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A Day on a Dairy Farm

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Farm PicI was recently invited to spend the day with Milton Beard on his farm, Blackjack Ridge Dairy in Santa Fe, Tennessee.  Like most dairy farms, this is a family business for the Beards.  Milton is a second generation dairy farmer.  He grew up on Blackjack Ridge, named by his father after the Blackjack oaks that line the property.  Milton’s son Chris and daughter Renee have also chosen to dairy farm there and when I pulled up to the barn I was greeted by their children, who were spending the summer helping grandpa out.

The land and the family remain the same, but the farm has grown with time and evolved with technology.  Blackjack Ridge is now a 24-hour milking operation, sending their supply to producers on a daily basis.  When I arrived that morning, Milton and Renee were viewing data collected from a special software program to make sure their cows weren’t being over or underfed.  “Did you know they have apps for dairy farmers?” Milton asked me as he whipped out his phone.  He showed me how he can type in a cow’s number and see everything from how much milk she’s produced to how many calves she’s given birth to.

But don’t let all of the technological advances fool you, Blackjack Ridge Dairy is still a farm and Milton gave me the grand tour.   We drove around the rolling pastures in his pickup truck and visited the “parlor” where the cows are milked.  Milton even let me drive a tractor he was using to aerate the fields before planting corn.  After a full morning we stopped by Fly’s, the local grocery where Milton and his workers eat lunch together every day and later that afternoon I helped Renee bottle feed the calves.

I am so grateful to the Beard’s for taking time out of their day to show me how a dairy farm works.  As we celebrate June Dairy Month, I encourage you to get to know your local dairy farmers and learn more about where your milk comes from!

Laura Marbury, MS, RD, LD


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