by: Jennifer Rook
"Got Milk?"
"Beef…it's what's for dinner"
Mooooooooooo! The cattle industry sure posts up some tantalizing ads for all things bovine, but what they don't show you is all the behind the scenes stuff that ain't so clean and pretty. That's what we're here for though; to shed light onto the not-so-brighter side of the cattle industry, specifically the dairy industry.
Dairy farms and creameries used to be plentiful here In the Basin, but today the bulk of those operations are concentrated into a few small operation, family owned dairy farms, like the Hamblin Family Farm in Monarch. The Hamblins milk less than 80 cows per day and while the cream and milk they produce is some of the best around, there is no denying that working with cows is a dirty, dirty job.
Cows eat a lot. Robert feeds his herd of Holsteins and Jerseys and Holstein/Jersey crosses about 40 lbs of hay per day plus plenty of grain. The cows are milked twice a day and while the milking operation is clean and sanitary, the refuse that is left behind from all that feeding is not so clean. Cows poop. In fact, they poop A LOT. That poop has no place in a milking barn though, so Robert and Judi spend a large portion of their time handling poop and getting rid of it. Luckily for them, poop runs downhill where it collects in a large pool just outside the corrals where the cows wait to be milked, away from the cows themselves. Robert uses a bobcat to muck out the pool and keep things clean. Not that the cows themselves stay clean. Anyone who is around cattle at all knows they are usually covered in poop. Don't worry though! All udders are fully sanitized before cows are milked.
Cows can also get a bit ornery. They like to be relieved of their milk, but they don't like to be handled and driven into the milking barn all the time. When I asked him if he's been kicked Robert just shrugs and says, "A few times.". But, he likes to institute animal whispering techniques of his own and has a pretty good handle on most of his cows. In fact, a lot of his cows are quite friendly and like to be petted and led into the milking barn by hand. Casperina has been with the Hamblins for almost two decades. She's retired from milking now, so she gets to spend her days lying around, eating the flowers and babysitting the yearly calf crop. Casperina also headlines the "Hamblin Family Dairy Farm Tour". She is gentle enough for pre-school aged children to meet and she always lets them give her a few nose rubs.
The dairy farms around the Basin all belong to a co-op, Dairy Farmers Association, or DFA. The co-op sells milk to processors and processors sell to the companies who put the milk on our shelves. It's all we need to keep our bones healthy and strong, but a whole bunch of hard work goes into every glass we drink and every milkshake we shake up.
In order to fully appreciate a dairy operation, drive by one sometime and take a deep whiff. Pull that odor into your nostrils. It may smell like silage and poop to you and me, but to dairy farmers, that's the smell of money and milk…some of the best stuff nature produces.
Hats off to all the dairy farmers around the Uinta Basin! We salute you and all your hard work. Thank you for mucking through the daily grime and poop in your organizations and producing some of the finest milk in the world. It's a dirty job and we're glad you do it.
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