Family finds dairy farm ‘udderly’ enjoyable
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“We’ve been selling Grade-A milk for 35 years in August,” Linda said. Linda was born in White County and John in Cannon County, but they bought their farm soon after they got married, and have lived here ever since. Though it’s spread out, the Vickers own around 480 acres.
Those who have been involved with farming, particularly dairy farming, will be quick to tell you how time-consuming and work-intensive it is, but even so, Linda says there are things she likes about it.
“Being your own boss,” she said with a laugh, “and when the kids were little, getting to be with them more. We all worked together.”
The Vickers also have a daughter, Cathy, who lives in Kuwait with her husband Javaid, daughter Sofie and son Zain, where they teach at an American school.
Though they enjoy running the dairy, like any farm-oriented business, the enterprise is at the mercy of the market, something the Vickers say you have to be able to weather.
“We’ve had a pretty good price this summer,” Linda said, “but I think it’s going back down. You can’t get in and out just because the price is down,” she added. “You have to stay in it for the long term to really do any good.”
If you ask Kenneth what he likes about dairy farming, he has a quick answer.
“The challenge,” he said with a grin. “There’s an easier way to make a living,” he added, a bit more seriously. “It’s a seven-day-a-week job. It’s 16, 18 hours a day. No vacations. It’s solid work.”
Kenneth said he came by it honestly though.
“I’ve never been anywhere else,” he said, “as long as I can remember. We started out, me and my sister, helping feed the calves.”
Though it’s still pretty labor-intensive, Kenneth said running a dairy farm, like most things these days, has benefited from automation.
“When I was a kid it was all manual, a lot of manual work to it,” Kenneth said. “Now, through automation, well, the milkers we still attach manually, but they can be detached automatically. Just simple things like that. We’ve learned how to milk cows faster.”
The Vickers have a herd of around 300 Holstein milk cows, but at any given time, some of those are rotated out to calve and rest, which is referred to as “dry” time. The farm milks around 270 cows right now and the milk barn machinery can handle 24 at a time, so getting them milked quickly is important time-wise.
“About 15 minutes is the optimal time,” Kenneth said. Even so, it takes around four hours to finish a milking cycle. The cows are milked twice a day, at 4 a.m. and again at 3 p.m. Farm employees handle the milking, according to Kenneth, with Kenneth Franklin being the Vickers’ usual milker, but another employee, Rogelio Fierro is performing the chore right now since Franklin is out due to a recent accident.
And have those milking machines, which look for all the world like some sort of mechanized octopus, changed much over the years?
“Very little,” said Kenneth, somewhat surprisingly. “Not a whole lot. They’ve changed some of the designs and stuff, but basically I’ve seen some milking machines that are probably 40 years old still in service today.”
The farm produces what seems to be an amazing amount of the nutritious white liquid.
“Right at 15,000 pounds a day,” Kenneth said. The milk is picked up every other day by a company that bottles under the name Country Delight.
To be qualified Grade-A, the farm has to be subject to frequent inspection – every 60 days or so by the state, and once a year by federal inspectors.
Considering all the work and regulations, it isn’t surprising what advice Linda said she would offer anyone thinking about starting a dairy farm.
“Don’t do it,” she said, amid general laughter. “No,” she added. “It’s a good life. It’s a good way to raise your family. It’s nice to work with your family. You have your ups and downs, but it’s good to be around your grandchildren.”