farmers

What do farmers hide from you?

/ dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments
Faces in the herd

Some of the girls on our team

The other day, my friend Julie emailed me a link to a story about a Kiwi farmer called Tim. Here’s the gist of it:

So convinced is he that farmers have nothing to hide that he urges people to knock on a dairy farmer’s door and ask them about their farm. “They’re welcome to call on me anytime,” he says, then adds: “As long as they come with an open mind, not with any particular axe to grind.”

Animal activists will tell you there is a dark side to dairying and then mostly follow that up with stories about calves being removed from their mothers and forced annual inseminations. It’s true. We do remove calves from their mothers and it’s also true that we hope to get cows in calf every year (although that’s not realistic – we keep dozens every year who don’t fall pregnant). But it’s not cruel.

The point of this blog is to provide a window to another Australian way of living as well as showing you what we do and why. You have a right to know your milk is ethical and safe.

Our top priorities are to look after people, animals and the land while producing the best milk possible and staying afloat. They have to be or we wouldn’t be doing it: we don’t earn nearly as much as Tim does, unfortunately. The farmgate price of milk fluctuates like crazy and in the past three years, it’s varied from 28 cents per litre to 48 cents, so Wayne and I are both working second jobs while we “renovate” the farm (which is, by the way, valued at a fraction of Tim’s).

So, if there are dairy practices you’re wondering about, please hit me with them.

Even the farmer’s wife has a say

/ dairymilkmaid / 9 Comments

Farming may be dominated by the male of the species but a rural lending ad is so overtly patronising to women on the land, it deserves special mention.

A sepia-toned picture of a woman’s hand on a kitchen table with a tea cup is the graphic. Here’s the introductory text (or “copy” in advertising parlance):

“It’s not just a kitchen table. It’s where the big discussions take place. Where generations of farmers have sat and pondered the future. Where generations of farmer’s wives have sat and had a say. Cuppas have been poured. Financial statements have been pored over.”

Lucky wives being allowed a say!

A seed rep clearly of the same mindset knocked on the back door a couple of years ago, telling me he’d already seen “hubby” at the dairy and he was “just dropping the brochure off at the house to keep it clean”. Despite me asking a series of questions about the grass, he simply refused to discuss it, telling me I didn’t “need to worry” because he’d be back again to chat with my hubby.

Fortunately, these types are the exception rather than the rule but it’s very disappointing to find a major bank with such a backward attitude.

Why farmers are so conservative

/ dairymilkmaid / 6 Comments

 

Oats too wet to graze

Feed everywhere and barely a blade to eat

What lovely forage oats at the perfect stage to graze! But we can’t. The paddock is too mushy.

Since I took over management of the family farm in 2008, we’ve had a drought, a record price, an unprecedented milk price collapse, unheard-of grub infestation and now, a record-breaking wet season. Volatility in the extreme. Such an unpredictable environment weeds out rash risk-takers in the long term.

We’re seeing urban parallels while the world’s economies reel from one shock after another and the gold price soars as investors scurry for safety. Conservatism is suddenly universally in vogue.