The Loss of One Small Dairy Farm

Judy Palmer c)copyright 2010 All rights Reserved

 If anyone reading this is an attorney or knows of one who might advocate for Guy, please contact me at   Ijudyann614@gmail.com won’t let Guy—or what he stands for–go down without a fight.  I’m hoping that the one right person, the one who might be in a position to help, feels the same way.

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.”  –Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Jay (Aug. 23, 1785)

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Our country was founded on agriculture.  With vast land to be settled and tamed, farming was originally seen as the most noble of professions.  These days, farmers and others who work with their hands and bodies often earn ridicule rather than respect.  Although their land is still coveted, their work is not.  Technology has replaced intuition, debt has replaced honor and security, and the scratch for money has replaced the love of work.  This is the story of former dairyman Guy Ekola and how he lost his dreams and his livelihood.

A farmer for over thirty years, Guy owns a small tract in west central Minnesota and had a dairy herd of about twenty cows.  His one goal always has been to leave the land he worked better than he found it, and he knew what he wanted at a very early age.  Guy was, and is, the embodiment of Wendell Berry’s idea…”What I stand for is what I stand on.” He farms with horses rather than tractors to more closely observe the nuances of the land and makes decisions based on nature rather than technology.  He’s never made much money, and yet, he and his family prospered in different, more profound ways, raising three children and more importantly, living a life of their own choosing.  Guy, one of the first members of a well-known organic dairy co-op, sold his milk to them for many years.  Like all businesses today, the co-op had to grow or die and has changed from a small, “family of farms” concept to larger economies of scale.  Guy was caught up in this and it is here that this story begins.

Minnesota dairyman troubled by strange SCC counts

 

By: Guy Ekola

Dairy Quality Control Inspection (DQCI) runs a milk test lab in Minnesota where I’m from and they tested my milk routinely as I was with National Farmers Organization, (NFO).

Does anybody know here, about SCC’s? I consider them a very over-hyped lab analysis of cow’s milk, something similar in consequence (modern industry-biased ‘scientificism’, and WHO/Codex propaganda–though I notice many farmers have taken the pill, ie., they believe SCC’s are a credible and constant measure of milk quality and standard/goodness), to the over-hyped and dangerous vaccines.

I will say this: I have had a lot of trouble with SCC counts that were high! This is especially so in the last few years, as I was forced to slowly discontinue my dairy farm, under steady duress. Yet, I had more trouble with actual mastitis many years ago and relatively minimal mastitis occurrence recently. This situation, problems with high SCC’s yet little actual mastitis has been strange and troubling to me. It has caused me great stress.