June is Dairy Month and that’s cause for celebration.
Missouri’s dairy farmers, and their cows, have racked up some pretty impressive numbers in recent years.
Most Americans have heard or read the phrase, “Got milk?” Missourians can respond, “Yes we do, let me show you.”
Missouri ranks 25th in the nation for milk production, and nearly each county in the state has at least one dairy farm. According to the Midwest Dairy Association, Missouri’s more than 1,200 dairy farms produced about 161 million gallons of milk in 2014, and the average milk cow in the state produces about 1,700 gallons of milk a year. Those are some pretty impressive statistics.
Dairy farming has a long-standing tradition for many families in the region – yet another reason to celebrate. You’ll read about some of those families in this edition of Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 97 percent of the dairy farms in the United States are family-owned operations, not the “corporate farms” that non-agricultural folks like to complain about.
The state’s dairy farmers also provide much more to the state than milk and cheese.
Dairy farms have a greater impact on the local, regional and state economy than many people might think. In Missouri alone, there are nearly 30 milk-processing facilities that provide jobs to Missourians. Those jobs include the truckers who bring the milk from the farm to the processor, workers who process and package the milk or other dairy products, warehouse workers and those who reload the trucks for another group of truck drivers who deliver dairy products to retailers.
The total direct, indirect and induced employment from dairy processing was 23,049 jobs in 2013, according to the Missouri Dairy Industry Revitalization Study, which was released earlier this year.
While the dairy industry continues to play a vital role in the state’s economy, dairy farmers and processors are struggling to remain in business.
Along the rural roads where I grew up, there was dairy farm after dairy farm; some big, some small. Today, very few remain. Some producers stopped milking because of health or age issues, for others replacing their milk cows with beef breeds meant the difference between survival and bankruptcy. I’m sure most readers can think of similar stories. As Missouri milk production dropped, dairy-processing plants followed.
The state’s lawmakers have seen the plight of the state’s dairy farmers with the passage of the Missouri Dairy Revitalization Act of 2015, which was signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon in April.
Hopefully the legislation will help boost the state’s dairy industry, and give us all more reasons to celebrate next June.
Julie
