Jess-Viborg-Day 23

I was lucky enough to be able to take time off work at Foulum and travel to two working dairy farms in Northern Denmark today. One of the girls who is studying at Foulum and living at the Kollegium asked me to help her with a behavior study that she has to complete by July 7th.

We left the Kollegium early Wednesday morning and traveled to a very small dairy farm in Suldrup, Denmark. It is about one and a half hours away from Viborg. There I was introduced to Finn, the farmer who manages the 90 or so cattle that are there. The operation was small and Finn was not very talkative so I was not able to gather very much information from him or his operation.

After a four hour observation of one cow in a special social group that is designed to help cows re-enter the herd after calving, we packed up and took off to move farther north in Denmark.

We went to a farm in Tanum, Denmark. There the farmer was much more social and his operation was very efficient and up to date with modern dairy technologies. The farm was composed of over 200 dairy cattle of all ages. They milk about 185 cows each day and the rest are either babies they have chosen to keep back or dry cows.

Because the cow I was observing was very happy she did not need to interact with the other cows around her and therefore she was very easy to observe. Neils, the farmer and half co-owner of the farm with his father, saw that I was not very busy and he began to discuss differences between the U.S. dairy industry and the industry in Denmark.

A few years ago Neils traveled across the U.S. with a group of dairy farmers from Denmark. They visited multiple dairy farms and were given a very good idea of the range of farming practices in the U.S.

After my time speaking with Neils (it was actually over three hours of speaking and mostly listening to Neils) I found that I had learned a great deal about dairy farming in Denmark. However the great deal that I had learned mostly consisted of what the great similarities are between farmers in the U.S. and their concerns and the farmers here.

Growing up on a farm I was always given ample opportunity to speak to farmers, or rather just listen to farmers about their trials and tribulations. Speaking to Neils made me feel right at home again.

Neils told me about the frustration that is met with speaking to people in Denmark from larger villages and cities. He said that it is very discouraging to listen to their perception of what a farmer does and how he handles his animals. Similar to wha the farmers have told me at home Neils commented saying, "People from the village think we are old farmers out here, wearing bibs, walking our cows to the barn with a piece of hay in our teeth, and doing nothing for the rest of the day." I hate to say it but I have experienced this same perception from non-farm related people from the U.S.

Neils said that ignorance and perceptions such as the one described above are the reasons why it is so hard to be a farmer in Denmark. He said you either have to keep up with the new legislation, even if it means borrowing more money from the bank to adjust your operation to follow legislation, or go out of business completely. He said one of the most disturbing instances in which he has seen consumers react to farmers was when a local news station aired a report that said that dairy farmers, particularly those who raise Jerseys, are shooting their bull calves just as soon as they hit the ground. Neils explained that while this is a common practice it is a necessary one in order to stay in business. He said Jersey producers must do this because it costs too much to raise a Jersey bull calf, or even steer, and lose money on it when you send it to the meat market. So everyone, including the calf, is better off if the animals are euthanized when they are born. He said he knows that it is a very hard issue to people to understand, and even the farmers do not like the practice, but with the way that the market is designed right now, there is no better way to be able to stay in business.

I found this to be very true to the way that consumers and producers in the U.S. view farming practices. For example, here is a joke that I have heard told so many times at farm auctions. "Why do farmers have 4X4 written on the side of their trucks?...so that they remember to work for days in the spring and four days in the fall!" Yes, yes it is a cute joke, but sadly that is how most of the people from non-agriculture backgrounds view the people who put food on their plates every single day.

I think that there has to be more education and awareness between farmers and consumers in both Denmark and the U.S. and I think that it will have to be up to the farmers once again to make this communication possible. I know that Farm Bureau and other agriculture organizations often try to organize educational farm tours, but I do not think that is enough to make people really understand what it means to be a farmer. That is in issue that I predict I will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life.