Celebrate Care & Quality As We Wrap Up Dairy Month

Photos from the June dairy celebration at the Iowa State University dairy farm. Source: Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers.

Dairy Month is coming to an end, but don’t forget to take the opportunity to celebrate chocolate milk, cheese sticks, ice cream and the farmers who provide them. But if your local dairy farmers aren’t walking around in party hats, don’t blame them. The price of milk has dropped about 40 percent over the last year, and some farmers estimate they’ll lose around $1,000 per cow this year (http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-milk-prices-dairy-farms-061609,0,92059.story). The markets have created a desperate situation for America’s dairy industry, one that should also be concerning to those of us who rely on safe and nutritious dairy products produced by a trusted source.
We expect to have ethical (and knowledgeable) professionals running our schools, hospitals, and churches, and we’re fortunate to have the same kind of character individuals on the front lines of our food production. I was reminded of that fact when I attended an open house at Iowa State University’s (ISU) dairy earlier this month.

I arrived at the dairy farm around 5 a.m. on a Friday morning – which isn’t usually my most productive hour of the day, but that’s when farmers are up milking cows. Dr. Howard Tyler, a former farmer and current dairy science professor at Iowa State, was leading tours, pointing out the features of each barn and repeating the refrain, “animal welfare.”

“Animal care and animal welfare provide a foundation for success for the dairy farm,” Tyler told me later. “Healthy, comfortable animals will produce more milk for a longer period of time with a lower investment in veterinary care. Better health also means cows will more consistently produce high-quality milk, and reduces the need for antibiotics and/or other drugs. This is a win-win-win situation for the farm, the cows and for consumers.”

In other words, proper care is the right thing to do for the animals, and it results in high-quality food products, which is why you’ll see animal welfare emphasized in every aspect of any viable livestock operation. The ISU dairy farm is no exception. Here are some examples:

1. Bedding: Iowa State uses several types of bedding (including straw, sand and rubber-filled mattresses covered with sawdust or wood chips), which allows them to directly assess animal comfort with each option and allows them to model these options for the entire industry (think Slumberland for cows).

2. Milking: The cows at Iowa State don’t milk themselves (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906120371), but the process is so comfortable for them that maybe they would. The holding pens – where cows wait to be milked – have a number of fans to keep things cool, and the milking machine is designed to get the job done quickly without causing irritation.

3. Air quality: Cattle will choose to spend their resting time in areas with higher air quality. High ammonia or humidity can affect a cow’s growth and production, so having fresh air is just as important as having readily available feed and water. Proper ventilation can also reduce odor in barns, which I found out through firsthand experience. I even “tweeted” (https://twitter.com/zbader) about the lack of odor in ISU’s barns when I got back to the office, encouraging my co-workers to come smell me. No one took me up on the offer, but I didn’t see any wrinkled noses when I walked around the office either.

You get the idea. The cows are comfortable, and we should be comfortable with the safe and nutritious dairy products we buy from the store, as long as America’s dairy farmers can continue to provide them. Keeping America’s farmers in the game is up to all of us, and it really doesn’t take much of a commitment. Just refill your glass of milk and add an extra scoop of ice cream to your cone this summer.

Written by Zach Bader
Zach is a Communications Specialist for Iowa Farm Bureau.

Iowa deer population at tragic numbers

Tragically my father, David Murphy, was killed by a white tail deer

One evening last month my parents set out from their home in Forest City to enjoy a motorcycle ride and a picnic in the park. My mother would have never imagined it would be the last time she enjoyed a smile and wave from my dad. The two enjoyed riding their Harley Davidson motorcycles around North Iowa and even across the country. As my dad turned onto the river road south of Forest City, a deer bolted from the ditch, striking him in the side and throwing him to the pavement as his bike slid off the road. My father was pronounced dead later that evening and he became another statistic in Iowa’s losing battle against the white tail deer.

Sadly, my dad was not alone. Several days prior to his accident another North Iowa man was killed when his motorcycle collided with a deer near Lake Mills.

In the days following the accident I couldn’t help but think if my dad would have left home 30 seconds earlier or 30 seconds later he wouldn’t have been hit by that deer. I’m sure that 1.5 million other people in North America have shared those same thoughts. One and a half million people are estimated to be involved with deer/vehicle collisions annually in North America. That number along with 29,000 human injuries, $1 billion in insurance claims and tragically the loss of life is what makes the white tail deer the most dangerous mammal in North America (http://www.reason.com/news/show/34914.html ).

The loss of a loved one is always difficult. But what has made it especially tough for me, is the fact that my dads death easily could have been avoided. If state officials would examine their policies on the size of the deer herd a herd that has been estimated to have tripled in the past decade there would be fewer accidents and fewer deaths. Allen Farris, then the head of the fish and wildlife division for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, testified to lawmakers in 1997 that he thought the deer herd should be between 80,000 and 90,000 in the state. Today the herd is estimated at 475,000. (http://www.drake.edu/cyberpress/2-25/deer.html)

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources website (http://www.iowadnr.gov/wildlife/files/drhist.html ) deer do well in Iowa. But the question the state should ask is what good do the nearly 500,000 deer do for Iowa? Outside of revenue from the sale of hunting permits, the white tail deer is more of a scourge to the environment. An MSNBC article clearly shows that the white tail deer has destroyed farmland and changed the ecology of forests nationwide, as well as causing increasing property damage and fatalities like my father’s. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6835501 )

It’s easy for Iowan’s say that it’s someone else’s problem. But that’s no longer true. While covering stories for the Spokesman I’ve come across farmers dealing with severe deer destruction. Two come to mind as I write this. Steve Duke, a farmer near Keosaqua, has had to repair his fences constantly and has seen crops trampled and consumed by a herd of 60 deer that he watches from his kitchen window nightly. Stan Mattes, a Taylor county farmer warned me to be careful as I left his home one night, because of deer. I smiled back and said I would take caution if I spotted one. He replied “it’s not if you see one” and sure enough as I drove Highway 2 at dusk I counted five deer along the road in a 15 mile stretch. It’s everyone’s problem in Iowa.

It’s time that citizens of our state join with organizations like the Iowa Farm Bureau; ABATE of Iowa and other groups to loudly say “enough is enough.” Even hunters see the need to reduce the deer population. The National Rifle Association has weighed in on the issue offering the expertise of their membership to help cull the deer herd across this country. (http://www.nraila.org/Search/?q=Deer%20Over%20Population )

As a matter of public safety it is irresponsible to allow a U.S. deer population that was estimated at just 500,000 deer in the early 19^th century to grow to a staggering 30 million deer nationwide today. Some estimates in Iowa place the ratio of deer to humans at one to six. In my mind that ratio has a direct link to why my father was killed on one of Iowa’s roadways.

The Governor, Iowa legislature and the DNR should make it a top priority to cull the herd just for the simple fact of public safety alone. I urge people reading this blog to contact their elected officials, write to the Iowa DNR and talk with law enforcement personal about ways that we can get this problem under control.

Written by Joe Murphy
Joe is a photgrapher for the Iowa Farm Bureau.