26 November 2013
Happy Cow Creamery
This year, I spent the last few days of October attending
the 27th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Greenville,
SC. For three cool Autumnal days
hundreds of farmers, scholars, educators, and food enthusiasts gathered beneath
the banner of the Carolina
Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) to reflect on the progress food has
made in the past year. After devouring
an actual feast of local food, members fanned out to learn and discuss their
preferred food and farming topics. The
crispness of late fall with Halloween just a few days away reminded me that
there is a something out there to fear… Mega-Ag. But not a single individual at the conference
feared it; instead they remained poised at the challenge.
On Saturday, I was given the last minute opportunity to
visit a chemical-free pasture grazed dairy in Pelzer, SC. When I received the invitation I was on the
phone with my boyfriend,
“I have to go right away,” I said, “they’re leaving in a few
minutes.”
“Go now, go see some happy cows,” he said, fully aware of my
extreme fondness for bovines and sunshine.
At that time he could not have known how choice his words were, because
when we arrived this is what we saw: PICTURE
We were greeted and treated to a Neapolitan array of Happy
Cow milk as well as buttermilk and cheese then toured the bottling room, milk
parlor, and pastures. The bottling room
was actually the remodeled feed silo used to store corn when the dairy first
opened. Our group looked into the barn
where cows exiting the milking parlor meandered back and forth, taking a rest
in some hay and relishing in the “udder relief” of being milked.
The owners Tom Trantham and his wife began farming in 1968
and purchased their 100 acre site in 1978, planning to open a dairy. He managed the farm exactly the way he was
expected to, spreading fertilizer and herbicides to grow grain to feed his cows
that were confined to a concrete pad.
Despite his repeated efforts though, the dairy farm slowly crept toward
bank foreclosure.
Then in 1987, the year of my birth, his confined dairy gals
made a daring escape into an adjoining field, ravenously devouring the tastiest
leafy tops. At their next milking, he
noticed that their milk output started rising by the pound. And what did he owe this increase to? Not
chemicals or hormones, it was the nutrition provided by the diversity of
grasses the ladies had feasted upon, those pesky grasses that encroached upon
his carefully fertilized and planted grain fields. By 1988, his farm was chemical free and he
had begun a rotational grazing system with small fields and daily herd
moves. The future of food had become a
bit brighter for my infant self, now 25 years old and striving to ensure the
happiness of every cow, chicken, and pig.
Mr. Trantham took rotational grazing to a new height with
the “Twelve Aprils” pasture management approach. Twelve Aprils grazing, now internationally
recognized, posits that with thoughtful management and grass species selection
pastures can be green and lush with springtime-like growth every month of the
year.
Happy
Cow Creamery is now a booming local business, attracting customers from all
along the southern coast and beyond. A
small market operates in the former grain barn, selling Happy Cow dairy
products and other independent farmers’ goods like sausage and salsa.
During my time at the a Soil and Water Conservation District
I worked with an array of livestock and poultry farmers and during the height
of the recession saw more dairy farmers hang up their coveralls than any other
group (proportionally). Even with
monthly government subsidy checks dairy farmers could not afford to keep their
farms operating. Why? Because in AR
dairy farmers grazed their cows, milked them, and sold the milk to a processing
plant who then distributed it to grocery stores. A generally small carbon footprint, but the
price farmers received for milk wasn’t enough to stay open. Again, why? Because dairy operations that
milk twice a day then turn their girls out to pasture can’t compete with the
production from industrial milk barns where cows remain in individual pens
their entire lives, eating a strict grain and oftentimes hormone laced diet.
Happy Cow Creamery continues to flourish, despite “going
against the grain” with a pasture grazing system because they are able to
pasteurize and market their own product, not to mention the Trantham family’s
dedication to sustainable use of their land.
51% of Happy Cow milk is sold wholesale to nearby grocery stores and the
remaining 49% is sold retail in their on-farm store. Retail sales mean a much better price for the
farmer, a price so good they can stay in business.
I have high hopes for America’s remaining grass-fed
dairies. If buyers have the option to
buy any sort of local food, milk is a top choice. The local marketing potential is through the
roof if they can break free of corporate buyers the same way Mr. Tratham’s cows
broke free of their concrete pad. Many
would compare getting a small business loan to purchase a pasteurizing and
bottling system to tearing through a barbed wire fence, so if you as an
individual are wondering what you can do, I recommend you encourage a Farm Bill
and USDA staff that provide many small loans to many small farmers, instead of
single giant loans to build a mega-milkplex.
For the future of farming, the more direct marketing farmers
can access, the better. Companies used
to profit by skimming cream off the top, but now they control everything but
the cow. Milk is a commodity, a
necessary product that the government has taken steps to ensure remains at a
falsely low cost. But the inclusion of
another link in the sales and distribution chain has put too much strain on those
at the beginning end.
As always, we at Duke Campus Farms encourage everyone to buy
food that is from local and sustainable farms, farms like Happy Cow Creamery
whose product travels a total of 48 ft from cow to bottle and is still going
strong, even though they haven’t applied chemicals since Reagan was in office.
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