Ninety years ago when the dirty thirties struck our community many households in our town owned a cow. These “town cows” pastured in one of the community pastures that surrounded our town.
Each household that owned a cow sent someone out both morning and around supper time to milk the cow who would meet the milker (who was usually a son or daughter from the family) at the fence of the pasture. The cow would stand patiently as she was milked by hand. Usually the cow was rewarded with a couple handfuls of grain.
These town cows usually had their calf in the spring and gave milk all summer and into the early fall. When the pastures changed from lush green to a dry tasteless brown and cold fall winds replaced the warm fall days these milk cows stopped giving milk.
My grampa Gordon milked cows all year around and delivered milk and cream in town with a horse and milk wagon in summer and milk sleigh in winter. His Holsteins calved in the fall just before the town cows would dry off and he would deliver fresh milk and cream in glass bottles to their door when their cow went dry.
In the spring, when the town cows calved and started to milk again, grampa’s Jersey cows would have their calves and because Jersey milk was higher in fat than Holstein milk he could supply more cream to the town in a period when the town cows provided families with milk.
Very few town families had cream separators so cream was in higher demand in the summer. Grampa’s Holsteins addressed the town’s demand for more milk in winter while his Jerseys could supply more cream in the summer. This was simply addressing the needs of the consumer.
When hard times came with the dirty thirties grampa sometimes found a note in an empty milk bottle that stated, “No more milk because we can’t afford it.” If grampa knew there were children in the house, he never stopped leaving milk there. Many years later, grampa told me that he always got paid for the milk later when the family fell on better times.
When grampa sold the milk route and the new dairy paid for milk by volume he phased out the Jersey herd and replaced them with Holsteins who gave more volume of milk.
About 1950, Jersey farmers and the dairies who bottled their milk developed two per cent Jersey milk. This allowed the dairies to skim some cream off the fat, rich Jersey milk and at the same time supply a growing market for reduced fat two per cent milk.
The fat that was skimmed off was turned into butter and the extra money generated from butter sales allowed the dairy to pay a premium for the Jersey milk. During the next decade, dairy farms who kept Jersey cattle boomed in our county.
When dairy farmers looked at ways to reduce milk transport costs from the farms to the dairies they reduced from sending two milk trucks down the same country road with one picking up for Jersey milk and the other for the rest of the milk; to one larger truck which picked up milk from all farms. When all milk was blended the Jersey milk producers lost their specialized market, the bonus payout and only received extra money for the higher fat content, most Jersey farms disappeared.
When the cholesterol scare took us by storm, margarine consumption increased and butter consumption dropped. About then, protein became the buzz word and dairy farmers began feeding their cows to produce more protein and less fat. Dairy farmers also began to selectively breed cattle for higher protein and less fat. They always selected for high milk production because they were paid for volume.
When more accurate studies were completed; the medical world announced that there were two kinds of cholesterol. The cholesterol found in plant based fats were very hard for the body to metabolize and the cholesterol that is in milk fats, that can more easily be metabolized by your body. There was a reversal of the choice of fat from plant based fats back to dairy fats.
Now dairy farmers had to change focus again from protein to fat. When butter is made skim milk powder or diafiltered milk which is just skim milk not quite dried into skim milk powder, is a low priced residual product. There was so much surplus of this diafiltered milk that the USA began dumping it into Canada while Canada tried to find a solution for this new product entry which caused the Canadian milk price to plummet because of reduced sales of skim milk powder.
Canada finally developed a new class 7 or diafiltered milk class. When the Canadian dairy farmer offered our processors safe class 7 milk at the same price as the US did the US president got upset and the trade war was on.
Canadian milk was priced on volume with a bonus paid for fat and protein content. All expenses like trucking the milk to the dairy, advertising, costs to maintain milk boards and even milk quality control expenses were based on the milk volume sold. Most of the world bases milk price on the nutrients that are in the milk like fat, protein and other milk solids. Canadian dairy farmers adopted this method of getting paid several years ago. This takes away the price paid for the water portion of the milk and by shipping less water portion less transport costs and other milk board fees are paid; all at a saving to the consumer.
Recent studies show that vegetables and other dry foods commonly found in today’s super markets have about half the nutritional value of similar foods that grandma chose from years ago. This problem has developed because most grains, vegetables, etc. are sold by weight or volume and not on nutritional value. So far only some organic producers and farmers who use heritage seeds have begun to address this problem. The truckers, chemical companies, pharmaceutical companies and all others who’s profit is based on volume or weight like it the way it is. Only the farmers have the power to change to produce healthier, more nutritious foods. Farmers will only address this problem if consumers demand it. Where you will end up is up to your belief.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
