Moving Forward By Looking Back

Back in 2018, I was nominated for our then milk co-op’s young dairy cooperator of the year. We attended a conference which I was individually interviewed. A lot of the questions they asked were around what we were going to do to move the farm forward. What progressive means were we going to use? How were we advancing in technology? What were our plans for expansion?

Needless to say, our little farm couldn’t compare in progress to the bigger farms that were much more willing to go into debt than we were. Unfortunately, the couple that won the young dairy cooperator the year I was also nominated were selling their cattle the next year. I guess all the calf monitors and innovation they used to expand their herd wasn’t enough to keep them.

A LOT has change on our farm since 2018. But things didn’t change in the progressive way that seemed to be the conventional answer. We’re no longer with our co-op selling our milk for pasteurization. We sold parts of our herd for direct to consumer consumption. We didn’t expand our herd. We downsized to keep the best quality cows and our very favorite ones. We didn’t find ways to get more milk per cow. We continued to let her produce milk at her pace.

The changes we made were from looking back to how thing were meant to be.

Instead of just asking what was possible with innovations, we have been asking, “How did God design this to be and work?” From there we have been figuring out how to use technology to help us with that design while still honoring the way it was meant to be.

One example of how we changed is in drying up our cows. For milk cows, they take their “maternity leave” before calving. This gives them time to put their nutrients into their calves and bodies instead of just milk. Cows are better prepared to handle labor independently as well as are ready to handle the demands on their body when they come into their milk again.

For generations, we dried cows up the same way a woman’s milk dries up. They’re milked (or nursing) less and less until they stop producing. Sometimes the ultra rich feed that a cow eats to produce a lot of milk is rationed as she is weaning her milk supply down. Her body naturally regulates down until she stops producing milk for a time. This is natural. This is a beautiful design.

Then the land grant universities (Michigan State for us) said, “No! Don’t do it that way! It’s better for her to be given an antibiotic to stop her milk production!” We used to think (as many still do) that they truly knew what was best. Surely they wouldn’t be pushing this to sell antibiotics! It must be that they are so much smarter and better than we are at rising animals. They wouldn’t lead us astray!

So we did what we were told.

In getting into herd shares, we opened our eyes to a LOT. We talked with the Raw Milk Institute (RawMI) about our handling and practices. We talked about so many things, and one of the things we discussed was drying up cows. Mark McAfee, the founder of RawMI, told me that he isn’t against antibiotic use when you really need it. If a cow has an infection, she may need antibiotics. And on the rare occasion you do need to give antibiotics, you want them to be as powerful as possible. If you give a cow unnecessary antibiotics every times she calves, which could be over 7 times in her lifespan, she may become immune to the antibiotics. Therefore, when she truly needs it, the antibiotic is not as effective as it could be. He recommended weaning a cow to reduce her milk supply prior to her maternity leave.

So we went back to how it was meant to be.

When a cow is a few months from calving, now we wean her. She already is producing less milk, but we start milking her every other day. We wean her slowly to not cause an issue with her or her milk. It very natural. It’s the way we did it before we were told by innovation that this was “wrong.”

This is just one example of how we’re moving forward by looking back. We have switched from the harsh chlorine teat dips that we were told to use to a more natural iodine (like we used to use) to sanitize teats. We’re working on our soil biology via compost to rebuild the soil instead of just relying on chemicals. Instead of just dumping extra milk, we’re feeding it to pigs to recycle it into the most mouthwatering pork.

We still use technology. We have a pipe line milking system instead of milking by hand. Our horse is just a pasture pet and would scoff at any manual labor. We use tractors for feeding, cleaning, and field work. We’re grateful for computers and coolers and so much more that makes our day to day lives easier on the farm. We use these things to help us with God’s natural design for animals and land. We aren’t anti technology. There are wonderful tools to help us with our day to day life on the farm. We just don’t see them as the be all end all anymore.

If I were to be asked again now how I planned on making progress on the farm, I would say, “I’m looking back. I’m looking back to how my grandpa did thing. I’m looking to how his grandpa did thing. I’m looking at how God created life and the land I’ve been entrusted with. I’m going to make progress in ways that glorify Him and the beauty of His creation. I’m looking to be the best steward of this piece of earth we have for this moment in time. The best way I can do that is through honoring the natural design then seeing how I can use technology to help with that.”

There’s so many things we have leaned in the past year and so much more we’re still learning. We’re looking into cover crops and crimpers as a means of rebuilding the soil and natural weed control. We’re hoping that a family member of the farm will have chickens next year and one day figuring out how to have them go in the pasture behind the cattle to further fertilize and continue on a regenerative cycle. I’ve even talked about investing in weeder geese! Water fowl are my current obsession.

We are constantly learning. We’re hoping to keep growing. We’re looking to push the farm forward. But as we learn, grow, and move forward, we’re doing it through the lens of intended function and purpose. We’re looking back at design, origin, and history to move forward.