You Bet Farmers Recycle!

Rolls of plastic 96' x 120'

These bags hold silage (cow food).

This plastic, held down by old tires, will cover this hay to keep it fresh for the cow's dinner.

Neatly tucked in big bags to head off to recycling.

We try to be as sustainable as possible on our dairy farm. Since 2015, our county has provided seasonal pick-up for recycling plastic silage bags, bunker covers, and bale wrap as an alternative to just adding it to our dumpster or burning it (yikes, not allowed). Farmer John and I recently attended a meeting to learn that this is no longer seasonal, but a year-around program!

Farmers are supplied with huge 8' x 10' plastic bags that will hold 300 pounds of our used plastic. It will then be picked up from our farms and transported to a facility to be made into more bags. Last year 24,000 pounds of agriculture plastic was collected and recycled. The numbers will be even higher this year since it becomes a year-around program. Thanks Dakota County for providing this important program to the agriculture community at no charge.

Recycling plastic isn't all we do to be responsible and sustainable. You can read about other efforts on our farm here- 

Day Is Every Day On The Farm

and here too-

S Is For Sustainability

Thanks for visiting and sittin' a spell. Until next time-

River Valley Chapter 35 Visits Bremer Farms

Do you wonder where your food comes from? River Valley Chapter 35 got answers to their questions about dairy farming yesterday when they visited our farm.

River Valley Chapter 35

River Valley Chapter 35 is  a part of MSNA  (Minnesota State Nutrition Association), a state organization of school nutrition professionals committed to advancing school meal programs through education and advocacy. I love their mission statement- Our Mission is to provide our members opportunities for professional development and to build relationships that make a difference in the lives of children. 

After a short video of our farm  it was time for the tour... but not today. Since we have been blessed  with lots of unseasonable snow, which now has become mud, our tour could not include showing where the feed is prepared and served, but we were able to head to my You Tube channel again to watch our cows food prep and eating. Thank goodness for technology!

Getting a good look at the milking machines.

The milking barn was next. After explaining the milking procedure, it was time for additional questions, and Farmer John and I got some great ones. Do cows enjoy being milked?   Where do our replacement cows come from? Do you ever go on vacation? What is your milk used for? It was exciting to share that milk is never touched by human hands and that it only takes two days to get from our farm to their school or grocery store!

Learning about the youngest calves.

We spoke a lot about sustainability and that there is no such thing as waste on a farm. Our corn stalks are used as bedding, and when the barn is cleaned- the manure and bedding is brought back to the fields to rebuild the organic matter. Our visitors also learned that water is run through pipes to cool the milk and is then used as drinking water for the cows.

Our calf barn.

While visiting the youngest members of our herd, we shared about the care the calves received, and how we believe in being proactive in giving good care to all our animals. 

And of course a trip to our dairy farm is never complete without a treat. Bring on the ice cream!

Thank you River Valley Chapter 35 for swinging by Bremer Farms and learning about where your food comes from, and thanks for what you do to provide healthy meals for the students to fuel their day!

S Is For Sustainability

I'm taking you on a journey from A to Z throughout June Dairy Month.

So come on in...the barn doors are open!

  S Is For Sustainability

I feel confident we have all heard of the three R's of the environment: reduce, reuse, and recycle. For example, I take my reusable shopping bags to the store rather than use paper or plastic, and my family uses cloth napkins rather than paper napkins, and we make a concentrated effort to fill our recycling bin rather than our trash bin. But, as you know, there’s more to conserving the environment than this. We as dairy farmers know that consumers, just like us, are increasingly considering sustainability when making food choices for their family.

What does sustainability mean? It’s about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardizing the potential for people in the future to meet their needs.

With the ever increasing population and the diminishing of natural resources, dairy farmers recognize the importance of producing safe, nutrient rich dairy foods efficiently and responsibly.

 

We, at Bremer Farms, feel a personal responsibility to protecting the environment. We believe that a healthy body and a healthy environment go hand in hand. Farmers are steadily doing more with less to be good stewards of the earth. It is our duty, through good citizenship, to continue to make changes on our dairy farm to reach our goal of improved sustainability.

Here are a few things we are doing at Bremer Farms...

Re-using water – first it is pumped out of the ground and used to cool the milk as it leaves the cow and goes into the bulk tank. Then, it is put into use for the cows to drink.  

Energy-efficient lighting – most barns and milking parlors are now equipped with energy efficient lighting that in most cases, dramatically reduces electricity demands on our farm. 

Manure use – manure is a natural byproduct of owning cattle, we put it to good use by using it as a natural fertilizer on our fields. 

 

When it comes to sustainability, we are all in this together. My family and I will continue to bring our reusable shopping bags to the store. We will still use cloth napkins. Filling our recycling bins rather than our trash cans will always be a concern to us. But as dairy farmers, we have also made a commitment to contribute to making the world more sustainable through our farming practices and our cow care.

My family and I live by the motto, “leave this world a little better than you found it”. We became farmers because of our love for our land and animals. What better way to show this love than to respect our natural resources? 

 You may also want to read my previous years posts for June Dairy Month...

S Is For Smoothie 

and

S Is For Stories