Jay Sharkey, owner of The Farm at the End of the Lane in Greene County, was among more than 100 small dairy farmers in the Northeast to receive notice this summer that his creamery, Maple Hill, would no longer pick up his milk next year. That will leave Sharkey with nowhere to send the 1,000 pounds, or about 116 gallons, of milk his farm yields per day.
Sharkey searched for other places to send his milk—“I contacted Horizon and they’re not taking any milk; I contacted Organic Valley, they’re not taking any milk”—but had no luck. Horizon Organic, which is owned by the multinational conglomerate Danone, announced at the end of August that 89 farms across the Northeast will be losing their contracts in August 2022.
Sharkey says Maple Hill let go of 30 farms, but official details remain scarce. The Kinderhook-based creamery did not respond to requests for comment. But Sharkey says there are three reasons Maple Hill is dropping farms: not enough milk, poor quality milk, or the farm is too far away from other Maple Hill-contracted farms. That third reason was the one Sharkey was given in his letter.
I have followed his YouTube channel for a long time, and stopped on way back from the Finger Lakes at his dairy farm to get sweet corn. https://youtube.com/c/mikep7810
Taking calves away from their mama cow is a common practice on dairy farms. Why do we do this? Here’s why:
First of all, let me remind you that cows and people are very different. Cows don’t exist in a family unit like most people do. Cows are herd animals which means they are most comfortable with other cows their size and age. Being without their herd-mates can cause a lot of anxiety for the cows, which is part of why they aren’t very naturally maternal.
Next up, calf safety.
After a calf is born, the mama cow will lick off the calf to clean it up and to help stimulate the calf to get up. However, this can be a safety issue. Sometimes cows will step on, lay on or crush their calf. Dairy cows generally aren’t very maternal. So if the cow abandons the calf, we step in and dry it off ourselves.
TUNBRIDGE — On the first Friday of July, Amber Hoyt stood in the dairy barn she owns with her husband, Scott. She held a plastic ziplock bag with small, mangled pieces of stainless steel wire in her hand.?
Since December, the Hoyts have pulled the wire from the bodies of three cows that recently died after showing symptoms the farmers hadn’t seen before: sudden bloody noses, a high number of aborted calves, obvious signs of discomfort, a decline in milk production.?
Last fall, the Hoyts found the wire scattered throughout the cows’ feed, which they grew on their land and other fields they rent in the rolling hills of Tunbridge. As the weather cooled and the Hoyts transitioned the cows out of pasture, they began feeding the animals silage, which they make by layering chopped hay from several different fields in a bunker.
I had no idea that most veal farms are memonite or Amish owned. I had veal years ago at a fancy restaurant, it was pretty damn good. It's a pretty small industry compared to the number of bull calves raised for meat. Definitely a very interesting fact sheet.
The Dutch Belted is a dairy cattle breed named for its country of origin and its striking color pattern: black with a bright white belt around its middle. In the Netherlands, it is also known as the Lakenvelder. The term laken means a sheet or blanket around the body. The Dutch Belted has been known in the Netherlands as a standardized breed since the 1700s. It was selected as a specialized dairy cow able to convert lush pastures and little grain supplementation into 12,000-15,000 pounds of rich milk per lactation period. For centuries, the Lakenvelder was bred and kept by the Dutch who were not fond of selling their prized cattle. Never a widely popular breed, the Dutch Belted suffered a large decrease in their European population during and after World War II. By 1950 only four or five herds were known to exist in Holland. In the 1970's semen from American bulls was imported back into Holland to try to revive the breed in its native home. As of 2007, numbers in Holland are on the increase but the breed is still considered extremely rare with a population of less than 1000 worldwide.
Looking on the internet, you can definitely tell the difference between Belted Galloways and Dutch Belted, as the later looks much more in the shape of dairy animal, in the type you might recognize from any show Holstein with the angles that are typical for dairy and the sleak thin skins.
Nearly half of Vermont dairy farms have 500 or more cows today, compared to nearly half having fewer than 100 cows 40 years ago, according to a report from the state auditor.
Doug Hoffer said he investigated trends in Vermont dairy farming "to serve as a resource for State policymakers, program managers, and the public as they consider the future of dairy in Vermont and what role public funds should play."
at Price’s Dairy
