Man doesn't consume beef cattle milk, true or false?

[kenny thomas]

One of the biggest Jersey dairies here in Va has gone from over 200 milking to less than 40 as they sellout. Sad to see so many go out of business. I expect they will be completely out in the next month or 2. There was a seasonal grazing herd of mostly jerseys that just sold out also.

Jan, years ago I bought several Jersey from Jimmy Hufford in Wytheville. He was a big all jersey operation. Do you know if he is still in business?
Just up the interstate there was an all Guernsey dairy also. It's now Walmart, Lowes, restaurants. Hard to explain what it looked like 40 years ago.

 

[farmerjan]

I don't think he is in business anymore.... The farm up above Winchester is Waverley Farms.... Used to be 4 Stiles bros... 2 passed on, the one brother is not able to work on the farm anymore and the last one is 72 or so and has had enough. The kids all grew up and moved into other jobs and no one to take it over so it is done. Got one here in Fairfield, holsteins... 2 bros in their 60's no kids.....
There was a beef and hog farm in Waynesboro.... it is now Walmart and all the accompaning different stores too..... I remember some of the places I used to go milk, and then breed cows at, in our area that are all housing developments now...... and all the places I have milk tested that may have a lonely barn or silo just sitting there too.....

 

[Nesikep]

I just found this old picture from a magazine, the traditional Swiss Simmental in her home valley... quite a cow!

I think if you want the old school simms, you kinda have to look for Fleckvieh these days

 

[kenny thomas]

Jan, something else I remember from your area probably 40 years ago was fields of white turkey's. Guess they were kept in with fencing like for sheep. Stopped seeing those years ago also. That was before we had coyotes too.

 

[farmerjan]

There used to be several farms that raised pasture turkeys. I remember one in Middlebrook. 4-5,000... The poultry companies stopped allowing it "for disease reasons" and because they took longer to get to market size.... plus it gave the poultry companies a way to better control the turkeys and size and # of days to killing.... and controlled the farmer as he had to meet other requirements.... feed efficiency.... and the turkeys all were consistent in taste too... more bland than those raised out on pasture. Less predator pressure too as there weren't the coyotes like now....
There is a new "virulent variety" of Avian Flu that has been found in NC and SC and some wild waterfowl in Va.... big warning from VDACS..... they will take this and try to shut down the poultry shows again I bet.....just saw it on the Harrisonburg news although I had heard about it about 2-3 weeks ago.