The Bovine Bugle

Dairy farming means little time off and few vacations

Jonathan's cows wait for no man. It's time to head to the milking parlor,
one fine fall day last week.

When I visited Karen and Jonathan Gates last week up at their Franklin, Vermont dairy farm, Karen told me the story of a recent conversation she had on the phone with a telemarketer. The marketer wanted Karen and Jonathan to take advantage of an offer for a cheap weekend away and the opportunity to view a timeshare facility. Karen tried to explain that, as dairy farmers, getting away from the farm for any length of time is often impossible. The telemarketer tried again. “Surely fall is a less busy time?”

Patiently, Karen tried to explain that cows are a year-round operation and they don’t milk themselves. Karen did, however, offer that she and Jonathan would come for a visit if the telemarketer would agree to fill in on the farm!

Jonathan did tell me that vacations are nearly impossible for most farmers. When he and Karen were first married, his parents could take over the farm so they could have family vacations. Now the kids are older, but so are his parents, and it gets harder and harder to leave the cows in someone else’s care. He did tell me about a developing idea up in northern Vermont, to have a sort of “cow sitting” service, with young people with farming backgrounds able to come and fill-in after a bit of training at the individual’s farm. Jonathan thought that sounded like a great idea.

--Chris, Chief Blogger

Learn about other organic dairy farmers and the Organic Valley family of farms, where Jonathan Gates is one of more than 600 farmer members.

Want to learn more about how an organic dairy farm operates? Visit Anna's Organic Farm Tour at Organic Valley. The educational tour is geared towards kids ages 4 to 10, but this fun video is good for anybody, including us city slickers, who want to learn more about dairy farming.

Posted by Blogger Chris at October 7, 2004 01:49 PM