comes from a cow.



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Washers

Water, water everywhere!  Do these pictures make you super excited?! Probably not.  But it's upgrade time here.  (Like most of the time.  Like all businesses.)  

Think about the taste of sour milk.  One time my son got a sour milk carton in a restaurant.  He spit it out and said, "It tastes like cat milk!"  We laughed so hard, but then I thought ... how does he know what cat milk tastes like?

The point is, sour milk is terrible, and in order to make sure there's never anything sour around here - we need clean equipment.

After every milking, the entire system goes through a wash.  It's like a dishwasher for the innards of the pipes and milkers.  The bulk tank has its own washer system, which goes every time it's emptied.

What we need is a lot of hot water in a little amount of time.  We used to have two water heaters, but we replaced them with one bigegr, more powerful water heater.  

Like a lot of projects, you can't stop there! 

The pipes are the same pipes that were there when the barn was built - about 1972.  So when you get a bigger water heater, you need bigger pipes.  When you get new pipes, you need someone to come and hook it all up together ... and that's quite a job.  It's been going on awhile.  

So, now that you know the back story, isn't it even more beautiful?  That's our job!  Making sure it never tastes like cat milk.

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Pour it forward

Tonight, the foamers stopped working during the milking.

The foamers are what the milkers use to clean off the cows' teats.  They foam, like foam soap, due to an air compressor.  But something wasn't working.  Kris tried a new compressor, and it worked. They were mostly done for the night, but it would really matter to the guys milking in the morning - always better to fix things .. when you're awake, as opposed to half asleep!

It's super cold here.  It's supposed to get down to 9 degrees tonight.  What mysterious problems will the cold cause tomorrow?  Always a surprise!

***

I was in Kroger today and heard over the speaker, "Michigan's dairy farmers and Kroger have come together to donate milk to those in need.  Donate a gallon of milk by buying a paper milk gallon at the register."

This is the second annual "Pour it Forward" campaign, which runs this month in all 124 Michigan Kroger stores.  Kroger customers can purchase a paper milk gallon for $3, and the milk goes to local food banks.  The United Dairy Industry of Michigan (funded by dairy farmers) has partnered with The Kroger Co. of Michigan as part of the Great American Milk Drive.

The above article quotes Jayne Homco, president of The Kroger Co. of Michigan, as saying that milk is the number one food item requested by Michigan food banks.

When I got to the register, this is what I saw ... looks like it's popular in the North Pole, too.

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Chocolate milk, please

Our co-op - Michigan Milk Producers Association - donated chocolate milk to give out at the end of the Farm to Fork 5k today.

The race put on by Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers, which is a St Johns-based company - it started near our house, and now has an international presence.  The Bancroft family donates a lot to the community, and the money from this race went to the Greater Lansing Food Bank.

The race went through corn fields, peanut fields, and even a field of sunflowers.  They had a great turnout! Tons of our neighbors were there and ... lots of them were farmers!  Farm family after farm family, lots of farmer age group winners, a dairy farmer team running ... people we rent land from to farm because their parents farmed ... it was a good showing by farmers today.

The boys and I handed out chocolate milk at the end, along with another dairy farm family neighbor.  I love seeing people drinking down nature's recovery drink!  (I drank mine in 2.5 seconds.)

Thanks to Liquid, Alex from MMPA, and all the volunteers!  Nothing like a run through the fields - and chocolate milk - to start off a morning.

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Dairy united

Today I attended the United Dairy Industry of Michigan's annual meeting.  This is the way it works - when you sell milk, some of the money goes to UDIM.  (My sister pointed out today that she doesn't like that acronym.  I'm so familiar with it that I didn't think anything of it.  We say all the letters individually, obviously!) 

Then, UDIM takes that money and promotes and markets dairy products.  We have UDIM staff - marketing people, dieticians, everything - and a board made up of farmers. 

At the annual meeting they report on what they did during the year and various people speak.  Sharon Toth, our CEO, talked about how in today's industry consumers have to know, like, and trust you in order to buy your product.

The idea behind this is much like why we sell our milk to a co-op.  We have the farm.  We sell the milk to Michigan Milk Producers Association, whose motto is: To market MMPA members' milk to the greatest advantage possible.  So we're all doing what we do best.  We pay people to market and sell what we produce.  Since all of the farmers are giving money, we're pooling it to get the best service.

So, next time you see a chocolate milk promotion that declares it as 'nature's sports drink', or see that kids are getting milk with their lunch, or donate milk through Forgotten Harvest ... think about how it all started - on some little farm. 

(Then, BUY BUY BUY!  That's still being cleared as our new ad campaign.  Catchy, right?)

On the way out of the building I ran into one of my former coworkers at TechSmith. (Their Coach's Eye software is being used by Olympians - so cool!)  Amy said she'd seen the dairy meeting sign and wondered if I was there.  She said that she followed what was going on with us on the farm through social media, and she and people at work talked about it.

That made me happy, too.  If I hadn't worked there, hadn't still remained in touch - how many farmers would they know? 

We pay for the marketing, but as most farmers would say ... our lives are our business.  We're glad to be a personal link to the dairy industry for people.  It's hard to put a price on that. 

Unbelievable

We woke up Saturday morning to a really snowy day.  I divided our last drops of 2% milk between the three boys so that their cereal was almost wet.

"Can I have some more milk, please?" Cole asked.

I told him we didn't have any.  We were out.

"Can I just have some girl milk, then?"  he asked.  (That's what they call skim milk.  I'm the only girl and I'm the only one that drinks it.  I haven't corrected them.)

I told him we didn't have any of that, either.  We were totally out of milk.

"When are we going to the store, then?" he asked.  I figured we'd go later, when they scraped the roads.

We went sledding and came home for lunch.  The roads were still not scraped.  My youngest son didn't feel good.  Kris was out of the state for the weekend.  We weren't going to the store.

"Can I have a cup of milk, please?" Ty asked at lunch.  I told him there wasn't any. 

"Any at all?" he pressed.

(Like I'm hiding milk.  Of course, I hide some food from them, but this is milk.)

"I know!" I said.  "What kind of farmers are we?!" 

They joked around about getting milk right from the parlor.  I reminded them that's how we got milk when I was growing up.  They thought that wouldn't be great because it would be warm. 

The rest of the day I realized how much they ask for milk, because I had to say no so many times.

This morning, the boys got up to eat breakfast and Cole poured himself some cereal.  I said, "That cereal's really messy to eat dry.  Do you want some yogurt on it?" 

He laughed and said, "No, I want milk."

"We don't have any milk, remember?" I said.

Three sets of eyes fixed on me with total disbelief.  I tried not to laugh.

I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but ... yes, they eat cereal with milk on it every morning.  This had actually never happened before.  We'd never run out of milk and not had it for two days.  But they didn't think it was just an inconvenience - they were actually alarmed.

Cole stopped pouring.  "When are we going to the store?  Right now?  Can we go now?" 

They still hadn't scraped the roads, but we just went slow.  We bought a cartful of groceries and three gallons of milk. 

They must have felt like they were at a deficit, because the three of them finished a gallon of one of the 'boy' milks today. 

When Ty asked for another cup of milk I said, "Yes - because we went to the store!"

He said, "Yay!  Now we're real farmers again!"

Oh, so it wasn't just that we didn't have milk to drink.  To him, we'd lost all credibility. 

Milk on a hot day - yes or no?

The kids came home from school with a portfolio of this year's work.  This was my son's answer to: 'Draw a picture of your favorite thing to drink.'

 

 

 

 

I was happy Cole chose milk ... and couldn't help but remember a scene from Anchorman. I swear he's never seen it. But it seems he and Ron Burgundy have a disagreement. Please excuse the language in the video.

 

Big day - drying up the cows

I've written about drying up the cows before, in 2011 and 2012.  Drying them up means we don't milk them from now until they have a calf.  It gives them a period of rest to get their bodies ready for birthing and producing milk. 

This day is always a big deal around here - we plan for it way ahead of time, we look forward to it, and Kris helps in the milk parlor for both milkings.  It's a long day!

Here's how it works:

First, they push on the right side of a cow's stomach to see if they can feel a calf.  The cows are about seven months pregnant, give or take a few months, so they can normally feel the calf. 

If she's pregnant, they give her an antibiotic shot in each teat of her udder to prevent infection.  (She won't be milked again for at least a month, so the antibiotic will be out of her system long before she is milked again.  For more about how antibiotics are not in your milk at all, read here.)

They finish by putting a sealant called T-HEXX on her teats, which prevents bacteria from entering them.

They mark them (Kris described it as 'coloring on them') with a cow marker on their hind quarter to separate the dry cows from the cows that are still being milked.  (They'll find some that aren't pregnant or are not as far along in their pregnancies, and we'll continue to milk them.)  The vet is coming to check the remaining ones tomorrow. 

I was explaining this to a friend this afternoon and she asked if all farmers were doing this today.  We're a seasonal dairy farm, which means that all our cows have calves at the same time.  Some dairies have calves year round.  So they dry up individual cows on different schedules.

But for us, today's the big day.  So big, that Kris is falling asleep as I read this to him.

Full day, normal day

The cows gave 2000 more pounds of milk today than yesterday! This could be due to many factors - feed, weather. But no matter what it was ... hooray!

There's lots going on around here. Today:

Josh is picking up square bales in the field. We hired a guy to bale some of our alfalfa into big square bales. We've been grinding bales so we can put the hay in the mixer and this might eliminate that step. I was watching Josh pick them up with the skid steer - they're huge! 8x4x3 feet. Definitely need a skid steer - no lifting those by hand.

We hired a guy to seed our heifer pasture. Mike finished working it up to get ready for the seed.

Mike has a big puddle in his driveway, indicating that a water line broke. It's to one of the hydrants for the water the cattle drink in the pasture. We called Miss Dig, which comes and marks all the telephone and power lines. We're going to call T.H. Miller, who will probably bring a mini excavator over, dig it up and find the leak.

Kris has a meeting tonight (like lots of nights). He just came home for lunch and currently is wrestling three boys at once.

Tomorrow, we're starting the corn harvest! Just a regular day, except for the milk influx. I'd like to make that a regular occurrence too!

Moooove over?

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday called, 'Move Over, Cow', that highlighted the dairy alternatives available in your grocer's fridge.

I thought it was a fair article ... I mean, articles are written to sell papers, and highlighting how great regular milk is isn't that new of a concept.

However, it did mention a current movement you might not know about - the National Milk Producers Federation has asked the FDA to "halt the misuse of dairy labels on faux dairy foods." They also have a Facebook page called 'They Don't Got Milk'.

The federation is very clear in its goals. They don't want anyone to NOT sell or buy these dairy alternatives. People can make and buy whatever they want. Their main point is that the word 'milk' already has a definition. How does the standards of identity read? Milk is the "lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.” (Yum! Standard definitions sound so tasty!) Soy milk, almond milk, Muscle Milk, rice milk - there's no milk in them at all. So if people think they're getting the same wonderful nutrition as cow's milk, they're not.

So whether people want to buy milk or not, the federation just thinks that only milk should be called milk.

That's not to say that the products can't work together, either ... on the Muscle Milk site, they suggest using Muscle Milk protein with water or ... "Want even more satisfaction? Mix with low-fat milk. Tastes like a real milk shake. Honest!"

Of course marketers are going to use the 'milk' label to try and sell products. ... Don't we want everything we eat to taste like a milkshake?