I recenlty had the opportunity to write for the Progressive Dairyman and wanted to share my words with you 🙂
I have been blogging and using social media to share my farm story for quite a few years now. When I first started, I knew that there were going to be people who didn’t like what I had to say or didn’t agree with animal agriculture.  I knew there would be vegan activists who would say nasty things and criticize my way of life. Hey, haters gonna hate.
What I didn’t expect was to receive negative feedback from other dairy farmers.
As my following continues to grow, I seem to find myself having more and more conversations with dairy farmers who don’t agree with how my family operates our dairy farm. I have been ridiculed by some farmers for using GMOs. Farmers with smaller herds have said, “you are not a real farmer because you don’t milk your own cows everyday.”.   I was criticized for our milking routine and how we raise our calves. I have even heard, “If you wanted to hire and manage employees, why don’t you buy a convenience store?”.
This whole situation has me puzzled; aren’t we on the same team? Don’t we all have the same goal, here? We all want to raise happy, healthy animals and produce quality milk. We are all out there bustin’ our butts everyday, doing what we love and just trying to make a good living.
So why does it matter how we do it? Why does it matter if I milk 550 cows 3x per day in a parlor and my neighbor chooses to milk 75 cows 2x per day in a tie stall barn? Why does the fact that I specialize in a particular area on our dairy farm instead of milking the cows make me less of a farmer? What is the big deal if we choose to utilize rBST and you don’t? So what if I have employees who work just as hard as me so that I can take a day off once in a while?
WHY DOES IT MATTER?! (I’m getting a little fired up, here. Hold on, maybe I should mix a drink). If you ask me, it doesn’t. As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Turns out, there is also more than one way to run a dairy farm. We have all been dealt a certain hand of cards; we have all had different opportunities and struggles. Nobody knows more than farmers, that you don’t just survive, you thrive.
My in-laws are perfect examples of this. Years ago, they decided they wanted to dairy farm and started by renting a couple different farms. Eventually, they bought their own place and began milking about 75 cows in a tie-stall barn. There were many sleepless nights and years that weren’t so good, but they powered through and continued to grow and evolve. Today, we milk 550 cows in a double-8 parallel parlor and have plans to expand in the near future. I look at where our farm is now and how lucky my husband and I are to continue the legacy my in-laws started.
Maybe that is why I get so upset when I hear other dairy farmers ridicule us for being a larger dairy or doing things different. My in-laws worked damn hard to get us where we are today and we continue to work hard as a family to be the best dairy farmers we can be.
As farmers in this day and age, we already have enough going against us. Never before, have we had to work so hard to ensure consumers that our practices and products are safe or worry that an animal abuse video may be staged at our farm. We have enough going on, so let’s stop picking on each other and support one another instead. Like I said, we all have the same goal: to care for happy, healthy cattle and produce quality milk. How we get there, really doesn’t matter.
Keep up the good work!!! Proud of you and your family!!!
Be the best in your Field…Happy to hear your journey as a Happy Dairy Farmer..Proud of you..
Well said! It applies to all areas of agriculture – unfortunately – and we need to stop! I’m for ALL ag! 🙂
Good job, Annaliese! You write well about your passion–family and family farm! So proud of you. Can’t “always do what you always did” — especially when you use education, experience, family team, and other valuable resources to provide the best product for the consumer! Eldon and I are proud of the dedication you and your husband and family have for the dairy industry–public can’t survive well without your work! Nancy
love your Article and your response to criticism. My husband runs a very large international sorghum seed business. He supplies a lot of seed for forage to dairy farms/ Just last night We were having pizza after picking him up at the airport. He had just come back from Africa and was kind of tired and was little slow to answer our waiter and I told him he was jet laged. Of course he asked where he was and why. He had just spent 3 weeks in Uganda and other very poor countries helping farmers build some stability within thier co ops by bringing them drought tolerant sorghum hybrids and investing in sedd dryers, storage and creating end users for thier excess. Of course this kid made some coment likeyou must not like Monsanto…. We responded by saying did he know that monsanto has a huge organic division. Then we had his attention and we talked about the importance of technology and science in farming. He became engaged and we realized he was a science junkie. So he brought up this article he read about dairy cows and methane . So my husband said that he was right but because of technology his company had developed a sorghum that reduces manure and methane because decreased lignan and increased digestability . Without science and technology we cant feed 9 billion people by 2050. So keep on educating .You are a real farmer and so is my husband
Because people like that want to blame their struggles on the success of other people, not taking into account the amount of work and effort they put into their success.
Shawn Bourbeau,
Milk hauler / 6th generation dairy farmer.
P.S.
Love your blog and remember, regardless of what you hear operations like yours REALLY DO stand out to the people that pay attention
Thank you!
I agree that we should respect the way farmers choos to manage their farm and stop criticizing fellow farmers. We should support one another. I think we need to continue to tell our own story to get a positive message out about agriculture. Enjoyed reading your story.
I admire farmers and their wives immensely. I always wanted to marry a dairy farmer. Unfortunately, that did not happen, but I love anything to do with farming and particularly dairy farming. Although I must admit, my heart swells when I see a small dairy farm, it would be naive to think we could get by today with all small farms. Thank you to you and your husband for fighting the good fight.
Being a farmer,a friend(picture with you and Tom at Toads Cove in CentervilleJ I of course totally side with you! It takes people like you to speak out and show the public people we are all out for feeding the world in the best humane,and healthy,positive way! I truly appreciate all you do for “US” Annaliese!