A New Chapter In A Big Book

I don’t know if was the weather, the wanting to spend more time with family, or the feeling of retirement but my father has decided to slow down with the dairy. I want to call it “quit” but that is not exactly it. If you know my dad you know he could never “quit” he loves his Jersey cows more than he loves his family. Which, we are all well aware and have come to terms with it, but he has decided to slow down. When I say slow down to a non dairy farmer it might mean sleeping in late everyday, but not my father. While he will no longer have to to wake up at 3:30am to make sure he is done by the time the milk truck comes at 8am he cannot quit his girls.

While we have been pushing him to “quit” when he finally told us he was going to do it, it was unbelievable . This is something I have grown up doing with my dad all my life, if I wanted to or not. This was a huge part of our life, how can it not be you have to milk them twice a day everyday through every type of weather, sickness and health. My entire family was married to the cows, we were committed!

Over the last couple weeks I have been talking with my dad trying to understand his plan and the reasoning behind his decision. I will admit at times these discussion have gotten heated, however through this discussion I have been reintroduced to his passion and love for his girls. Which I see renewed when he gets a call from someone who is interested in purchasing a Jersey cow for their family, and heard he had some well cared for gentle cows for sale. I hear him ask questions and explain how he runs his operation with an excitement in his voice. While I will be the first to admit, I was annoyed when I heard he was going to stop commercial ship milk but was going to keep a couple cows around….Why? I can see that they bring him joy. If you are in the market for a good gentle family Jersey cow now or in the future keep us in mind.