D = Dairy
While dairy isn’t one of our state’s top industries, I included it in This Maine Life series because dairy farmers give us an outstanding example of Maine work ethic. Their days begin early and last long. Cows thrive on routine and require milking two or three times a day — every day of the year. There is cleaning and feeding, repairs and recordkeeping, and dozens of other messy, labor-intensive tasks in between. This is a fitting place to mention that no one becomes a dairy farmer in order to get rich!
Maine has just over 200 dairy farms and produces 70+ million gallons of milk a year. Most of the farms are family-owned and operated. Some have been around for a long time, like Brigeen Farms in Turner which started in 1777 and has been going strong for 10 generations. A video clip from there is included at the end of this post.
There have been many challenges in the dairy world which won’t be detailed here. One way some farmers have innovated is to produce other dairy products, like yogurt, ice cream, or cheese. As is usually the case when I conduct research for a post, I discovered a whole new-to-me world of Maine things. It turns out we have a Maine Cheese Guild. They hold an annual Maine Cheese Festival in September which is reported to be “Maine’s biggest gathering and celebration of cheese.” The state even has a group of cheesemakers that got together and created the Midcoast Cheese Trail. If you’re very passionate about all-things-cheese, you might be interested in Maine Calling’s June 2018 episode, “Cheesemaking: Demand Grows for Maine-Made Cheese.”
Back to the four-legged source of that cheese: it turns out Maine is good for cows because they prefer cooler weather. The American Dairy Association has a fun collection of dairy facts to expand our cow horizons. A few are included here, but check out the whole list to learn more…
Cows can walk upstairs but not down...
A cow spends about 6 hours eating and 8 hours chewing its cud every day.
Dairy cows can produce 125 pounds of saliva in a single day.
Cows have 32 teeth, all of them on the bottom with a dental pad on top.
Dairy cows give more than 7 gallons of milk each day. That’s 400 glasses of milk!
Cows are impressive. The dairy farmers who care for them deserve our respect and appreciation.
As promised, here is a peek at Brigeen Farms:
This post is part of my A to Z Challenge Series with the overall theme, “This Maine Life.” I am covering a Maine-related topic with a different letter of the alphabet every day except Sundays throughout the month of April 2020.
