Cold, Cold Milk

While the United States Department of Agriculture says that the total number of farms is declining, some 90% of all farms in America are still family owned. And those families are some of the hardest working people you’ll ever meet. And that work never diminishes, not even in winter.

Winter is not a farmer’s favorite time of year—especially if you’re in central Michigan. But farming is a year-round, full-time job—even when the fields are covered in snow. No one knows that better than Ken Nobis. He oversees an 800-head dairy herd on three thousand acres near St. Johns, Michigan. February is the coldest month of the year. When the weather is frigid, each task just seems to take a little longer.  

As Ken says, "If you’re familiar with winter climates, it’s just as simple as all the time it takes to put your own clothes on to leave the house. But the cows move slower, especially when it gets down around zero. Equipment breaks more frequently when it’s that cold. It’s just a much slower process."

There are about seven hundred cows in the milking herd at any one time, and they’re milked twice a day; at 2:30 in the morning and 2:30 in the afternoon. It takes more than 20 employees to run this 24-hour seven day a week operation. Milking cows is just one of the chores to make sure all runs smoothly even when temperatures are below zero.

Veterinarian Jerry Kehr knows that well. He makes weekly farm calls. Kehr says, "This profession it’s about how many layers you can put on and still get the job done. Sometimes that’s the tricky part is being able to keep your arms bare so you can pregnancy exam cows."

Ken really counts on Jerry to help keep his herd healthy year round saying, "We do believe firmly in maintenance. Many of the aspects involved with it; the vaccination program we follow is extremely thorough." Kehr adds, "One challenge in working in this kind of weather when especially working outside is make sure our products, our vaccinations, don’t freeze in the syringe before we get them in the animal."

Jerry takes about two hours doing his checkups and Ken believes the time is well spent to make sure he has a healthy herd. But Ken says in winter it isn’t just sickness he worries about. There is a greater risk, the animal could get injured, "Because even in the barns the cement will get slipperier when it gets cold so there’s more chance of them slipping and breaking a leg."

Another task that goes on snow or shine is pumping the cow’s stomach when it’s not digesting grass and hay properly. Herdsman Paul Block points out, "The cow has four stomachs and the rumen is the large fermentation vat and that’s where she puts feed down when she primarily eats. A special mixture is pumped into the cow to get her to eat even if she doesn’t feel like it. Cold weather can impede this process and with this task, the hose freezing up can cause a problem."

Winter is also the time for more mundane, but no less important tasks. Ken says, "Planning is the key to successful farming and like any business that involves paperwork. And we keep a lot more records today then we did even ten years ago. The computer is just phenomenal."

Ken also uses the winter months to repair equipment. But he says today’s farm implements have gotten so complicated that it takes a professional. However the farm hands take care of basic maintenance.

Keeping a dairy farm running is a year round job, and winter has its own special demands. But that’s exactly what Ken Nobis likes about being a farmer, I like cows, I like people, it’s a challenge, it’s a constant challenge. It’s not every day you get up and you never know what new challenge is going to face you, and I like that."

Some Dairy Cow Details:
The average cow in the U.S. produces 6 and half gallons of milk a day. That’s more than a hundred glasses. And the milk from only four cows can make 9 gallons of ice cream, 25 pounds of cheese, or 11 pounds of butter.