Factory Farm? (pt. 1)

Greetings on a beautiful day from Utah!
I hope the weather wherever you are is as nice as our early spring has been here- the calves and I are certainly enjoying the 60 degrees and sunshine dominating our weather pattern as of late! I even find as the nasty winter weather recedes, so too does the list of things to complain about; it's just harder to be in a bad mood when the sun is out! In spite of the sunshine-induced happiness, my good mood was dulled reading over the results to an impromptu "factory farm" search on Twitter this afternoon.

The negative banter from vegans and vegetarians condemning farms raising animals who are bound for the food supply was no big surprise, but the numerous "Gag order, why states are banning factory farm wistleblowers" did catch my attention. Several of the tweets linked to the articles below. I'll discuss them more in my next post, but take a look if you like.
http://www.good.is/post/gag-order-why-states-are-banning-factory-farm-whistleblowers/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/iowa-becomes-first-state-where-its-a-crime-to-lie-to-get-on-farm-to-record-animal-abuse/2012/03/02/gIQAv6wbnR_story.html

Same story, two different perspectives; both discussing the bill recently passed in Iowa that makes taking video and sound bites from a farm without the owner's permission, a punishable offence. Similar bills are up for consideration in other states including New York, Utah, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana, and stem from the undercover videos released over the past couple years depicting animal abuse and neglect on "factory farms". I have numerous issues with these videos, which again, will come up next post. But clearly, I don't support animal abuse. I do want to make a point about the assault on large farms.
Just the term "factory farm" has been molded and twisted to imply negativity. I'm as much of an agriculture advocate as you'll find, and it sure isn't a warm and fuzzy term to me- funny because it wouldn't be a stretch for someone to say I work for one.
That's right, the dairy farm where I work would be the type targeted by those attacking "factory farms", predominantly because this dairy is large- milking over 2,500 cows, and housing more than 5,000 if you count the dry cows and calves.

But here's the thing... I'm EXTREMELY proud to be associated with this farm.

The dairy is family owned, just like 98% of all dairy farms in the US; and like many, it has undergone multiple transitions, changing it's shape and size to accommodate generational changes, advances in technology and evolving market trends. This dairy farm produces approximately 200,000 pounds (that's 23,250 gallons!) of super quality, nutritionally robust milk each day. This dairy farm supports more than 30 families from it's payroll, and pumps serious cash into businesses in the towns nearby. No doubt about it, it's a big dairy farm.
Our cows are kept in large open corrals- a novelty to this Northeasterner, where red barns and freestalls dominate the dairy scene- so you don't have to look hard to find cows being, well, cows. They walk to the milking parlor, they come back and eat, they interact with their herd mates, they drink, they lay down, they get up and eat again... all very normal and cow-like. They're also healthy, and not by accident; any dairymen worth their salt will tell you prevention is the name of the game, and these guys (like thousands from coast to coast) have serious focus on animal well being, and are constantly finding new ways to master the game.
So yeah, I guess size dictates that we will be called a factory farm... we care for a lot of cows which make a lot of milk that goes on to nourish a lot of people. But I hope the few notes above help you realize that being big isn't bad, nor does it make us better than my friends back East milking 60 cows in a totally different style. It's what has worked for this family and others like it to ensure this lifestyle can be passed to the next generation, and milk continues to be available to all us dairy-lovers out there. If that's factory farming... so be it. I love cows, and I'm proud to be raising calves, working for this large dairy.

In the next couple days I'll put together some thoughts on the actual bill that spurred all this talk of factory farms, but it's getting late and as always, the calves like their bottles of milk promptly by 6am.