Dairy Healthier When Nurtured by Nature

In the foodie circles I keep there has been a lot of talk recently on the expansion of a dairy operation in southwest Minnesota. The proposal is to expand production by building a new 11,000-cow dairy adjacent to a nearby existing facility, bringing the total number of dairy cows to 18,855, making it the largest dairy operation in the state.  

By all accounts it will be an efficient operation, applying the manure over more than twenty square miles of land. Cows will be kept in a climate-controlled state of the art facility and fed a nutritionally balanced diet for optimal health and productivity. Looking through their website, I see they cap their manure pits to trap methane and other gases that pollute our air, the cows look healthy, and their motto is “Be Kind.” I like that.  

I often hear the argument that small-scale organic agriculture can’t feed the world. Is it possible to grow enough food for the billions of people on the planet without consolidating and scaling for efficiency, or without the petroleum based pesticides and fertilizers that hold up our current agricultural system? I don’t know the answer to these questions.

I do believe one thing: large confined dairy operations, where the cows never leave the lot, separates our food from nature. It leaves little room for the dung beetle.

Benefits of Small Scale 

I’ve been buying milk directly from farms for over thirty years. I started when I was at a local dairy farm buying compost, and someone was there getting milk. We started making weekly trips to the farm to get milk. It is super inefficient, both in terms of time and cost. But they kept their cows on pasture, the milk was fresh, and the money stayed in our community. Most importantly, there was room for the dung beetle. 

Agriculture without nature makes it something less. Without consideration for natural systems, food is just a commodity. There is no account for the negative or positive consequences attributed to how it is raised, and it disconnects the act of eating from nature. Our most abundant ecosystems evolved with ruminants on the land, and cows have four stomachs for a reason: to digest grass. Feed raised as monocrops and fed to cows in a barn might be efficient, but it leaves little room for nature. 

Dual purpose cattle, which can provide both meat and dairy, and heritage dairy breeds are less productive than modern dairy breeds, but generally require fewer vaccinations and are more efficient grazers. Photo by HDT staff.

In the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, there is a side bar about the Scandinavian tradition of moving cows to the high meadows as the snow line retreated.  They would move with the herds to milk the cows grazing on the fresh spring grass, and make butter which was stored for use throughout the year. They would have an annual ceremony where the priest would come and bless the life-giving properties of the “spring butter.” As someone who watches the milk come from the tank on an almost weekly basis, I know first hand how it changes color and vibrancy when the cows get turned on pasture in the spring.

I understand that expecting everyone to drive to a local dairy and get milk from a bulk tank is impractical. I also believe that unless our food connects back to nature, we will never reverse the decline of our natural world and start to rebuild abundance in our rural landscapes.

What Is a Person to Do?

So what is a person to do? There are getting to be better options in stores for organic or grassfed dairy products, but they can be costly and often seem out of reach for many people. Eating less dairy, and purchasing better quality when you do, might make it affordable.  

A 35 gallon bulk tank at a local grass based dairy. Photo by HDT staff.

I try to support smaller dairy cooperatives that share my community values, whether organic or not. These co-ops often purchase milk from smaller producers, keeping them in business and our agricultural landscapes more diverse and abundant. Cooperatives can be a valuable tool for many producers who don’t want to independently market and sell their farm products, and help to navigate the legal requirements to sell dairy into the marketplace. Read the labels at your grocery store to find out if milk is coming from a cooperative.

And maybe there is a local dairy you can buy from. It is legal in Minnesota to buy raw milk directly off the farm if the consumer bottles it themselves in their own container. Here is the definitive information from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

If you would prefer not to drink raw milk, small scale pasteurizers start at $600, and the new gel pack ice cream makers are simple to use with easy cleanup.  Groups of people often take turns picking up milk directly from the farmer's bulk tank, cutting back on the time and cost to pick it up.  The legality of this varies from state to state. Buying directly from the farmer ensures you know their farming practices and they get paid fairly for the work they do.

Supporting these growers also allows them to invest back into their business, and potentially become licensed to add value to their milk by bottling it for sale in local stores, or by processing more shelf-stable products like butter, cheese, or ice cream. 

Resources

Here is definitive information about raw milk from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Looking for small dairies? Search Minnesota Grown by location and product type.

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