O Is For Old Fashioned

It's June Dairy Month! The barn doors are open, 

so join me on my daily A to Z journey 

to learn more about dairy. 

  O Is For Old Fashioned

When I'm having a friendly visit with someone at school, the grocery store, at church, or this time of year- at a graduation party, farming questions always enter the topics of conversation. Or when I am doing a dairy farming presentation, many of the same inquires surface.

Perhaps it is because less than 2% of the United States population is involved in farming or maybe it is because most people are 2 or 3 generations removed from farming, but there are many "old fashioned" ideas about farming still floating around. For instance...

My Grandpa Brown with his team of horses.

Not all farms have horses, and chickens, and pigs, and cows. I am a sixth generation farmer, and I remember visiting my grandparent's farms which were complete with a few pigs, a few chickens, a few cows...a little of everything. Get the picture?   I believe this was mainly so each farm family could feed their family. Now farms typically concentrate on one or maybe two types of animals to feed other peoples families as well as their own. "What animals do we have on our farm"? (I get this question at every farm presentation I do.) Cows and cats- and that's that!

My Mother-in-law Karen, the tractor driver, about 1952.

Another old fashion idea about farming? Farming is man's work. It is man's work, but it's also woman's work. 97% of all U.S. dairy farms are family owned and operated which means the entire family- dad, mom, and often the kids all work on the farm. Have you heard of  " Bring your child to work day?" That's been happening on farms for generations!

And the question my family and I get asked the most often is...

Google image

"Do you milk your cows by hand?" No we do not. It takes about 15-20 minutes to milk a cow by hand. 130 cows x 15 minutes= 1,950 minutes (or 32.5 hours) We milk 16 cows at a time using milking machines. You can learn more about the process at Cow Milking 101.

Old fashioned, or not, I enjoy answering peoples farming questions. It's exciting to see that folks really want to know more about where their food comes from. As many teachers have said, "How are you going to learn if you don't ask?" and "Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb question."

With less than 2 percent of the U.S. population involved in farming today, many people don’t have the opportunity to visit a dairy farm. - See more at: http://www.nmpf.org/about-nmpf/information-about-the-dairy-industry#sthash.cEmvU1Ft.dpuf

 

With less than 2 percent of the U.S. population involved in farming today, many people don’t have the opportunity to visit a dairy farm. - See more at: http://www.nmpf.org/about-nmpf/information-about-the-dairy-industry#sthash.cEmvU1Ft.dpuf