Now this is automation

[Blessings Farms]

 Have been revisiting some of Nancy relatives since starting the job located in her Grandparents
area. Today I visited a 2nd cousins dairy farm and saw his 800 cow milking faculity . These cow
acually almost milk themselves . I am still trying to understand it myself . Now when the cow
decides it needs to relieve its self they walk through a curved entrance with a music type atmosphere
and are routed into a automated milking parlor and are milked and then routed out to the feeding area
and back to the field with out any human intervention . The whole system is monitored from the main
controls in the parlor with wireless conection to computers at homes and phones .
 I forgot to ask in all the awl how the cows figure this out .
 Forgot all of there milk is sent direct to Dannon Yogert in Minster Oh. about 10 mile away . So they
have a direct premium sale price contracted .

[jamshundred]

I hope the cows are coming in from pasture and not those concrete floored/stanchioned barns.  I've been to a modern dairy and I found it very efficient for all the humans but I hated it for the cows.  

The beautiful farming community where I live is rapidly changing to urban.  They have built over 5000 homes just two miles from my farm entrance, three huge apartment complexes are being built a mile up the road, and they are about to build the third elementary school within a few mile radius.  Southern Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia are just blending into a huge metropolis.  

There are only a few dairy farmers left in the county, and they are aging.  Young people entering agriculture are usually "from-the-farm" producers.  Winerys springing up all around the area.

I was standing in the grocery store the other day looking at all the various items we can purchase. . .. . and multiplying it in my mind by all the grocery stores across America,  and all the consumers who purchase that pound of beef, head of lettuce,  can of corn, orange for breakfast,  or jar of basil for seasoning.   The vast agricultural and human resources needed to satisfy the needs of humanity is mind boggling to sit and contemplate.  Meanwhile acres are gobbled up daily to provide infrastructure and the population steadily increases creating more demand for agricultural resources.    I wonder when we reach a tipping point?

Judy

[Blessings Farms]

Judy Nancy and I believe we are already past that point . We have been teaching our
family how to survive sorry but I feel they will need to know it in thier generation .
we dont purchase any more processed items than needed .
Thier cows are treated very humanly . even the concrete floors have a rubberized
coating . They dont force produce but do try to maximize prodution . Dont nessasarly
agree but . They are also envolved in a program called Eat Ohio . They are tested and
retested to meet certian standards .

[lonecowhand]

Who knows? The best we can do is to try to teach our children, and grandchildren if you are so lucky, how to grow our own food, how to survive, how to make do, as Dave and Nancy are doing.
The very least that can come of it is a respect and understanding of the work that goes into the food we eat, the tools we need, and the products we consume.
Hopefully they wont "need" that knowledge, but they can pass it on...