Sweet Grass Dairy

I can't believe that it is a year since Vital Awareness visited Sweet Grass Dairy in south Georgia.

Sweet Grass Dairy is an artisanal producer of wonderful cow and goats cheese, and is a fine example of a successful cottage industry, proving that big is not often better.  We first came across Sweet Grass cheese at WholeFoods Market in Atlanta and wanted to see first hand the animals and the dairy and meet with the farmers and cheese makers. The milk which goes into the cheese is taken directly from their own herds - the goats at Sweet Grass and the cows at Green Hill Dairy just a few miles away.

The dairy is operated by Jessica and Jeremy Little with Jeremy as master cheese-maker; the cows are raised by Jessica's parents Deisree and Al Wehner at Green Hill Dairy.

LaMancha: especially suited to the
heat. Its distinguishing feature his its small ears

We arrived at the dairy on a cool and grey day in March 2011 just around milking time and were immediately impressed by the calm and what appeared to be a stress-free milking procedure for the does.  Approximately 150 goats live on 140 acres of pasture and woodland and the herd is rotated frequently so no one area becomes barren.  The coolness of that March day is far removed from the blistering heat of Georgia summers and because of this and the sandy earth of the local terrain there is insufficient protein and nutrients in the grass and scrub and so the goat's diet is supplemented with a mixture of corn, citrus rind, molasses, and vitamins and minerals.  However, 80 -90 % of their feed comes directly from the land. The goats are milked twice daily and usually have a dry spell between November and January when the goats can rest and recoup.

Green Hill Dairy Cow

Over at Green Hill Dairy there are around about 500 jersey cows sharing 260 acres of pasture - considerably more space than their factory-farmed counterparts kept in cramped, unhealthy, and unnatural conditions, often with the dairy producer operating on a zero-pasture protocol.
This picture of pastoral bliss that you see on the right was not always the picture at Green Hill Dairy.  The Wehner's were conventional dairy farmers, that is, they conformed to the industrialized methods of dairy production.  Then in 1993 Deiree and Al Wehner did a 180 degree shift and changed their lifestyle, AND their farming methods to a more humane and sustainable method of farming. One thing that Desiree realized was that quality milk and dairy products begin at grass roots level i.e literally right in the soil. So they began to focus on organic methods of mineralizing the soil which led them to the New Zealand method of allowing earth to rest through a system of rotational grazing, with a 60 day resting period for the animals.  According to SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group) Desiree once said that "[their cows] could stand belly-deep in...beautiful pasture [and still be] bellowing with hunger" - hence the focus on good healthy soil producing good healthy grass.
Because of the temperate climate in southern Georgia the herds at Sweet Grass and Green Hill Daires are pastured 365 days a year.
In the conventional farrming system low producers and spent cows are turned into hamburger meat, and usually the arduous life of a dairy cow means that the animals arrive at this stage at around four years old, having spent a life living on concrete and having been literally milked to death. Pasture/humanely raised dairy cattle like those living at Green Hill, can live into their teens. This leads me to a point of difference between Jessica and me as she believes that it is only the industrialized cows treated with rBHT growth hormones that are milked to death - however my research leads me to believe that all factory raised dairy cows are pretty much "milked to death" - they become 'milk machines', through genetic modifications, intense farming practices and high energy fodder.  In conventional (industrialized) dairy, the cows get a period of rest but only for the last couple of months of pregnancy which means that for the first 7 months of their pregnancy cows are still being milked despite carrying a calf. Jessica disagrees with me on this point and believes that cows would not be able to attain the required weight if they were milked during pregnancy.  My research continues...however,  the fact that the life expectancy of a factory raised dairy cow is a quarter of its pasture raised counterpart speaks volumes.

Sweet Grass keeps about 10-20% of its kids (and only the does) and the bucks go to goat farms and are raised for meat. I believe that because goat farming is not part of the industrialized farming system and, although natural farming is no guarantee for humane treatment, one hopes that it has to be considerably better than the unatural and inherently cruel methods of conventional factory farming. Nicolette Hahn from Niman Ranch Farm wrote "one advantage to eating goats meat is that this is a non-industrialized part of the meat sector...goat is probably the most environmentally friendly of all meats".
The calves at Green Hill Dairy are not raised for veal but are most likely 'finished' for beef but until that point they are raised in social groups out in pasture (socialization is very important for cattle).  In industrialized dairy the fate for male dairy calves is either to be killed shortly after birth as 'bob' veal or to be raised in confinement for 28 weeks then slaughtered for their soft white meat.  This "soft white meat" comes at a price but this is for a later blog "Samuel": the Forgotten Story of Industrialized Dairy.
I have spoken with dairy farmers outside of the industrialized sector and the consensus is that to be commercially viable the mothers cannot suckle their young whilst at the same time providing milk for the dairy business. This means that the babies are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth - from hours to a few days. Reasons? From what I understand I don't believe that it is solely from a quantity point of view as calves and kids are bottle and bucket fed milk directly from the dairy.
These are a couple of the arguments which have been put forward:-
- that mothers will hold onto their milk for their young and are reticent about letting it down for the milker.
- that the calves can be sometimes quite rough on the mother's teats and blood can can get into the milk supply from minor wounds.
Some farmers believe that it is less distressful if the calves are removed from their mothers within hours as less of an attachment is made between mother and baby, this was the comment from a farmer I met recently who had tried several different separation methods - hours, days and a week, and he believed that the first of these methods appeared to be the least stressful. Cows make very good mothers and very strong bonds are made between mothers and babies immediately after birth. So my concern at this juncture is - even in a sustainable and humane system how humane can dairy farming actually be?
However this is a blog about the cheese from Sweet Grass Dairy and the blog about dairy will be forthcoming.
So back to Sweet Grass - despite my final point of consternation our visit to Sweet Grass Dairy was a most positive and rewarding experience. Aside from producing an exceptional product, it is a place of compassion - an example of how in farming mutual respect can exist between beast and man. It inspired hope that there are farmers and food producers who care about the integrity of their product and that it doesn't have to be a choice between a healthy product or a healthy bank ledger. It inspired hope that more farmers are becoming disgusted or disillusioned, and are turning away from agri-business: and are returning to the animal husbandry and the centuries old methods of farming. It inspires hope that, albeit in the distant future, "conventional farming" will no longer refer to factory farming - which is detrimental to our health, the well-being of animals and the health of the consumer and the environment - and will refer to 'real' farming that is healthy for all.

- THE ACTIVIST