Underneath the Brown is Something Really Green! « Back

For those that watch the popular Discovery Channel show, “Dirty Jobs,” you are familiar with Mr. Mike Rowe.
 
Well, recently at the American Farm Bureau annual meeting he talked about the integrity and sustainability of farmers. He stated, “You find a farmer and scrape off the dirt and you’ll find one of the greenest people on the planet.”

I agree with Mr. Rowe — in spades.

As interest continues to grow (across this nation and globe) around being green, reducing our carbon footprint and being environmentally sustainable — we, as dairy farmers, are already far ahead of many. You see, going green is something that your typical dairy farmer knows a thing or two about. It’s something they practice daily, for the benefit of theirs and others; proudly demonstrating being good stewards to the land. For example, check out the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Commitment.

And, at Bohnert Farm, we are of no exception.

While achieving superb cow comfort for our herd of Jersey cattle, we are simultaneously being sustainable in our efforts.

We are a firm believer in recycling, and many of our daily farm practices include environmental friendly practices to make our dairy farm as sustainable as possible. These green efforts are with our cow bedding, milking parlor management and feeding our cattle.

Milk cows are bedded daily with chopped straw in our free-stall barns. Stalls are groomed twice daily, making sure the cow beds are fluffed and comfortable for the cows to lie down. Our maternity barn is bedded with recycled newspaper that we get from our local newspaper. Other cattle are bedded down with either corn stalks or bean stubble, which both are bi-products of corn and soybeans. All of these recycled products are both economically and environmentally friendly.

Like many dairy farms, we utilize a plate cooler to cool down the milk’s temperature after milking. This allows the milk to be cooled down rapidly using well water — saving electricity and allowing for the water to be recycled for drinking water for our cattle.

Our Jersey cows are fed a diet that includes recovered bi-products including corn glutton (recycled from processing corn), cottonseed (recycled from processing cotton) and soy-holes (processed from processing soybeans). This is some of the many varieties of recycled bi-products that dairy farms feed to their cows.

So, I encourage you to look beyond the brown of dairy farms and see that dairy farmers, like us at Bohnert farms, are some of the forerunners of making sure our planet is as green as possible.