SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) – Farmers strive to raise the best livestock, and northwest Iowa farmers learned how to do just that on Tuesday.
Dairy farmers gathered at the Dordt Agricultural Stewardship Center for “Dairy Days” Tuesday morning. Experts gave presentations on how to raise the best heifers to make a profit.
Those who have been in the dairy industry have seen changes in farms over the last ten years, especially with the amount of small farms that have shut down.
“Farms are getting bigger to be able to compete on a cost of production basis,” said Dana Metzger, co-owner of the Multi-Rose Jerseys, Inc. livestock farm in Rock Rapids, Iowa. “You don’t see as many smaller farms. There’s still family farms, they’re just bigger than they were in the past.”
Despite the amount of shutdowns, technology in the dairy industry has never been more advanced and production has never been better.
“Certainly farms are getting bigger, and we’re getting more efficient with our production,” said Iowa State University Extension dairy veterinarian Phillip Jardon. “What we consider our normal pregnancy rates, normal production, would have been unheard of even ten or twenty years ago.”
While almond and oat milk start to become more popular, experts in the dairy industry say that other dairy products are thriving.
“What we have seen is a big demand for cheese, and so a lot of those other products the demand is actually growing, even though fluid milk is having more competition,” said state dairy extension specialist for Iowa State University Gail Carpenter.
Tuesday was the fifth and final “Dairy Days” stop hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.